Provisioning the hyper-converged infrastructure bare metal systems from the top of the rack switch

A method for provisioning a stateless node of a hyper-converged infrastructure, wherein the stateless node comprises a main memory and an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) port coupled to a network switch, the hyper-converged infrastructure comprises a fabric element with a virtual machine that executes a preboot execution environment (PXE) and a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server, and the PXE stores pre-built operating system images, the method comprising:

• booting the stateless node without an operating system;
• allocating an internet protocol address to the stateless node using the DHCP server of the virtual machine;
• obtaining bootstrap software at the stateless node from the fabric element;
• and
• executing the bootstrap software in the main memory to boot the stateless node.

A device for provisioning a hyper-converged infrastructure, the device comprising:

• a fabric element running a virtual machine and coupled to a network switch, wherein the virtual machine executes a preboot execution environment (PXE), and the PXE stores pre-built operating system images;
• and
• a node coupled to the fabric element, wherein the node comprises an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) port and a switch management port, the IPMI port and the switch management port are coupled to the network switch, and the node is configured to:
• download an operating system image from the PXE of the virtual machine;
• install an operating system to a local disk of the node using the operating system image;
• and
• boot using the operating system.