Is there a way to skip auto commissioning?

Users
#1

I REALLY hate the auto-commissioning feature in MaaS.

If I add a VM on a KVM pod outside of MaaS (ie. virt-manager), and then refresh the pod, it automatically commissions the VM. If I add a machine manually, it also automatically commissions it.

I just want to be able to opt-out of it before MaaS decides to shutdown the machine and start commissioning.

A solution would be to add an option to skip commissioning and label the system something like “non-MaaS” where you could only really use the power management features unless fully commissioned.

How to migrate machines from one MAAS server to another (both in same lab).
#2

When a Pod is added to MAAS it is assumed that the Pod fully under MAAS’s control. MAAS needs to know everything it can about the VM’s that Pod uses as that is how resource usage is calculated. LP:1884276 was recently opened to discuss changing this behavior.

You can add libvirt VM’s as individual machines without adding a Pod. When adding a new machine just set the power type to virsh.

#3

Thanks for the reply. I might add to the Bug. The source of my contention is this:

When you configure a machine to netboot – and turn it on while connected to the network – MAAS will enlist it, giving it a status of “New.” You can also add a machine manually). In either case, the next step is commissioning , which boots the machine into an ephemeral Ubuntu kernel so that resource information can be gathered.

Adding a machine always results in commissioning, reboot, etc.

In response to…

MAAS needs to know everything it can about the VM’s that Pod uses as that is how resource usage is calculated

I believe that virsh has built in commands to dig out these details. ie…

virsh dominfo <vm>

I really think auto commissioning NEEDS to be a user initiated action because of its disruptive nature. If you point MaaS at a KVM Pod it will certainly reboot those VMs and start the commissioning scripts once you kick off a refresh on the KVM Pod. That is a big deal, especially in prod.

#4

I agree we are probably simplistic in how we decide when to commission. We should have a thoughtful whiteboarding conversation on that and it would be good to have you join. We’re all virtual so that should be doable.

But I don’t think we should try to dig out the information we need using custom approaches for different hardware types. We never know, over time, how MAAS will evolve, and having one standard commissioning process means that every type of hardware gets assessed in the same way. So I would not try to guess things with virsh, but would agree to more control for admins in deciding when commissioning happens.

#5

Hi @nateybobo, thank you very much for the feedback!
I’ll look at arranging a call for this.
Could you please send me a message to arrange a time? My email is eduardo.aguilar.pelaez@canonical.com

#6

@edu-ap @sabdfl

Sure, I’d be happy to jump on a call.

I don’t have deep knowledge of the mechanics of MaaS but I’m glad to discuss my use case.

#7

Fantastic, I just replied to your email.
Looking forward to speaking this week.
Eduardo

#8

Hello,

did you have that phone call last year ? is Maas still auto-commissioning ?
I have the same issue and even if I specify commissioning=false in the api call, it still commissions the machine.

Was there any resolution how to create machine in maas without maas jumping the gun and commissioning it immediatelly ?

Thank you!

#9

I did have the call with Eduardo. He was gracious enough to listen to my woes about needing a machine to not automagically commission itself. We also chatted about solutions; like manually entering the machine meta data, or having a separate commissioning process that didn’t involve a disruptive reboot.

Since that conversation, I know that he has moved on to bigger and better things outside of Canonical, and the commissioning process is still the same AFAIK…

#10

Hello,

thank you for the reply.

I am not sure if there is a suitable emoticon but I will try to illustrate it :screaming:

The original conversation took place in 2020

@ltrager there is machine add MAAS API parameter ‘commissioning’ in maas 2.7.3 but it does not appear to be working/preventing ‘commissioning’ when parameter value is set to false, 0 or False

would it be possible to pickup from that and try to get it working ?

Kind regards,
Igor

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