Central Orchestration Node

The central orchestration node is the backbone of Mesh Hypervisor. It boots from a flash drive and delivers the services required to initialize and manage remote nodes in the cluster. This section outlines its core functions and mechanics.

Role

The central node handles:

  • Boot Services: Provides PXE to start remote nodes over the network.
  • Configuration Delivery: Distributes Alpine APKOVLs for node setups.
  • System Control: Runs the mesh CLI tool to manage the cluster.

It operates as an Alpine Linux system with Mesh Hypervisor software preinstalled, serving as the single point of control.

Operation

  1. Startup: Boots from the flash drive, launching Mesh Hypervisor services.
  2. Network Scanning: Uses ARP to detect connected Ethernet ports and map network topology dynamically.
  3. Service Deployment:
    • TFTP server delivers kernel and initramfs for PXE booting.
    • DHCP server (or proxy) assigns IPs to remote nodes.
    • HTTP server hosts APKOVLs and a package mirror.
  4. Control: Executes mesh commands from the console to oversee nodes and workloads.

Diagram

graph LR
    A[Central Node<br>Flash Drive] -->|TFTP: PXE| B[Remote Nodes]
    A -->|HTTP: APKOVLs| B
    A -->|DHCP| B

Key Features

  • Flash Drive Storage: Stores configs and data in /host0—back this up for recovery.
  • ARP Scanning: Sequentially sends ARP packets across ports, listening for replies to identify network connections (e.g., same switch detection).
  • Package Mirror: Hosts an offline Alpine package repository for remote nodes, ensuring consistent boots without internet.
  • Network Flexibility: Starts DHCP on networks lacking it, proxies existing DHCP elsewhere.

Configuration

Core settings live in /host0 on the flash drive, including:

  • Subnet pools for DHCP (e.g., 10.11.0.0/16).
  • Default package lists for the mirror.
  • Network configs for topology adaptation.

See Configuration Reference for details.

Notes

The central node requires no local disk—just an Ethernet port and enough RAM/CPU to run Alpine (see Prerequisites). It’s built for plug-and-play operation. Setup steps are in Installation.

Next, see Remote Nodes for how they rely on the central node.