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Toyota TMNA POC Documentation¶
Toyota Material Handling North America (TMNA) is evaluating Spectro Cloud Palette as a replacement for their current Kubernetes platform across its IVS bare-metal infrastructure. This documentation covers the complete POC deployment -- from the Palette Management Appliance through a 3-node bare-metal Kubernetes cluster running VMO (Virtual Machine Orchestrator) with Portworx storage.
The deployment is fully air-gapped using appliance mode, with all container images served from the Palette internal registry via content bundles. No external network connectivity is required post-deployment.
POC Scope¶
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Timeline | May 4 -- July 31, 2026 (3 months) |
| Hardware | 3x NX-8150-G7 (Supermicro) bare-metal nodes |
| Deployment Mode | Air-gapped, Appliance Mode |
| Management | Palette Management Appliance (self-hosted VM) |
| Platform Stack | Ubuntu 24.04 + PXKe (K8s 1.33.6) + Cilium + Portworx + VMO + VMA |
| Objective | Migrate off current platform, validate IVS workload compatibility, demonstrate OS upgrade |
Quick Links¶
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Architecture Overview | Network topology, storage design, and platform stack |
| Network Design | NIC bonding, VLAN 111, systemd-networkd configuration |
| Storage Architecture | Portworx on local SSDs/NVMe, NetApp for vehicle data |
| Deployment Overview | Prerequisites and deployment workflow |
| Palette Appliance | Management VM install from Artifact Studio ISO |
| Bare Metal Nodes | Production ISO build, node imaging, registration |
| Content Bundles | Air-gap content pipeline and pack registry sync |
| Cluster Management | Profiles, upgrades, A/B partitions, node lifecycle |
| Monitoring | Prometheus and Grafana monitoring stack |
| Troubleshooting | Known issues: UEFI boot, drive wipe, IPMI |
| Port Matrix | Complete port requirements for all components |
| Environment Details | IPs, hostnames, hardware specs, credentials |
| Contacts | Toyota, Spectro Cloud, and partner contacts |
Success Criteria¶
The POC is evaluated against these acceptance criteria:
- 3-node bare-metal Kubernetes cluster provisioned via appliance mode
- IVS applications deployed unchanged -- 3 sample jobs (upload, Spark/NetApp, license server)
- Portworx on local disks: failover, persistence, node failure recovery, live migration
- JBOD integration and NetApp connectivity for vehicle data pipeline (scope TBD)
- Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline integration
- 80% or greater feature parity with current platform
- Greater than 50% TCO reduction target
- Air-gapped image pipeline fully functional via Palette internal registry
- Bare metal OS upgrade demonstration via appliance mode A/B partitions