Power management (snap/2.7/UI)

To manage a machine, MAAS must be able to power cycle it, usually through the machine’s BMC card. Until you configure the power type, a newly-added machine can’t be enlisted and used by MAAS.

Four questions you may have:

  1. How do I configure a machine’s power type?
  2. Show me a catalogue of power parameters, by type.
  3. Can you give me an example of the virsh power type?
  4. Which BMC drivers are supported?

Configure a machine’s power type

To configure a machine’s power type, click on the machine from the ‘Machines’ page of the web UI, then select its ‘Configuration’ tab. Scroll down until you find the Power configuration. If the power type is undefined, the following will be displayed:

Choose a type in the drop-down menu that corresponds to the machine’s underlying machine’s BMC card.

Fill in the resulting form; the information required will depends on the power type:

CLI power_type code Description
amt Intel AMT
apc American Power Conversion (APC) PDU
dli Digital Loggers, Inc. PDU
hmc IBM Hardware Management Console (HMC)
ipmi IPMI
manual Manual power configuration
moonshot HP Moonshot - iLO4 (IPMI)
mscm HP Moonshot - iLO Chassis Manager
msftocs Microsoft OCS - Chassis Manager
nova OpenStack Nova
openbmc OpenBMC Power Driver
recs_box Christmann RECS-Box Power Driver
redfish Redfish
sm15k SeaMicro 15000
ucsm Cisco UCS Manager
virsh libvirt KVM
vmware VMware
wedge Facebook’s Wedge

Click ‘Save changes’ to finish. Once that’s done, MAAS performs a power check on the machine. A successful power check is a good indication that MAAS can properly communicate with the machine, that is, it should quickly result in a power status of “Power off”. A failed attempt will show:

If you see this error, double-check your entered values by editing the power type, or consider another power type altogether.

Another possible cause for this error may be the networking: traffic may be getting filtered between the rack controller and the BMC card.

Power catalogue

The following catalogue helps to explain the fields in the “create machine” dialogue above. Note that most of the multiple-choice fields have drop-down menus to assist with your choice.

Intel AMT

Form field Description Required
Power password Password to access unit Optional
Power address IP address of unit Required

American Power Conversion (APC) PDU

Form field Description Required
IP for APC PDU IP address of unit Required
APU PDU node outlet number (1-16) PDU node outlet number Required
Power ON outlet delay (seconds) outlet power ON delay Optional, default=5

Digital Loggers, Inc. PDU

Form field Description Required
Outlet ID outlet ID Required
Power address IP address of unit Required
Power user Username to login Optional
Power password Password to access unit Optional

IBM Hardware Management Console (HMC)

Form field Description Required
IP for HMC IP address of unit Required
HMC username Username to login Optional
HMC password Password to access unit Optional
HMC Managed System server name HMC managed server name Required
HMC logical partition HMC logical partition of unit Required

IPMI

Some of the fields for this power type have fixed choices, indicated in the “Choices” column.

Form field Description Choices Required
Power driver Power driver LAN [IPMI 1.5] Required
LAN_2_0 [IPMI 2.0]
Power boot type Boot type Automatic Required
Legacy boot
EFI boot

Manual power configuration

Manual power configuration means exactly that – manually configured at the unit – hence there are no parameters to set in the “create machine” UI.

HP Moonshot - iLO4 (IPMI)

Form field Description Required
Power address IP address of unit Required
Power user Username to login Optional
Power password Password to access unit Optional
Power hardware address Hardware address of unit Required

HP Moonshot - iLO Chassis Manager

Form field Description Required
IP for MSCM CLI API IP address of unit Required
MSCM CLI API user Username to login Optional
MSCM CLI API password Password to access unit Optional
Node ID cXnY Required
- where X = cartridge number
Y = node number

Microsoft OCS - Chassis Manager

Form field Description Required
Power address IP address of unit Required
Power port Port where unit is attached Optional
Power user Username to login Optional
Power password Password to access unit Optional
Blade ID Blade ID (usu. 1-24) Required

OpenStack Nova

Form field Description Required
Host UUID Host UUID Required
Tenant name Tenant name Required
Username Username to login Required
Password Password to access unit Required
Auth URL URL to access unit Required

OpenBMC Power Driver

Form field Description Required
OpenBMC address IP address of unit Required
OpenBMC user Username to login Required
OpenBMC password Password to access unit Required

Christmann RECS-Box Power Driver

Form field Description Required
Node ID Node ID Required
Power address IP address of unit Required
Power port Port where unit is attached Optional
Power user Username to login Optional
Power password Password to access unit Optional

Redfish

Form field Description Required
Redfish address IP address of unit Required
Redfish user Username to login Required
Redfish password Password to access unit Required
Node ID Node ID Optional

SeaMicro 15000

Some of the fields for this power type have fixed choices, indicated in the “Choices” column.

Form field Description Choices Required
Power control type Password to access unit IPMI Required
REST API v0.9
REST API v2.0

Cisco UCS Manager

Form field Description Required
Server UUID Server UUID Required
URL for XML API XML API URL Required
API user API user Optional
API password API password Optional

virsh - libvirt KVM

Form field Description Required
Address URL of VM Required
Password API password Optional
Virsh VM ID libvirt VM UUID Required

VMware

Form field Description Required
VM Name VM name (if UUID unknown) Optional
VM UUID VM UUID (if known) Optional
VMware IP IP address of VM Required
VMware username Username to access VM Required
VMware password Password to access VM Required
VMware API port VMware API port number Optional
VMware API protocol VMware API protocol Optional

Facebook’s Wedge

Form field Description Required
IP address IP address of unit Required
Power user Username to access unit Optional
Power password Password to access unit Optional

An example: the Virsh power type

Consider a machine backed by VM. Below, a ‘Power type’ of Virsh has been selected, and the ‘Power address’ of qemu+ssh://ubuntu@192.168.1.2/system has been entered (replace values as appropriate). The value of ‘Power ID’ is the VM domain (guest) name, here node2.

The machine’s hostname – according to MAAS – is a randomly chosen string (here dear.ant). You should change this hostname to something descriptive, that helps you remember why this machine is in your MAAS network.

Which BMC drivers are supported

MAAS supports many types of BMC hardware, though not all the drivers have the same capabilities. See the below table for a feature comparison of the BMC drivers currently supported by MAAS.

Tell me about BMC

BMC, or “Baseboard Management Controller,” is an extra micro-controller on the motherboard of a server which forms the interface between system-management software and the device’s hardware. The BMC can collect data from attached sensors, alert administrators to issues, and respond to remote-control commands to control system operation or power state, independent of the system’s CPU.

In the context of MAAS, the BMC is generally controlled by SNMP commands. Any given BMC will function in the context of one or more “power types,” which are physical interfaces that permit use of the IPMI (“Intelligent Platform Management Interface”) protocol. Each power type has a different set of expected parameters required to access and command the BMC.

Power Driver (X=supported) PXE Next Boot Power Querying Chassis/Pod Configuration Enhanced UI Error Reporting BMC Enlistment
American Power Conversion (APC) - PDU
Cisco UCS Manager X X X
Digital Loggers, Inc. - PDU
Facebook's Wedge *
HP Moonshot - iLO Chassis Manager X X X
HP Moonshot - iLO4 (IPMI) X X X
IBM Hardware Management Console (HMC) X X
IPMI X X X X
Intel AMT X X X
Manual
Microsoft OCS - Chassis Manager X X X
OpenStack Nova X
Rack Scale Design X X X
SeaMicro 15000 X X X
Sentry Switch CDU - PDU
VMWare X X X
Virsh (virtual systems) X X X

* The ‘Facebook’s Wedge’ OpenBMC power driver is considered experimental at this time.