OpenStack 2026.1 Gazpacho: Ironic Deep Dive

Why It Matters

The new networking capabilities dramatically lower the operational overhead of bare‑metal provisioning, enabling enterprises to treat physical servers like cloud instances and accelerate infrastructure scaling.

Key Takeaways

• Ironic 2026.1 adds VXLAN support via L2VNI plugin
• Trait‑based networking lets operators customize port‑group actions
• New generic‑switch driver supports Arista, Cisco, Juniper, Cumulus, Sonic
• Over 144,000 lines changed, 500 commits from 60 contributors
• Dynamic port groups auto‑create and tear down with node lifecycle

Summary

The OpenStack Live session introduced the 2026.1 "Gazpacho" release of Ironic, the bare‑metal provisioning service. Host Jay Faulkner outlined how Ironic integrates with Nova to turn physical servers into cloud instances, emphasizing the dual control paths of out‑of‑band BMC interfaces and the in‑band Ironic Python agent. Key technical highlights include the introduction of a bare‑metal L2VNI Neutron mechanism plugin that bridges VXLAN and Geneve networks to physical switches using hierarchical port binding. The plugin extends the generic‑switch driver to configure VXLAN VNIs on Arista EOS, Cisco NX‑OS, Juniper Junos, Cumulus, and Sonic devices, while preserving a 4,096‑network limit per physical port. A complementary feature, trait‑based networking, allows operators to define ordered sequences of actions—such as attaching ports, creating dynamic port groups, and applying filter expressions—to fine‑tune how Ironic maps server NICs to switch ports. The system can automatically generate and delete dynamic port groups based on custom criteria, improving flexibility for complex data‑center topologies. These enhancements collectively push Ironic toward a true "bare‑metal cloud" experience, simplifying large‑scale deployments, reducing manual switch configuration, and aligning OpenStack networking with modern overlay technologies. Operators can now provision, manage, and retire physical workloads with the same agility traditionally reserved for virtual machines.

Original Description

Learn more about the features that landed in Ironic for the OpenStack 2026.1 Gazpacho release cycle.