What's new in MAAS (deb/2.8/ui)

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MAAS 2.8 release notes

MAAS 2.8.6 released

MAAS 2.8.6 has been released, replacing the 2.8/stable channel in snap and the ppa:maas/2.8. You can update your 2.8 release to 2.8.6 with the command:

snap refresh --channel=2.8/stable

or by using the aforementioned PPA. 2.8.6 has one critical bug fix, related to an inability to deploy machines with static IP addresses in MAAS 2.8. No other changes have been made to MAAS with this release.

MAAS 2.8.5 released

MAAS 2.8.5 has been released, replacing the 2.8/stable channel in snap and the ppa:maas/2.8. You can update your 2.8 release to 2.8.5 with the command:

snap refresh --channel=2.8/stable

or by using the aforementioned PPA. 2.8.5 has two high-priority bug fixes, including a fix for failing to allocate AUTO IP addresses and a carry-along fix for unconfigured interfaces when doing complex VM composing. No other changes have been made to MAAS with this release.

MAAS 2.8.4 released

MAAS 2.8.4 has been released, replacing the 2.8/stable channel in snap and the ppa:maas/2.8. You can update your 2.8 release to 2.8.4 with the command:

snap refresh --channel=2.8/stable

or by using the aforementioned PPA. 2.8.4 has a single bug fix. No other changes have been made to MAAS with this release.

MAAS 2.8.3 released

MAAS 2.8.3 has been released, replacing the 2.8/stable channel in snap and the ppa:maas/2.8. You can update your 2.8 release to 2.8.3 with the command:

snap refresh --channel=2.8/stable

or by using the aforementioned PPA. The focus for this release has been bugfixing and more bugfixing. No other changes have been made to MAAS with this release.

Here’s a summary of the bugs that were fixed in 2.8.3:

  • DNS Servers not set as expected: MAAS was using the region controller IP in dhcpd.conf when other DNS servers are present, effectively bypassing the rack controller proxy to machines. The code was updated to use the region controller IP for DNS only if no other DNS servers are found.

  • not able to import new image after MAAS upgrade: After upgrading from MAAS 2.6.2 to snap-MAAS 2.8.1, it is impossible to import a new image. This was fixed in MAAS 2.8.3.

  • an unlogged chown permission error leaves a temporary file behind: Fixed in MAAS 2.8.3.

  • smartctl-validate fails to detect that NVME device is SMART-capable: MAAS 2.8.2 fails to realise that WD Black gaming NVMEs are smart devices, hence MAAS doesn’t display attributes. This is fixed in 2.8.3.

  • cannot use release API on stuck observed IPs: The CLI/API provide commands for forcing the release of an IP, but MAAS 2.8.2 was not allowing these commands to run successfully. This was fixed. There is also a workaround for those who cannot upgrade to 2.8.3 right away:

    $ sudo -iu postgres psql
    \c $MAAS_DB \ – switch to $MAASDB
    UPDATE maasserver_staticipaddress SET alloc_type = 5 where ip = ‘$IP_ADDRESS’ AND alloc_type = 6;
    ^D
    $ maas $PROFILE ipaddresses release ip=’$IP_ADDRESS’ force=true

  • MAAS is unable to handle duplicate UUIDs: The firmware for Dell servers (and possibly others) has a bug whereby they use the service number for the UUID, which is not guaranteed to be unique. This caused MAAS commissioning to fail. The code was modified in 2.8.3 to detect and remove duplicate UUIDs, allowing MAAS to fall back to the MAC address. There is also a database workaround for those who cannot upgrade to 2.8.3 right away:

    UPDATE maasserver_node SET hardware_uuid=NULL where hardware_uuid=’$DUPLICATE_UUID’;

  • Ubuntu 20.04 pxe installation fails…:
    When trying to PXE install Ubuntu 20.04, the installation fails with “no such file or directory, /dev/disk/by-id exception.” This was an issue with block devices being created without serial numbers, bug fixed in curtin and released with 2.8.3.

  • Failed to allocate the required AUTO IP addresses after 2 retries: MAAS incorrectly perceives that there are no available IP addresses, when in fact, there are plenty still available. This is fixed in 2.8.3.

  • maas 2.9 rc1 machines create error (backport): Adding commission=true to a CLI machine creation command produces an error. This was fixed in 2.9 and back-ported to 2.8.3.

  • Lists of LXD nodes are represented in an incompatible data structure: Fixed in 2.8.3.

  • Deselecting all architectures in the Ubuntu extra architectures repo blocks all deployments (backport). The default architectures have been changed to prevent this issue. This was fixed in 2.9 and back-ported to 2.8.3.

  • Can’t commission without a test (backport): MAAS 2.8 does not allow machines to be commissioned with zero tests selected; this occurs only for multiple machines, and only when commissioning from the UI. This was fixed in 2.9 and back-ported to 2.8.3.

Note that there is a workaround for those not ready to upgrade to 2.8.3, specifically, using the CLI to commission machines without testing them:

maas $PROFILE machine commission $SYSTEM_ID testing_scripts=none

MAAS 2.8.2 released

On 1 September 2020, MAAS 2.8.2 was released, replacing the 2.8/stable channel in snap and the ppa:maas/2.8. You can update your 2.8 release to 2.8.2 with the command:

snap refresh --channel=2.8/stable

or by using the aforementioned PPA. The focus for this release has been bugfixing – there were no changes to MAAS since RC1.

Thanks to everyone who reported the issues with previous 2.7 releases and helped us with the logs.

MAAS 2.8 released

Following on from MAAS 2.7, we are happy to announce that MAAS 2.8 is now available. This release features some critical bug fixes, along with some exciting new features.

Six questions you may have:

  1. What are the new features & fixes for 2.8?
  2. What known issues should I be aware of?
  3. How do I install MAAS 2.8 as a snap?
  4. How do I upgrade my MAAS 2.7 snap to a MAAS 2.8 snap?
  5. How do I install MAAS 2.8 from packages?
  6. What bugs were fixed in this release?

LXD-based VM host support (Beta)

MAAS 2.8 adds the beta capability to use LXD-based VM hosts and virtual machines (VMs), in addition to the libvirt-based VM hosts/VMs already available. These new LXD VM hosts use the same underlying technology as libvirt (QEMU). Unlike libvirt KVMs, though, LXD VMs can be managed without requiring SSH access to the VM host. LXD are remotely accessed via secure HTTP transport, which provides better security for LXD-based VMs. In addition, LXD has a better API, and is part of a much larger constellation of enterprise software, offering a wider range of future features and use cases.

UI performance improvements for the machine listing page

Within MAAS 2.8, we have made a number of performance improvements to everything related to the machine listing. Some of the most visible changes involve the way that long lists are presented within categories (see the example below), but there are a number of other changes that make the list easier and more efficient to use.

Among those other changes are persisting UI state for grouping, new grouping options, bookmark-able URLs with filter and search parameters, and many other performance improvements. If you’re interested in more details, see this blog post.

Support for using an external/remote PostgreSQL MAAS database with the snap version of MAAS

In order to make MAAS more scalable, we have separated the MAAS database from the MAAS snap, so that the DB can be situated separately. MAAS 2.8 now allows the MAAS DB to be located outside the snap on localhost, or on a separate, external or remote server. We complement this capability with extensive instructions for setting up and managing this configuration. To support those who are testing MAAS, we’ve also provided a test DB configuration that embeds the database in a separate snap that can easily be connected to MAAS.

Bug fixes

We’ve also fixed number of bugs (see the list in Launchpad). Notable among these are the following:

Known issues

  • Browser caching issue: There is a known issue with browser caching on some MAAS pages. If you initially encounter a page which does not appear to be correctly formatted, please manually clear your browser cache (not Ctrl-F5) and it should restore the page to normal. You manually clear your browser cache, for example, in the “History” section of the menu on a Chrome browser.

  • Extra power types when adding chassis: (see bug report) When adding a chassis, the “Power type” drop-down will show power types not supported by a chassis. Selecting one of the non-supported power types will result in the UI blocking the action. Here is a list of power types supported for chassis creation:

    • mscm - Moonshot Chassis Manager
    • msftocs - Microsoft OCS Chassis Manager
    • powerkvm - Virtual Machines on Power KVM, managed by Virsh
    • recs_box - Christmann RECS|Box servers
    • sm15k - SeaMicro 1500 Chassis
    • ucsm - Cisco UCS Manager
    • virsh - virtual machines managed by Virsh
    • vmware - virtual machines managed by VMware
  • MAAS keys count in user list is bogus: (see bug report) The count of keys shown in the User list in the UI is wrong.

  • Leftover lock files may be present under some conditions: Even if you purge an old MAAS Debian package, it can leave lock files in /run/lock/maas*. This can cause issues if you later reinstall MAAS, and the previous MAAS user UID has been reassigned. At that point, MAAS can’t remove those files and create new ones. If this occurs, it is easily fixed by removing those files manually before reinstalling.

Cumulative summary of new features in MAAS 3.0

  1. PCI and USB devices are now modelled in MAAS
  2. IBM Z DPM partition support
  3. Proxmox support
  4. LXD projects support
  5. PCI and USB device tabs in machine details
  6. Workload annotations
  7. Fixed status bar
  8. Registering a machine as a VM host during deployment
  9. Improvements to MAAS CLI help UX
  10. Disabling boot methods
  11. Consolidation of logs and events

MAAS 3.0 bug fixes

MAAS 3.0 incorporates a large number of bug fixes, summarised in the sections below. Please feel free to validate these fixes at your convenience and give us feedback if anything doesn’t seem to work as presented in the bug request.

One particular bug, #1916860, involves failures in the IPMI cipher suite in MAAS 2.9.2 and up, on the Lenovo x3650 M5 (and others). This particular bug is a not a MAAS bug, but a firmware issue with the subject machines. While the MAAS team can’t fix this (hence the assignment of “Won’t Fix”), the team did provide a easy workaround which helps circumvent this issue.

MAAS 3.0 bug fixes

Here are the bugs that were ‘Fix Released’ for the MAAS 3.0 release:

Number Description Importance
#1932136 interface with a warning is not configured properly Critical
#1896771 interfaces that are not connected are detected as ‘connected to slow interface’ Medium

MAAS 3.0 RC2 bug fixes

Here are the bugs that have been ‘Fix Released’ in MAAS 3.0 RC2:

Number Description Importance
#1929552 Deb-based controller fails to run machine-resources Critical
#1929576 Machines fail to commission using the 3.0 snap due to possible? DNS issue Critical
#1930227 Failure to commission when interfaces has a /32 IP Critical
#1930554 vm-host CLI command is now named vmhosts Critical
#1930587 Different disks with same LUN detected as multipath Critical
#1931215 [.0~rc2-10023 testing] two IPs assigned to one interface Critical
#1931838 Reverse DNS lookup fails for subnets smaller than /24 Critical
#1835292 UI should add button to download curtin-logs.tar on deployment failure MAAS High
#1908552 maas init fails; ‘relation “maasserver_routable_pairs” does not exist’ High
#1929086 LXD VM hosts can’t be refreshed if VLANs interfaces aren’t named $parent.$vid High
#1929643 MAAS often fails and and returns a Pickled object if request header is set to Accept: / Medium
#1924820 Trying to edit a disconnected NIC, then cancelling the edit and connecting the NIC via its drop-down menu, many drop-down menu options then disappear Undecided

MAAS 3.0 RC1 bug fixes

Here are the bugs that have been ‘Fix Released’ in MAAS 3.0 RC1:

Number Description Importance
#1774529 Cannot delete some instances of model ‘Domain’ because they are referenced through a protected foreign key High
#1919001 Unable to network boot VM on IBM Z DPM Partition High
#1925249 MAAS detects 0 cores, RAM available for KVM host, reports negative availability on pod compose High
#1927292 Updating controller has vlan_ids error High
#1927657 Global kernel command line options not passed with tags High
#1928098 If a workload annotation has a key with spaces in it, filtering doesn’t work High
#1926140 maas_url not returned to the UI Medium
#1926171 Failure processing network information when adding a rack Medium
#1927036 Incorrect value “accept_ra” in interface definition Medium
#1927340 Deb to snap migration script should support remote Postgres Medium
#1928104 New workload annotations don’t show up without a reload Medium
#1928115 API still refers to “owner data” rather than “workload annotations” Medium
#1922891 MAAS configures nodes with incorrect DNS server addresses when using multiple IP addresses Undecided
#1923268 grubnet default grub.cfg should try /grub/grub.cfg-${net_default_mac} before /grub/grub.cfg Undecided
#1926164 VLAN page shows odd “Rack controllers” value Undecided
#1926510 dhcp subnet snippets are NOT inside the pool block Undecided
#1927559 Default logical volume size too big in UI Undecided
#1928024 UI states commissioning/testing scripts were never uploaded Undecided
#1928226 Information “not available” indicates that it’'s an error of some sort Undecided
#1928235 notes field won’t update properly: MAAS 3.0 RC]() Undecided
#1928324 updating a machine zone or resource pool doesn’t refresh details Undecided

MAAS 3.0 Beta 5 bug fixes

Here are the bugs that have been Fix Released in MAAS 3.0 Beta 5:

Number Description Importance
#1925784 Processing LXD results failure with loopback Critical
#1923871 LXD vmhost project usage includes usage for other projects High
#1815084 MAAS web ui should perform Save action when Enter/Return is pressed Medium
#1923867 Commissioning fails if NIC gets different PCI address Medium

MAAS 3.0 Beta 4 bug fixes

Here are the bugs that have been Fix Released in MAAS 3.0 Beta 4:

Number Description Importance
#1923246 Unable to compose LXD VM with multiple NICs High
#1918963 Controllers page out of sync with nodes Undecided
#1923685 Unable to deploy LXD VM host on S390X Undecided
#1923687 LXD VM host refresh failure is ignored Undecided
#1774529 Cannot delete some instances of model ‘Domain’ because they are referenced through a protected foreign key High
#1914762 test network configuration broken with openvswitch bridge High
#1919001 Unable to network boot VM on IBM Z DPM Partition High
#1917963 Add chassis lowers the case of added machines Low
#1915087 2.9 UI is broken, seems to loop between user intro and machines pages endlessly High
#1923842 Can’t use action menu on machine details page High
#1917667 Commissioning/testing scripts no longer show ETA or progress Undecided
#1917669 No way to view previous commissioning or testing script results Undecided
#1917670 Storage and interface tests not assoicated with a device Undecided
#1917671 Commissioning/testing scripts not updated after starting commissioning or testing Undecided
#1917794 Unable to view full history of events in UI Undecided
#1918964 UI shows action unavailable after performing action Undecided
#1918966 Tabs aren’t always underscorred Undecided
#1918971 UI does not autofill size on storage tab Undecided
#1923524 Unable to delete LXD composed machine on KVM page Undecided

MAAS 3.0 Beta 3 bug fixes

Here are the bugs that have been Fix Released in MAAS 3.0 Beta 3:

Number Description Importance
#1922569 Create KVM fails in MAAS 3.0 Beta with a project error High
#1923251 Creating an LXD VM host now requires a project name High
#1809939 dhcp snippet create fail when dhcp subnet is relayed Medium
#1913460 Add option to pick whether to keep or decompose machines in a VM host Undecided
#1922787 make “LXD” the default VM host in MAAS UI (rather than virsh) Undecided
#1922876 Deploy KVM hosts with LXD by default Undecided
#1922972 MAAS 3.0 Beta2 UI says “machine cannot be deployed” while successfully deploying machine Undecided
#1923719 MAAS 3.0 : snap refresh maas from 3.0.0~beta2-9826-g.13cc184d5 Undecided

MAAS 3.0 Beta 2 bug fixes

Here are the bugs that have been Fix Released in MAAS 3.0 Beta 2:

Number Description Importance
#1922107 Hugepages/pinning available for virsh and lack validation High
#1922433 Machine resources path set incorrectly in rackd when using snap High

MAAS 3.0 Beta 1 bug fixes

Here are the bugs that have been Fix Released in MAAS 3.0 Beta 1:

Number Description Importance
#1896199 API docs link is not offline Critical
#1904245 MAAS Snap fails to build on PPC64 on Launchpad Critical
#1912727 KVM Page Fails to load with error “An unexpected error has occurred, please try refreshing your browser window.” Critical
#1915869 maas snap cli renders SyntaxWarning in the stderr Critical
#1916093 Unable to add more than 3 Promox VMs Critical
#1883824 Support LXD projects in power control High
#1884276 Terrible user experience adding existing LXD host High
#1902425 Failed to allocate the required AUTO IP addresses after 2 retries High
#1908087 Reverse DNS for non-maas RFC1918 zones fails inside maas High
#1908356 Owner data websocket methods are not working High
#1908434 Can’t delete LXD VM in offline state High
#1913323 /MAAS/docs/ leads to 404 page High
#1914588 Enabling debug from snap traceback High
#1915021 Mapping subnet doesn’t work from the MAAS snap High
#1915022 The MAAS snap doesn’t include nmap High
#1915715 LXD VM additional disks all show 10Gb size High
#1915970 Facebook Wedge BMC detection fails on non-x86 architectures High
#1918997 MAAS does not set snap proxy High
#1919000 Unable to connect MAAS to an LXD VM host High
#1887797 Impossible to delete zombie LXD VM Medium
#1894116 Machines can’t be deployed after deselecting all archs in the “Ubuntu extra architectures” package repo Medium
#1897946 hi1620-based ARM Servers are shown as “Unknown model” Medium
#1906212 timeout in testing scripts ignores the days if set to greater than 24 hours Medium
#1911825 Unable to use FQDN as power_address Medium
#1914165 Proxmox does not allow custom port Medium
#1917652 30-maas-01-bmc-config failing on commissioning Cisco UCSC-C220-M4L Medium
#1335175 maas does not combine kernel_opts when nodes have multiple tags with kernel options Low
#1915359 make sampledata can’t find machine-resources Low
#1916844 Removing a machine that is a vm host tells you to remove the “pod” Low
#1920019 maas_remote_syslog_compress is unnecessarily chatty Low
#1887558 Multipath JBOD storage devices are not shown via /dev/mapper but each path as a single device. Wishlist
#1901944 tags field in machine edit page overtakes other fields Undecided
#1909985 Add commission timestamp to machine websocket api Undecided
#1913464 Drop RSD pods UI Undecided
#1914590 Support composing LXD VMs with multiple disks in the UI Undecided
#1915970 Facebook Wedge BMC detection fails on non-x86 architectures Undecided
#1916073 MAAS should install qemu-efi-aarch64 on arm64 KVM pods Undecided
#1916317 UI is using API to request scripts with full content Undecided
#1919381 typo “veryiying” in info message in smartctl-validate Undecided

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