> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.polystack.tech/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Ironcore — Advanced Virtualization Suite

> Manage virtual machines and containers on a single optimized platform. Bare-metal performance, live migration, and enterprise-grade security.

Ironcore (Advanced Virtualization Suite) is Polystack's flagship virtualization product. It enables you to manage VMs and containers on a single, unified platform with bare-metal performance, live migration, and enterprise-grade security.

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/polystacktechnologies-b4a63d39/7MzVcvnTNyuWsbDT/images/ironcore-light-bg.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=7MzVcvnTNyuWsbDT&q=85&s=855c69e3f86544d55ce44868ca08b279" alt="Ironcore" noZoom className="block dark:hidden w-full max-w-md rounded-lg my-6" width="7378" height="1544" data-path="images/ironcore-light-bg.png" />

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/polystacktechnologies-b4a63d39/EWwSEzHs_gALUSAh/images/ironcore-dark-bg.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=EWwSEzHs_gALUSAh&q=85&s=ff41cc26498180b6603ee767fb9901fa" alt="Ironcore" noZoom className="hidden dark:block w-full max-w-md rounded-lg my-6" width="8334" height="8334" data-path="images/ironcore-dark-bg.png" />

<a className="partner-attribution" href="https://vm2cloud.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">
  <span className="partner-attribution__eyebrow">Powered by</span>

  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/polystacktechnologies-b4a63d39/dd9kDRDK4sIyny-Y/images/partners/vm2cloud%20logo.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=dd9kDRDK4sIyny-Y&q=85&s=22282005d9d822cc41a6e9be934f7ddd" alt="VM2Cloud" noZoom width="1185" height="494" data-path="images/partners/vm2cloud logo.png" />

  <span className="partner-attribution__copy">
    Virtualization technology behind Ironcore
  </span>
</a>

<Card title="Ironcore" icon="up-right-from-square" href="https://polystack.tech/ironflex-hci/" color="#bf9667" horizontal>
  Product details, hardware compatibility, performance benchmarks, and datasheet on polystack.tech
</Card>

***

## Deployment Types

Ironcore can be deployed in two common models. Both use the same platform services and
OpenStack-compatible APIs; the difference is how those services are placed and protected.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="All-in-One" icon="cube" color="#bf9667">
    A compact deployment where controller, compute, storage, networking, dashboard, and
    supporting services run on a single node. This is best for labs, demos, proofs of
    concept, edge sites, and small environments where simplicity matters more than
    service-level redundancy.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Multinode High Availability" icon="network-wired" color="#bf9667">
    A production deployment spread across multiple controller, compute, storage, and
    network nodes. Control-plane services run in HA, workloads can be distributed across
    compute hosts, and the platform can tolerate planned maintenance or node failures.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

### Requirements at a Glance

| Model                           | Typical Requirement                                                                                                                                                                  | Best For                                                                      |
| ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **All-in-One**                  | One capable server with CPU virtualization enabled, enough memory, local or attached storage, and network access for tenant and management traffic                                   | Evaluation, demo, small private cloud, branch or edge use cases               |
| **Multinode High Availability** | Multiple servers with separate roles for controllers, compute, storage, and networking; redundant management and tenant networks; shared or distributed storage; planned IPs and DNS | Production private cloud, enterprise workloads, service-provider environments |

### How HA Works

In a multinode deployment, Ironcore runs key platform services in redundant mode. API
services, identity, dashboard, networking control services, databases, message queues,
monitoring, and load-balanced endpoints are deployed across controller nodes. Compute
workloads run across multiple hypervisor nodes, and storage can use distributed backends
so data remains available even when individual nodes need maintenance.

<Note>
  Choose All-in-One when you want the fastest path to a working environment. Choose
  Multinode High Availability when uptime, scale, maintenance windows, and production
  resiliency matter.
</Note>

***

<p style={{ fontSize: '1.25rem', fontWeight: 700, marginBottom: '0.75rem' }}>Ironcore Documentation</p>

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="User Guide" icon="book-open" href="/services/compute/user-guide" color="#bf9667">
    Launch, manage, resize, migrate, and snapshot virtual machine instances.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Admin Guide" icon="gear" href="/services/compute/admin-guide" color="#bf9667">
    Configure hypervisor hosts, schedulers, flavors, quotas, and compute policies.
  </Card>

  <Card title="CLI Reference" icon="terminal" href="/services/compute/cli-reference" color="#bf9667">
    Full CLI command reference for compute, flavors, aggregates, and migrations.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

<p style={{ fontSize: '1.25rem', fontWeight: 700, marginBottom: '0.75rem' }}>Key Capabilities</p>

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Launch Instances" icon="play" href="/services/compute/launch-instance" color="#bf9667">
    Create virtual machines from OS images, configure networking, and attach storage in one workflow.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Live Migration" icon="right-left" href="/services/compute/live-migration" color="#bf9667">
    Move running workloads between compute nodes with zero downtime — including vTPM-secured instances.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Live vCPU & RAM Scaling" icon="arrow-trend-up" href="/services/compute/live-resize" color="#bf9667">
    Dynamically adjust vCPU and memory on running instances without rebooting.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Snapshots & Backup" icon="camera" href="/services/compute/snapshots" color="#bf9667">
    Point-in-time instance snapshots with filesystem consistency and granular file-level restore.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

<p style={{ fontSize: '1.25rem', fontWeight: 700, marginBottom: '0.75rem' }}>Related Services</p>

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Block Storage" icon="hard-drive" href="/services/storage/index" color="#bf9667">
    Persistent volumes and snapshots backed by the Software-Defined-Storage distributed storage backend
  </Card>

  <Card title="Networking" icon="network-wired" href="/services/networking/index" color="#bf9667">
    Tenant networks, floating IPs, and security groups for Ironcore compute instances
  </Card>
</CardGroup>