Yard¶

The missing Tetris piece between hardware operations and infrastructure as code.

yard is a hardware-bootstrap stack that simplifies and automates the toil of deploying and operating physical infrastructure. A deployment of the stack is also called a yard.

Each yard is self-contained, fits in 2RU or less, and has no external dependencies for core operation.

Upstream services—including internet access, interconnects, and wireless networks—connect directly to the yard compute host. Yard Routers running on that host provide upstream connectivity to the deployment.

Device management interfaces connect to a dedicated commodity network that is also attached directly to the yard compute host.

The compute host also runs Yard Towers, which provide shell access, a place to run hardware-related software, and managed services such as SNMP, syslog, and Prometheus.

Yard is intended to be free and open-source software, but it is not yet available for redistribution. Making it freely redistributable remains our goal.

Hosted¶

In the Hosted model, Rolling Stock operates yard as a managed, multi-tenant service that powers Rack Unit deployments, including Provided Hardware.

Hosted gives customers a cloud-like experience for accessing and operating physical hardware, with flexible terms and straightforward pricing.

See the Tenancy documentation to learn how customer tenancy works in the Hosted model.

Onsite¶

Yard can also be packaged for Onsite deployments as a white-glove service delivered by Rolling Stock.

In the Onsite model, Rolling Stock deploys and manages a dedicated yard in the target environment. That environment can range from an existing data center to a temporary outdoor location. As a managed service, Rolling Stock can cover the deployment from physical network delivery upward.

Self-hosted¶

We are working toward a free and open-source, self-hosted version of yard.