🏗️ OpenCHAMI Software Architecture Overview

OpenCHAMI is a modular system management framework designed to support High Performance Computing (HPC) environments with cloud-like scalability and security. This section provides an overview of its core architecture and how its components interact.

🔧 Core Components#

• BSS (Boot Script Service): Handles customized boot parameters for compute nodes.
• SMD (State Management Daemon): Maintains inventory and node health status.
• Magellan: Discovers and manages server hardware using Redfish APIs.
• OPAAL: Handles authentication and authorization (OIDC-based).
• Configurator: Dynamically generates configuration files from templates.

🔄 How Components Interact#

OpenCHAMI follows a microservices-based approach where each service operates independently but communicates through a secure API. Below is a high-level diagram illustrating these interactions:

graph TD;
    User("User/Admin") -->|Access| OPAAL("OPAAL: Authentication & Identity");

    OPAAL -->|Issues Tokens| API("OpenCHAMI API Gateway");
    User -->|Discover Hardware| Magellan("Magellan: Inventory Discovery");


    API -->|Update Boot Config| BSS("BSS: Boot Script Service");
    API -->|Query/Set System State| SMD("SMD: State Management Daemon");
    API -->|Customize Configs| Cloud-Init("Cloud-Init: Config Management");

    
    BSS -->|Provide Boot Parameters| ComputeNodes("Compute Nodes");
    SMD -->|Track System State| ComputeNodes;
    SMD -->|Provide Inventory Details| Cloud-Init;
    SMD -->|Provide Inventory Details| BSS;
    SMD -->|Provide Inventory Details| CoreDHCP;
    Magellan -->|Report Inventory| SMD;
    Cloud-Init -->|Provide Customized Configurations| ComputeNodes;
    CoreDHCP -->|Provide IP Addresses|ComputeNodes; 

🚀 Key Architectural Benefits#

✅ Security-First Design – Implements zero-trust authentication, fine-grained access control, and OIDC-based authorization.
✅ Composable & Scalable – Modular microservices allow for flexible deployments across cloud and on-prem environments.
✅ Microservices-Based – Each component operates independently, ensuring fault tolerance and easy upgrades.
✅ Cloud-Like Flexibility – HPC system management with the efficiency of cloud platforms.

📌 Next Steps#

• Learn more about Early Design Decisions.
• Dive deeper into Security & Authentication.
• Explore how to Deploy OpenCHAMI.