Asset Discovery Methods
Overview
Colony automatically discovers assets when they PXE boot on the management network. Use ipmitool to power on and manage your physical hardware.
Power Management with ipmitool
Check Power Status
ipmitool -H 10.90.13.16 -I lanplus -U admin -P $PASS power status
Power On Asset
ipmitool -H 10.90.13.16 -I lanplus -U admin -P $PASS power on
Set PXE Boot
# Set next boot to PXE
ipmitool -H 10.90.13.16 -I lanplus -U admin -P $PASS chassis bootdev pxe
# Power cycle to boot from network
ipmitool -H 10.90.13.16 -I lanplus -U admin -P $PASS power reset
Bulk Discovery
For multiple assets, create a CSV file with IPMI credentials:
# Create ipmi-assets.csv with format: ip,username,password
# 10.90.13.16,admin,password1
# 10.90.13.17,admin,password2
# Power on all assets
while IFS=, read -r IP USER PASS; do
echo "Powering on $IP..."
ipmitool -H "$IP" -I lanplus -U "$USER" -P "$PASS" chassis bootdev pxe
ipmitool -H "$IP" -I lanplus -U "$USER" -P "$PASS" power on
sleep 2
done < ipmi-assets.csv
Auto-Discovery Process
When assets PXE boot on the management network, Colony automatically:
- Detects the asset via DHCP discover packet
- Collects hardware inventory
- Registers asset as "available" in the UI
- Makes asset ready for provisioning
No manual registration required - assets appear automatically after PXE boot.