Hardware¶

This domain documents the physical reality of the Azure Local platform.

It is Dell-first for v1 because Redfish-based Dell inventory is already proven inside the AzureLocal organization, but the model must stay open to other OEMs later.

What Ranger Collects¶

The hardware domain should document:

manufacturer, model, serial number, service tag, and asset identity
BIOS, firmware, UEFI, Secure Boot, TPM, and virtualization posture
BMC identity and reachability
processors, memory, DIMM layout, and accelerators where present
physical NIC inventory and capabilities
physical disks and storage-controller posture
hardware vendor classification used by OEM-specific discovery or reporting

Manifest Sub-Domains¶

The v1 collector writes to these named sections of the hardware manifest domain:

Sub-domain	Content
`nodes`	Per-node hardware inventory — manufacturer, model, serial number, service tag, BIOS, firmware, BMC version, processors, memory, NIC, and disk controller
`firmware`	Concatenated firmware posture across nodes — BIOS, BMC, NIC, and disk controller versions
`security`	Hardware-layer security posture — Secure Boot state, TPM version, UEFI mode, and virtualization extensions
`summary`	Aggregate counts and vendor summary — node models, processor families, and disk counts

Current Collector Depth¶

Current v1 collection also covers:

Per-DIMM memory inventory and slot-level population detail where the host or Redfish path exposes it.
GPU and accelerator discovery when present in host inventory or OEM endpoints.
Host VBS and hardware security posture alongside TPM and Secure Boot state.
BMC certificate and firmware metadata used for handoff and operational review.

Why It Matters¶

Hardware facts affect:

supportability and handoff quality
firmware and OEM-management coverage
storage interpretation
physical network interpretation
platform security posture

Connectivity and Credentials¶

Requirement	Purpose
HTTPS to BMC or iDRAC endpoints	Primary hardware-discovery path
Redfish credential	Required for Dell-first v1 discovery
Optional cluster credential	Useful for limited host-side corroboration when BMC access is absent

Default Behavior¶

Hardware discovery is optional by default because many operators will not have BMC targets or BMC credentials available.

If BMC details are not configured, the domain should report skipped, not failed.

Variant Behavior¶

Hyperconverged and Rack-Aware¶

Standard per-node hardware inventory applies.

Local Identity with Azure Key Vault¶

Identity mode does not fundamentally change the hardware collector, but it can affect which operator tools are available to reach the nodes afterward.

Disconnected Operations¶

Disconnected operation changes the control plane, not the BMC protocol. Hardware discovery still depends on local network reachability to the BMC layer.

Multi-Rack Preview¶

Multi-rack preview changes the physical topology and storage assumptions. Hardware inventory remains important, but some platform architecture interpretation moves into the variant and networking domains.

Example Manifest Data¶

A successful collect produces entries like this:

{
  "id": "hardware",
  "status": "success",
  "domains": {
    "hardware": {
      "nodes": [
        {
          "host": "tplabs-01-n01",
          "manufacturer": "Dell Inc.",
          "model": "PowerEdge AX-760",
          "serialNumber": "ABC1234",
          "serviceTag": "ABC1234",
          "biosVersion": "1.5.4",
          "bmcVersion": "6.10.30.20",
          "processors": [{ "model": "Intel Xeon Gold 6338", "cores": 32, "count": 2 }],
          "memoryGB": 256,
          "secureBoot": true,
          "tpmVersion": "2.0"
        }
      ],
      "summary": { "nodeCount": 4, "manufacturer": "Dell Inc.", "model": "PowerEdge AX-760" }
    }
  }
}

Common Findings¶

Finding	Severity	What it means
One or more Redfish endpoints returned 404	Warning	Redfish endpoint not supported by this firmware version; hardware data is incomplete for affected nodes
BMC firmware below recommended version	Warning	iDRAC firmware may be missing features or have known issues; consider updating
Secure Boot disabled	Warning	Host is not in a secured-core posture; relevant for compliance and security documentation
TPM not present or version 1.2	Warning	TPM 2.0 required for BitLocker and some Azure Arc features
Mixed hardware models in cluster	Info	Nodes are not uniform; note for capacity planning and supportability

Partial Status¶

status: partial means Redfish data was returned for some nodes but not all, or some Redfish endpoints returned errors (typically 404):

BMC unreachable for one node — that node's hardware data is absent; others are complete
Specific Redfish endpoint (e.g., PCIeDevices) returned 404 — host-level inventory is complete but that sub-section is missing
WinRM fallback succeeded for basic hardware facts but Redfish-only data (BMC firmware, DIMM detail) is absent

A warning finding is added to the manifest when Redfish endpoints return errors. Check manifest.collectors[*].messages for the specific endpoint and HTTP status code.

Domain Dependencies¶

Independent of other collectors — hardware discovery runs against BMC endpoints directly. Does benefit from having the node list resolved by the cluster-and-node domain for host-to-BMC correlation.

Evidence Boundaries¶

Direct discovery: Redfish / BMC evidence
Host-side validation: limited device corroboration from Windows when available
Manual/imported evidence: asset records or rack placement details when direct BMC access is unavailable

v1 and Future Boundaries¶

v1 should prioritize Dell Redfish discovery and a stable normalized hardware model.

Other OEM-specific collectors should be documented as future additions rather than implied to exist already.