Hey Alex, * For question 1 * your understanding of the "host-update" use case is correct i.e. * power on host which dhcp's on mgmt. network * host gets auto discovered by controller-0 and auto-provisioned without personality * user uses host-update to set personality * controller-0 installs software for that personality * "host-add" use case is sort of the opposite ... configure host first, then power it on i.e. * user uses "host-add" command and configures host in system's inventory with identifying information such as BMC IP Address, mgmt. network MAC, etc., and the host's personality * user uses "host-power-on" command to power on the host via the BMC * host powers on, dhcp's on mgmt. network * gets recognized by controller-0 from previously configured host info (e.g. mgmt. MAC, ...) * controller-0 installs software for the previously configured personality of this host. * For question 2 * pretty sure answer is no * I believe starlingx sysinv/mtce/swmgmt software will always want to install software on a new host * * ... although, thinking of question 1, you could try doing a host-add with the identifying information of controller-1, and power on controller-1 and see if controller-0 will try to re-install or not * no matter what there will be software versioning checks that happen at boot time to ensure controller-1 is running the same software as controller-0 and is patch current based on controller-0's applied patches * * ... however, why do you want to do this ? * like is this a real use case ? Greg. From: Williams, Alexander <Alexander.Williams@commscope.com> Sent: Monday, June 7, 2021 12:23 PM To: starlingx-discuss@lists.starlingx.io Subject: [Starlingx-discuss] Adding hosts (Bare Metal AIO Duplex) [Please note: This e-mail is from an EXTERNAL e-mail address] Hi all, My current understanding is that whenever adding a host (esp. controller-1) using the system host-update command after a PXE boot, StarlingX will install the base image and then perform the configuration steps to make it a controller, worker, etc., overwriting anything that was previously installed on the machine. 1. Is my understanding of host-update correct, or am I missing something important here? Does host-add do the same thing, but gets run on controller-0 before booting and not after? 2. If I install the StarlingX image on a server that will become controller-1, is there any way to add it to the host list of controller-0 and configure its personality without the server reinstalling StarlingX? Best, Alex