elemental

Elemental

Elemental is a tool for installing, configuring and updating operating system images from an OCI registry.

Features

• Image Management: Manage and version your OS images.
• Deployment: Deploy an OS image to bare metal or virtual machines.
• Updates: Update an existing OS installation from a newer image.
• Extensibility: Extend the OS installation image with extensions.

Elemental binaries

The elemental project mainly consists of two binaries:

• elemental3
• elemental3ctl

elemental3 is a higher-level tool that takes as its input an OCI image containing an ISO artifact, adds payloads such as system extensions, Kubernetes definitions, first-boot configs, and generates an ISO or RAW file which can be used to boot a VM.

elemental3ctl is a lower-level tool that can do various things like installing an OS (packaged as an OCI image) on a target system, upgrading such OS from an OCI image, manage kernel modules on a system, unpack an OCI image, build an installation media (generally an ISO file) from an OS image (packaged as OCI image), and more.

elemental3ctl is a runtime management tool that helps deploy an OS image on disk, as well as helps manage such an installation by performing upgrades, managing kernel modules, perform factory reset, etc. elemental3 complements it by building and configuring an OS image that could have additional artifacts and capabilities, making it a platform to build and deploy cloud-native applications.

Guides

• Using Elemental for the first time - First use guide for the “UC” build of Elemental
• Building a Linux Image - for users and/or consumers interested in building Linux images.
• Image Customization - for users and/or consumers interested in customizing images that are based on a specific release.
• Release Manifest Guide - for consumers interested in creating a release manifest for their product.
• Elemental and Ignition Integration - for consumers interested in understanding the nuances and capabilities of Ignition in the scope of Elemental.
• Troubleshooting Guide - guide for users and consumers in troubleshooting a running system.

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