Component Manager RMS Backends (Day 1)

Operator guide for configuring Rack Manager Service (RMS) backends in the [component_manager] section of nico-api site config, and the rack profile data those backends require for node type resolution.

[component_manager] manages compute trays, NVLink switches, and power shelves. When a role’s backend is set to rms, NICo resolves the RMS node type from the rack profile. If a configured rack profile definition is missing required fields or is ambiguous, nico-api fails configuration validation at startup. Per-rack rack_profile_id assignments are not checked at startup. Those errors surface at runtime when an RMS operation runs (refer to Startup validation).

Canonical field reference: crates/api-core/src/cfg/README.md. Configure the [rms] block (mTLS connectivity to the external RMS) separately; the examples on this page cover the component-manager and rack-profile fields.

What the rack profile provides

For RMS component-manager backends, the rack profile supplies two facts:

• Product family: product_family. Required for RMS-backed operations; currently accepts gb200 or gb300.
• Vendor: rack_capabilities.<role>.vendor, for each role using an RMS backend.

Startup validation

NICo validates configured rack profiles at startup when any component-manager backend is set to rms. The backend fields default to rms, so a deployment that enables a single RMS role must explicitly set the other backend fields to non-RMS values. Startup validation checks the product family and the vendor fields for enabled RMS roles.

For example, if power_shelf_backend = "rms" and the other backend fields are set to non-RMS values, then rack_capabilities.power_shelf.vendor is the sole required vendor field.

[rack_profiles] must contain at least one profile when any component-manager backend is set to rms; an empty table is rejected at startup.

Each rack that uses an RMS-backed operation must have a rack_profile_id matching a key under [rack_profiles]. Startup validation does not scan existing rack database rows, so missing or unknown per-rack profile IDs are still checked when an RMS operation runs.

Canonical vendor names

Use these vendor names in config:

product_family is not normalized. It must exactly match one of the accepted lowercase values (gb200, gb300); values like GB200 are rejected.

Vendor matching is more forgiving: values are trimmed, case-insensitive, and ignore spaces, hyphens, and underscores, so NVIDIA, nvidia, LiteOn, liteon, Lite-On, and lite_on all work. Common company-suffix text also works when the normalized value starts with the canonical vendor, but the canonical values above are preferred for operator-supplied config.

Examples

GB200 rack, all component-manager roles use RMS

1
[component_manager]
2
compute_tray_backend = "rms"
3
nv_switch_backend = "rms"
4
power_shelf_backend = "rms"
5
6
[rack_profiles.NVL72]
7
product_family = "gb200"
8
rack_hardware_topology = "gb200_nvl72r1_c2g4_topology"
9
10
[rack_profiles.NVL72.rack_capabilities.compute]
11
vendor = "NVIDIA"
12
13
[rack_profiles.NVL72.rack_capabilities.switch]
14
vendor = "NVIDIA"
15
16
[rack_profiles.NVL72.rack_capabilities.power_shelf]
17
vendor = "LiteOn"

GB300 rack, Lenovo compute trays and Delta power shelves

1
[component_manager]
2
compute_tray_backend = "rms"
3
nv_switch_backend = "rms"
4
power_shelf_backend = "rms"
5
6
[rack_profiles.NVL72_GB300]
7
product_family = "gb300"
8
rack_hardware_topology = "gb300_nvl72r1_c2g4_topology"
9
10
[rack_profiles.NVL72_GB300.rack_capabilities.compute]
11
vendor = "Lenovo"
12
13
[rack_profiles.NVL72_GB300.rack_capabilities.switch]
14
vendor = "nvidia"
15
16
[rack_profiles.NVL72_GB300.rack_capabilities.power_shelf]
17
vendor = "delta"

Power shelf backend uses RMS; compute and switch do not

The compute and switch component-manager backends are explicitly set to non-RMS values, so component-manager startup validation requires the power shelf vendor field and no others:

1
[component_manager]
2
compute_tray_backend = "core"
3
nv_switch_backend = "nsm"
4
power_shelf_backend = "rms"
5
6
[component_manager.nsm]
7
url = "http://nsm.example.internal:50052"
8
9
[rack_profiles.NVL72_POWER]
10
product_family = "gb200"
11
rack_hardware_topology = "gb200_nvl72r1_c2g4_topology"
12
13
[rack_profiles.NVL72_POWER.rack_capabilities.power_shelf]
14
vendor = "Lite-On"

Accepted values

Machine ingestion note

The separate site-explorer machine-ingestion path performs an RMS slot/tray lookup and uses the rack profile for node type resolution. This path runs when both conditions hold:

1. An RMS client is configured (the [rms] block is present).
2. The machine has a rack_id.

Under those conditions the profile must include compute product_family and vendor data. Setting compute_tray_backend to a non-RMS value does not remove this requirement.