Abstract: Automatic deployment of software defined storage (SDS) executes bootstrap and site configuration generation phases. The bootstrap phase follows a command for nodes to start a bootstrap process with installation of prerequisite packages, and setting system parameters based on the discovered hardware. When the node is restarted, the required services are automatically started. When all of the expected storage nodes have registered, the next phase of deployment can be executed to automatically generate the site configuration based on the inventory of nodes and storage devices discovered during the bootstrap phase. A storage cluster is created that utilizes the storage resources previously discovered. A single command is used to create and start a storage cluster.