CLI advanced tasks (deb/2.8/UI)

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This article is a list of advanced tasks you can perform with the MAAS CLI.

Quick questions you may have:

Edit machine hostname and power parameters

To edit the hostname and power parameters of a machine:

maas $PROFILE machine update $SYSTEM_ID \
    hostname=$HOSTNAME \
    power_type=$POWER_TYPE \
    power_parameters_power_address=$POWER_ADDRESS \
    power_parameters_power_id=$HOSTNAME

For example, to configure a KVM-based machine:

maas $PROFILE machine update $SYSTEM_ID \
    hostname=$HOSTNAME \
    power_type=virsh \
    power_parameters_power_address=qemu+ssh://ubuntu@$KVM_HOST/system \
    power_parameters_power_id=$HOSTNAME

See Common CLI tasks for how to find a machine’s system id and BMC Power Types for details on different power types.

Relay DHCP

To relay DHCP traffic for a VLAN (source) through another VLAN (target):

maas $PROFILE vlan update $FABRIC_ID $VLAN_VID_SRC relay_vlan=$VLAN_ID_TARGET

For example, to relay VLAN with vid 0 (on fabric-2) through VLAN with id 5002 :

maas $PROFILE vlan update 2 0 relay_van=5002

See DHCP relay for more information.

Assign a network interface to a fabric

This task is made easier with the aid of the jq utility. It filters the maas command (JSON formatted) output and prints it in the desired way, which allows you to view and compare data quickly. Go ahead and install it:

sudo apt install jq

In summary, MAAS assigns an interface to a fabric by assigning it to a VLAN. First, we need to gather various bits of data.

List some information on all machines:

maas $PROFILE machines read | jq ".[] | \
    {hostname:.hostname, system_id: .system_id, status:.status}" --compact-output

Example output:

{"hostname":"machine1","system_id":"dfgnnd","status":4}
{"hostname":"machine2","system_id":"bkaf6e","status":6}
{"hostname":"machine4","system_id":"63wqky","status":6}
{"hostname":"machine3","system_id":"qwkmar","status":4}

You can only edit an interface when the corresponding machine has a status of ‘Ready’. This state is numerically denoted by the integer ‘4’.

List some information for all interfaces on the machine in question (identified by its system id ‘dfgnnd’):

maas $PROFILE interfaces read dfgnnd | jq ".[] | \
    {id:.id, name:.name, mac:.mac_address, vid:.vlan.vid, fabric:.vlan.fabric}" --compact-output

Example output:

{"id":8,"name":"eth0","mac":"52:54:00:01:01:01","vid":0,"fabric":"fabric-1"}
{"id":9,"name":"eth1","mac":"52:54:00:01:01:02","vid":null,"fabric":null}

List some information for all fabrics:

maas $PROFILE fabrics read | jq ".[] | \
    {name:.name, vlans:.vlans[] | {id:.id, vid:.vid}}" --compact-output

Example output:

{"name":"fabric-0","vlans":{"id":5001,"vid":0}}
{"name":"fabric-1","vlans":{"id":5002,"vid":0}}
{"name":"fabric-2","vlans":{"id":5003,"vid":0}}

This example will show how to move interface ‘8’ (on machine ‘dfgnnd’) from ‘fabric-1’ to ‘fabric-0’. Based on the gathered information, this will consist of changing the interface’s VLAN from ‘5002’ to ‘5001’:

maas $PROFILE interface update dfgnnd 8 vlan=5001 >/dev/null

Verify the operation by relisting information for the machine’s interface:

maas $PROFILE interfaces read dfgnnd | jq ".[] | \
    {id:.id, name:.name, mac:.mac_address, vid:.vlan.vid, fabric:.vlan.fabric}" --compact-output

The output shows that the interface is now on fabric-0:

{"id":8,"name":"eth0","mac":"52:54:00:01:01:01","vid":0,"fabric":"fabric-0"}
{"id":9,"name":"eth1","mac":"52:54:00:01:01:02","vid":null,"fabric":null}

Change the IP assignment mode of a network interface

If you want to edit the IP assignment mode of a network interface, the existing subnet link first needs to be removed.

Begin by finding the interface ID as well as the interface’s subnet link ID with the command:

maas $PROFILE node read $SYSTEM_ID

Once that’s done, proceed to unlink and link:

maas $PROFILE interface unlink-subnet $SYSTEM_ID $INTERFACE_ID id=$SUBNET_LINK_ID
maas $PROFILE interface link-subnet $SYSTEM_ID $INTERFACE_ID mode=$IP_MODE subnet=$SUBNET_CIDR [$OPTIONS]

For instance, to have interface ‘58’, with subnet link ‘146’, on machine ‘exqn37’ use DHCP on subnet ‘192.168.1.0/24’:

maas $PROFILE interface unlink-subnet exqn37 58 id=146
maas $PROFILE interface link-subnet exqn37 58 mode=dhcp subnet=192.168.1.0/24

If instead of DHCP, you desire a static address, then the second command would look like this:

maas $PROFILE interface link-subnet exqn37 58 mode=static subnet=192.168.1.0/24 ip_address=192.168.1.113

For a summary of IP assignment modes see Post-commission configuration.

Install a rack controller

To install and register a rack controller with the MAAS:

sudo apt install maas-rack-controller
sudo maas-rack register

The register command is not required when you are adding a rack controller to a system that already houses an API server.

MAAS will ask for the URL of the region API server. If you provide a hostname, ensure it is resolvable. Next, MAAS will prompt you for the secret key, stored in file /var/lib/maas/secret on the API server.

You can get the above information from the web UI by visiting the ‘Controllers’ page and clicking the button ‘Add rack controller’. Here is an example of what you may see:

Based on the above, then, we could have also entered:

sudo maas-rack register --url http://10.5.1.5:5240/MAAS \
    --secret fa847000e7cb681101d26e3477e6e39e

See Rack controller for an overview.

List rack controllers

To list all rack controllers registered with the region:

maas $PROFILE rack-controllers read | grep hostname | cut -d '"' -f 4

Set the default storage layout

To set the default storage layout for all machines:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name=default_storage_layout value=$LAYOUT_TYPE

For example, to set the default layout to Flat:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name=default_storage_layout value=flat

Important: The new default will only apply to newly-commissioned machines.

See Storage for more details on MAAS storage features.

Set a storage layout

An administrator can set a storage layout for a machine with a status of ‘Ready’ like this:

maas $PROFILE machine set-storage-layout $SYSTEM_ID storage_layout=$LAYOUT_TYPE [$OPTIONS]

For example, to set an LVM layout where the logical volume has a size of 5 GB:

maas $PROFILE machine set-storage-layout $SYSTEM_ID storage_layout=lvm lv_size=5368709120

You must specify all storage sizes in bytes.

This action will remove the configuration that may exist on any block device.

Create an A or AAAA record in DNS

An administrator can create an A record when creating a DNS resource with an IPv4 address.

mass $PROFILE dnsresources create fqdn=$HOSTNAME.$DOMAIN ip_addresses=$IPV4ADDRESS

An administrator can create an AAAA record when creating a DNS resource with an IPv6 address.

mass $PROFILE dnsresources create fqdn=$HOSTNAME.$DOMAIN ip_addresses=$IPV6ADDRESS

Create an alias (CNAME) record in DNS

An administrator can set a DNS Alias (CNAME record) to an already existing DNS entry of a machine.

mass $PROFILE dnsresource-records create fqdn=$HOSTNAME.$DOMAIN rrtype=cname rrdata=$ALIAS

For example, to set webserver.maas.io to alias to www.maas.io:

maas $PROFILE dnsresource-records create fqdn=webserver.maas.io rrtype=cname rrdata=www

Create a Mail Exchange pointer record in DNS

An administrator can set a DNS Mail Exchange pointer record (MX and value) to a domain.

maas $PROFILE dnsresource-records create fqdn=$DOMAIN rrtype=mx rrdata='10 $MAIL_SERVER.$DOMAIN'

For example, to set the domain.name managed by MAAS to have an MX record and that you own the domain:

maas $PROFILE dnsresource-records create fqdn=maas.io rrtype=mx rrdata='10 smtp.maas.io'

Add or update a remote syslog server

To add or update a remote syslog server in your MAAS environment:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name="remote_syslog" value="$SYSLOG_FQDN"

For example, to set your syslog server to 192.168.100.11:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name="remote_syslog" value=192.168.100.11

If you clear the remote_syslog value, MAAS will revert to the default behaviour, which is to send all syslog information to all MAAS region controllers.

For example:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name="remote_syslog" value=""