MAAS installation (snap/2.7/CLI)

MAAS URL [default=http://10.55.60.1:5240/MAAS]: http://192.168.122.1:5240/MAAS
Create first admin account:       
Username: admin
Password: ******
Again: ******
Email: admin@example.com
Import SSH keys [] (lp:user-id or gh:user-id): lp:petermatulis

If you enter a Launchpad or GitHub account name with associated SSH key, MAAS will import them automatically.

The MAAS URL sets the API address of one or more controllers. You will use the username and password to access the web UI.

Some modes will additionally ask for a shared secret that will allow the new rack controller to register with the region controller.

Re-initialise MAAS

To re-initialise MAAS, use the following command:

sudo maas init --mode region+rack

Verify MAAS installation

After a snap installation of MAAS, you can verify that the installation was successful with the following command:

sudo maas config

This command should return a sequence similar to the following if MAAS is operating propery:

Mode: region+rack
Settings:
maas_url=http://192.168.122.1:5240/MAAS

Check service statuses

You can check the status of running services with:

sudo maas status

Sample output should look something like this:

bind9                            RUNNING   pid 7999, uptime 0:09:17
dhcpd                            STOPPED   Not started
dhcpd6                           STOPPED   Not started
ntp                              RUNNING   pid 8598, uptime 0:05:42
postgresql                       RUNNING   pid 8001, uptime 0:09:17
proxy                            STOPPED   Not started
rackd                            RUNNING   pid 8000, uptime 0:09:17
regiond:regiond-0                RUNNING   pid 8003, uptime 0:09:17
regiond:regiond-1                RUNNING   pid 8008, uptime 0:09:17
regiond:regiond-2                RUNNING   pid 8005, uptime 0:09:17
regiond:regiond-3                RUNNING   pid 8015, uptime 0:09:17
tgt                              RUNNING   pid 8040, uptime 0:09:15

Reinitialising MAAS

It is also possible to re-initialise MAAS to switch modes. For example, to switch from rack to region:

sudo maas init region

The MAAS command takes additional init options; see the MAAS installation technical reference for details.

snap-3-0-ui snap-3-0-cli -->

How to configure MAAS

Once you’ve successfully installed MAAS (regardless of method), you can login to the MAAS CLI via the following process. First, generate the API-key for the user you’re going to employing:

sudo maas apikey --username=$PROFILE > api-key-file

Replace $PROFILE with whatever username you set during the createadmin part of the install process. Next, login with the following command:

maas login $PROFILE $MAAS_URL < api-key-file

Substitute $MAAS_URL with the URL that was returned to you when you initialised MAAS, for example, 192.168.43.251:5240/MAAS. Remember that, once you’ve logged in, you can get extensive CLI help with the command:

maas admin --help

Sample output is shown in the detail section below.

MAAS CLI help, sample output

usage: maas admin [-h] COMMAND ...

Issue commands to the MAAS region controller at http://192.168.43.251:5240/MAAS/api/2.0/.

optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit

drill down:
COMMAND
account Manage the current logged-in user.
bcache-cache-set Manage bcache cache set on a machine.
bcache-cache-sets Manage bcache cache sets on a machine.
bcache Manage bcache device on a machine.
bcaches Manage bcache devices on a machine.
block-device Manage a block device on a machine.
block-devices Manage block devices on a machine.
boot-resource Manage a boot resource.
boot-resources Manage the boot resources.
boot-source Manage a boot source.
boot-source-selection
Manage a boot source selection.
boot-source-selections
Manage the collection of boot source selections.
boot-sources Manage the collection of boot sources.
commissioning-script
Manage a custom commissioning script.
commissioning-scripts
Manage custom commissioning scripts.
dhcpsnippet Manage an individual DHCP snippet.
dhcpsnippets Manage the collection of all DHCP snippets in MAAS.
dnsresource Manage dnsresource.
dnsresource-record Manage dnsresourcerecord.
dnsresource-records
Manage DNS resource records (e.g. CNAME, MX, NS, SRV,
TXT)
dnsresources Manage dnsresources.
device Manage an individual device.
devices Manage the collection of all the devices in the MAAS.
discoveries Query observed discoveries.
discovery Read or delete an observed discovery.
domain Manage domain.
domains Manage domains.
events Retrieve filtered node events.
fabric Manage fabric.
fabrics Manage fabrics.
fan-network Manage Fan Network.
fan-networks Manage Fan Networks.
file Manage a FileStorage object.
files Manage the collection of all the files in this MAAS.
ipaddresses Manage IP addresses allocated by MAAS.
iprange Manage IP range.
ipranges Manage IP ranges.
interface Manage a node’s or device’s interface.
interfaces Manage interfaces on a node.
license-key Manage a license key.
license-keys Manage the license keys.
maas Manage the MAAS server.
machine Manage an individual machine.
machines Manage the collection of all the machines in the MAAS.
network Manage a network.
networks Manage the networks.
node Manage an individual Node.
node-results Read the collection of commissioning script results.
node-script Manage or view a custom script.
node-script-result Manage node script results.
node-script-results
Manage node script results.
node-scripts Manage custom scripts.
nodes Manage the collection of all the nodes in the MAAS.
notification Manage an individual notification.
notifications Manage the collection of all the notifications in
MAAS.
package-repositories
Manage the collection of all Package Repositories in
MAAS.
package-repository Manage an individual package repository.
partition Manage partition on a block device.
partitions Manage partitions on a block device.
pod Manage an individual pod.
pods Manage the collection of all the pod in the MAAS.
rack-controller Manage an individual rack controller.
rack-controllers Manage the collection of all rack controllers in MAAS.
raid Manage a specific RAID (Redundant Array of Independent
Disks) on a machine.
raids Manage all RAIDs (Redundant Array of Independent
Disks) on a machine.
region-controller Manage an individual region controller.
region-controllers Manage the collection of all region controllers in
MAAS.
resource-pool Manage a resource pool.
resource-pools Manage resource pools.
sshkey Manage an SSH key.
sshkeys Manage the collection of all the SSH keys in this
MAAS.
sslkey Manage an SSL key.
sslkeys Operations on multiple keys.
space Manage space.
spaces Manage spaces.
static-route Manage static route.
static-routes Manage static routes.
subnet Manage subnet.
subnets Manage subnets.
tag Tags are properties that can be associated with a Node
and serve as criteria for selecting and allocating
nodes.
tags Manage all tags known to MAAS.
user Manage a user account.
users Manage the user accounts of this MAAS.
version Information about this MAAS instance.
vlan Manage a VLAN on a fabric.
vlans Manage VLANs on a fabric.
vm-host Manage an individual vm-host.
vm-hosts Manage the collection of all the vm-hosts in the MAAS.
vmfs-datastore Manage VMFS datastore on a machine.
vmfs-datastores Manage VMFS datastores on a machine.
volume-group Manage volume group on a machine.
volume-groups Manage volume groups on a machine.
zone Manage a physical zone.
zones Manage physical zones.

This is a profile. Any commands you issue on this profile will
operate on the MAAS region server.

The command information you see here comes from the region server’s
API; it may differ for different profiles. If you believe the API may
have changed, use the command’s ‘refresh’ sub-command to fetch the
latest version of this help information from the server.

Configuration

Configuring MAAS consists of four broad steps:

Setting upstream DNS
Importing an SSH key for your admin user
Importing images
Configuring DNS

This section will cover those four operations

Setting DNS

After logging in for the first time, you will need to set a number of system-wide configuration options. First up, you should configure DNS. You can check out the help for DNS settings, known in the CLI as a “DNS forwarder”:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name=upstream_dns value="8.8.8.8"

Here, we’ve set the DNS forwarder to “8.8.8.8” (Google), which is a reliable value.

Setting SSH for the admin user

To add a public SSH key to a MAAS user account, type the following command:

maas $PROFILE sshkeys create "key=$SSH_KEY"

Importing images

Before going any further, it’s worthwhile to start the image import, as it can sometimes take a few minutes. You can see what images you already have downloaded with this command:

maas $PROFILE boot-resources read | jq -r '.[] | "\(.name)\t\(.architecture)"'

This command will return a list similar to the following:

grub-efi-signed/uefi        amd64/generic
grub-efi/uefi           arm64/generic
grub-ieee1275/open-firmware ppc64el/generic
pxelinux/pxe            i386/generic
ubuntu/bionic           amd64/ga-18.04
ubuntu/bionic           amd64/ga-18.04-lowlatency
ubuntu/bionic           amd64/hwe-18.04
ubuntu/bionic           amd64/hwe-18.04-edge
ubuntu/bionic           amd64/hwe-18.04-lowlatency
ubuntu/bionic           amd64/hwe-18.04-lowlatency-edge

Suppose you also want a version called “Trusty” – you can import a new image by first selecting it for download, like this:

maas $PROFILE boot-source-selections create 1 \ > os="ubuntu" release="trusty" arches="amd64" subarches="*" \ > labels="*"

which returns some JSON confirming your action:

Success.
Machine-readable output follows:
{
    "os": "ubuntu",
    "release": "trusty",
    "arches": [
        "amd64"
    ],
    "subarches": [
        "*"
    ],
    "labels": [
        "*"
    ],
    "boot_source_id": 1,
    "id": 2,
    "resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/boot-sources/1/selections/2/"
}

Once selected, you can start the image import with this command:

maas admin boot-resources import

which offers a shorter confirmation message:

Success.
Machine-readable output follows:
Import of boot resources started

Enabling DHCP

Once your image has been imported, you’ll want to get DHCP working, which means finding the untagged VLAN. In truth, it shouldn’t be too hard, because at this point, there still should only be one.

In order to turn on DHCP, you need to know two things besides the VLAN name (“untagged”): the fabric ID and the primary rack controller name. To start, all the fabrics will be on the same untagged VLAN, so any fabric will do. You can find a valid fabric ID by reading it from any subnet, so just pick one (e.g., 192.168.123.0/24) and find a usable fabric ID like this:

maas $PROFILE subnet read $SUBNET_CIDR | grep fabric_id

which returns (in this example):

"fabric_id": $FABRIC_ID,

Next, find the name of the primary rack controller. It’s usually fairly obvious, but for purposes of argument, assume that it’s not known. You can get it this way:

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

This returns a hostname, which we’ll call:

$RACK_CONTR_HOSTNAME

Finally, you need to create an IP range for DHCP, in this case, a dynamic range:

maas $PROFILE ipranges create type=dynamic start_ip=$START_IP end_ip=$END_IP

This command returns something similar to this sample output:

Success.
Machine-readable output follows:
{
    "subnet": {
        "name": "192.168.123.0/24",
        "description": "",
        "vlan": {
            "vid": 0,
            "mtu": 1500,
            "dhcp_on": false,
            "external_dhcp": null,
            "relay_vlan": null,
            "fabric": "fabric-2",
            "primary_rack": null,
            "name": "untagged",
            "id": 5003,
            "space": "undefined",
            "secondary_rack": null,
            "fabric_id": 2,
            "resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/vlans/5003/"
        },
        "cidr": "192.168.123.0/24",
        "rdns_mode": 2,
        "gateway_ip": null,
        "dns_servers": [],
        "allow_dns": true,
        "allow_proxy": true,
        "active_discovery": false,
        "managed": true,
        "id": 4,
        "space": "undefined",
        "resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/subnets/4/"
    },
    "type": "dynamic",
    "start_ip": "192.168.123.190",
    "end_ip": "192.168.123.253",
    "user": {
        "is_superuser": true,
        "username": "admin",
        "email": "admin@admin.com",
        "is_local": true,
        "resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/users/admin/"
    },
    "comment": "",
    "id": 1,
    "resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/ipranges/1/"
}

So you should now be able to turn on DHCP like this:

maas $PROFILE vlan update $FABRIC_ID untagged dhcp_on=True primary_rack=$RACK_CONTR_HOSTHNAME

If you’ve done everything correctly, you should see JSON output similar to this sample:

Success.
Machine-readable output follows:
{
    "vid": 0,
    "mtu": 1500,
    "dhcp_on": true,
    "external_dhcp": null,
    "relay_vlan": null,
    "fabric": "fabric-2",
    "space": "undefined",
    "primary_rack": "8dwnne",
    "secondary_rack": null,
    "name": "untagged",
    "fabric_id": 2,
    "id": 5003,
    "resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/vlans/5003/"
}