Foreman vs. MaaS vs. Cobbler vs. Ironic vs. Digital Rebar
RackN wins through collaboration. No other bare metal platform focuses first on fundamentally improving operations for our community. We’re not just about having better technology – we work with our operators to build robust data centers with more automation, less human toil and a higher return on investment.
Deep and Active Support
Unlike the open source projects below, RackN is a licensed software product. That means we treat customer support for operations and bare metal as a first-class product feature.
Our revenue comes from our software’s utility, not services or support.
Foreman vs. MaaS vs. Cobbler vs. Ironic vs. Digital Rebar
Use the following table for a side-by-side comparison of prominent bare metal provisioning platforms Cobbler, Maas, Ironic, Foreman, and Digital Rebar. Each platform offers a different set of key features such as API capabilities, enterprise support, multi-tenancy, and integration options.
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Ad Hoc (Pooled) Assignment
Evented (WSS)
Integrated DHCP
Intent API
Secure API
Active Community
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
No
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
Highly Available
Multi Tenant
RBAC with Views
SSO Integration
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
No
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
No
No
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
Field Extensible
Metal and Cloud
In-Field Configuration
Multi-OS
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
No
No
Linux
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
Linux
No
No
No
Linux
No
No
No
YES ✔
Hardware
Automatic Classification
Burnin and Decommission
Integrate OOB / IPMI
Integrated Inventory
Multi-Arch / Multi-Protocol
Switch Integration
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
YES ✔
No
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
YES ✔
Scale
Scale to 1,000s
Advanced Evented UX
Multi-Site Management
Multi-Site Federated Views
Self-Upgrading
Small footprint
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Orchestration
Integrated Triggers
Webhooks
Alert Subsystem
Cluster Lifecycles
Day 2 Mode
Modular IaC
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Pipelines
One Process, Many Targets
Firmware configuration
Image deployment
Integrated Workflow
Dynamic Contexts
Modular IaC
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
YES ✔
No
No
No
No
YES ✔
YES ✔
YES ✔
No
No
| Class | Feature | RackN | Cobbler | Foreman | MaaS | Ironic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| API | Ad Hoc (Pooled) Assignment | YES ✔ | no | no | YES ✔ | YES ✔ |
| Evented (WSS) | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Integrated DHCP | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Intent API | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Secure API | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Active Community | YES ✔ | no | no | no | YES ✔ | |
| Enterprise | Commercial Support | YES ✔ | no | YES ✔ | YES ✔ | YES ✔ |
| Highly Available | YES ✔ | no | no | YES ✔ | no | |
| Multi Tenant | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| RBAC with Views | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| SSO Integration | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Flexible | Field Extensible | YES ✔ | no | YES ✔ | no | no |
| Metal and Cloud | YES ✔ | no | YES ✔ | no | no | |
| In-Field Configuration | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Multi-OS | YES ✔ | Linux | Linux | Linux | YES ✔ | |
| Hardware | Automatic Classification | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no |
| Burnin and Decommission | YES ✔ | no | no | no | YES ✔ | |
| Integrate OOB / IPMI | YES ✔ | no | no | no | YES ✔ | |
| Integrated Inventory | YES ✔ | no | no | YES ✔ | YES ✔ | |
| Multi-Arch / Multi-Protocol | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Switch Integration | YES ✔ | no | no | YES ✔ | YES ✔ | |
| Scale | Scale to 1,000s | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no |
| Advanced Evented UX | YES ✔ | no | no | YES ✔ | no | |
| Multi-Site Management | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Multi-Site Federated Views | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Self-Upgrading | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Small footprint | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Orchestration | Integrated Triggers | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no |
| Webhooks | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Alert Subsystem | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Cluster Lifecycles | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Day 2 Mode | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Modular IaC | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Pipelines | One Process, Many Targets | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no |
| Firmware configuration | YES ✔ | no | no | no | YES ✔ | |
| Image deployment | YES ✔ | no | no | YES ✔ | YES ✔ | |
| Integrated Workflow | YES ✔ | no | no | no | YES ✔ | |
| Dynamic Contexts | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no | |
| Modular IaC | YES ✔ | no | no | no | no |
Digital Rebar Wins on Bare Metal Features
No other system on the market provides the integrated capabilities of the RackN Digital Rebar Platform (DRP). Our unique infrastructure as code (IaC) features enable a wide range of advanced use-cases such as multi-site management, dynamic out of band workflows (contexts), manage switches or storage appliances for air-gapped and edge deployments.
We deliver these features because only RackN takes a holistic bare metal management approach. Take us for a free self-service test drive and you’ll find that we are the simplest to use and most flexible data center automation platform available. In addition to the vast open Digital Rebar catalog, we’ve made 100% of the RackN extensions available to community users running labs up to 20 machines.
Don’t Take Our Word For It!
The Digital Rebar Platform speaks for itself. We encourage operators to download and test it!
