This article will show you how to:
Note that all headings are hyperlinks that can be bookmarked.
Prepare for MAAS installation
You should take the following steps before installing MAAS for the first time on a new system:
-
Make sure that the target system meets the minimum hardware requirements.
-
Make sure you understand how support works for the chosen version.
- Make sure you uninstall bind9, if it’s running on your system:
a. Check to see if bind9 is running:
ps aux | grep named
b. If bind9 is running, remove it with the following command:
sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove bind9
Install and verify MAAS
This section explains how to:
MAAS can be installed in either of two configurations: test or production. The test configuration uses a small PostgreSQL database (in a separate snap), designed for use with MAAS. The full-up production configuration uses a separate PostgreSQL database for performance and scalability. This article will walk you through both install methods.
Eleven questions you may have about installing MAAS:
- How do I install (but not initialise) the MAAS snap?
- How do I upgrade my 2.7 snap to version 2.8?
- What are MAAS initialisation modes?
- How do I initialise MAAS for a test or proof-of-concept configuration?
- How do I initialise MAAS for a production configuration?
- How can I check the service status of my MAAS configuration?
- How do I re-initialise MAAS, if I want to?
-
How can I discover additional init options?
9 Give me an example of initialising MAAS - Tell me about the MAAS URL
- Tell me about the shared secret
If you have installed bind9 or have it running, you will need to uninstall it before installing MAAS. You can check with ps aux | grep named to see if it’s running. The bind9 daemon interferes with MAAS operation and creates a number of unusual, hard-to-debug errors – but don’t worry, MAAS provides DNS and can work with existing DNS servers.
Installing MAAS from the snap
Snaps are containerised software packages. To install MAAS from a snap simply enter the following:
$ sudo snap install maas --channel=2.8
After entering your password, the snap will download and install from the 2.8 channel – though MAAS needs initialising before it’s ready to go.
Upgrading MAAS from 2.7
If you want to upgrade from a 2.7 snap to 2.8, and you are using a region+rack configuration, use this command:
$ sudo snap refresh --channel=2.8 maas
After entering your password, the snap will refresh from the 2.8 channel. You will not need to re-initialise MAAS.
If you are using a multi-node maas deployment with separate regions and racks, you should first run the upgrade command above for rack nodes, then for region nodes.
MAAS initialisation modes
MAAS supports the following modes, which dictate what services will run on the local system:
| Mode | Region | Rack | Database | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
all* |
X | X | X | Deprecated (see warning below) |
region |
X | Region API server only | ||
rack |
X | Rack controller only | ||
region+rack |
X | X | Region API server and rack controller | |
none |
Reinitialises MAAS and stops services |
The MAAS initialisation mode “all” is deprecated in MAAS version 2.8.0 and will be removed in MAAS version 2.9.0.
Initialising MAAS as a test configuration
We want to provide a more compact version for those who may be testing MAAS. To achieve this, we’re providing a separate snap, called maas-test-db, which provides a PostgreSQL database for use in testing and evaluating MAAS. The following instructions will help you take advantage of this test configuration.
Once MAAS is installed, you can use the --help flag with maas init to get relevant instructions:
$ sudo maas init --help
usage: maas init [-h] {region+rack,region,rack} . . .
Initialise MAAS in the specified run mode.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
run modes:
{region+rack,region,rack}
region+rack Both region and rack controllers
region Region controller only
rack Rack controller only
When installing region or rack+region modes, MAAS needs a
PostgreSQL database to connect to.
If you want to set up PostgreSQL for a non-production deployment on
this machine, and configure it for use with MAAS, you can install
the maas-test-db snap before running 'maas init':
sudo snap install maas-test-db
sudo maas init region+rack --database-uri maas-test-db:///
We’ll quickly walk through these instructions to confirm your understanding. First, install the maas-test-db snap:
sudo snap install maas-test-db
Note that this step installs a a running PostgreSQL and a MAAS-ready database instantiation. When it’s done, you can double check with a built-in PostgreSQL shell:
$ maas-test-db.psql
psql (10.6)
Type "help" for help.
postgres=# \l
This will produce a list of databases, one of which will be maasdb, owned by maas. Note that this database is still empty because MAAS is not yet initialised and, hence, is not yet using the database. Once this is done, you can run the maas init command:
sudo maas init region+rack --database-uri maas-test-db:///
After running for a moment, the command will prompt you for a MAAS URL; typically, you can use the default:
MAAS URL [default=http://10.45.222.159:5240/MAAS]:
When you’ve entered a suitable URL, or accepted the default, the following prompt will appear:
MAAS has been set up.
If you want to configure external authentication or use
MAAS with Canonical RBAC, please run
sudo maas configauth
To create admins when not using external authentication, run
sudo maas createadmin
Let’s assume you just want a local testing user named admin:
$ sudo maas createadmin
Username: admin
Password: ******
Again: ******
Email: admin@example.com
Import SSH keys [] (lp:user-id or gh:user-id): gh:yourusername
At this point, MAAS is basically set up and running. You can confirm this with sudo maas status. If you need an API key, you can obtain this with sudo maas apikey --username yourusername. Now you will be able to test and evaluate MAAS by going to the URL you entered or accepted above and entering your admin username and password.
Configuration verification
After a snap installation of MAAS, you can verify the currently-running configuration with:
sudo maas config
Initialise MAAS for a production configuration
To install MAAS in a production configuration, you need to setup PostgreSQL, as described below.
Setting up PostgreSQL from scratch
To set up PostgreSQL, even if it’s running on a different machine, you can use the following procedure:
-
You will need to install PostgreSQL on the machine where you want to keep the database. This can be the same machine as the MAAS region/rack controllers or a totally separate machine. If PostgreSQL (version 10 or better) is already running on your target machine, you can skip this step. To install PostgreSQL, run these commands:
sudo apt update -y sudo apt install -y postgresql -
You want to make sure you have a suitable PostgreSQL user, which can be accomplished with the following command, where
$MAAS_DBUSERis your desired database username, and$MAAS_DBPASSis the intended password for that username. Note that if you’re executing this step in a LXD container (as root, which is the default), you may get a minor error, but the operation will still complete correctly.sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE USER \"$MAAS_DBUSER\" WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD '$MAAS_DBPASS'" -
Create the MAAS database with the following command, where
$MAAS_DBNAMEis your desired name for the MAAS database (typically known asmaas). Again, if you’re executing this step in a LXD container as root, you can ignore the minor error that results.sudo -u postgres createdb -O "$MAAS_DBUSER" "$MAAS_DBNAME" -
Edit
/etc/postgresql/10/main/pg_hba.confand add a line for the newly created database, replacing the variables with actual names. You can limit access to a specific network by using a different CIDR than0/0.host $MAAS_DBNAME $MAAS_DBUSER 0/0 md5 -
You can then initialise MAAS via the following command:
sudo maas init region+rack --database-uri "postgres://$MAAS_DBUSER:$MAAS_DBPASS@$HOSTNAME/$MAAS_DBNAME"
You should use localhost for $HOSTNAME if you’re running PostgreSQL on the same box as MAAS.
Don’t worry; if you leave out any of the database parameters, you’ll be prompted for those details.
Checking MAAS service status
You can check the status of running services with:
sudo maas status
Typically, the output looks 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
With MAAS installed and initialised, you can now open the web UI in your browser and begin your Configuration journey.
Example of MAAS initialisation
The following demonstrates the region+rack mode, a popular initialisation choice for MAAS:
sudo maas init region+rack
maas will ask for the MAAS URL:
MAAS URL [default=http://10.55.60.1:5240/MAAS]: http://192.168.122.1:5240/MAAS
If you also need to create an admin user, you can use:
sudo maas createadmin
which takes you through the following exchange:
Create first admin account:
Username: admin
Password: ******
Again: ******
Email: admin@example.com
Import SSH keys [] (lp:user-id or gh:user-id): lp:petermatulis
MAAS URL
All run modes (except none) prompt for a MAAS URL, interpreted differently depending on the mode:
-
region: Used to create a new region controller. -
rack: Used to locate the region controller.
Shared secret
The ‘rack’ and ‘region+rack’ modes will additionally ask for a shared secret that will allow the new rack controller to register with the region controller.
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
Additional init options
The init command can takes optional arguments. To list them, as well as read a brief description of each, you can enter:
sudo maas init --help
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 now login here:
http://${API_HOST}:5240/MAAS
where $API_HOST is the hostname or IP address of the region API server, which was set during installation. You will see a screen like this:
Log in at the prompts, with the login information you created when initialising MAAS.
Configuration
After a fresh MAAS installation, the web UI presents a couple of welcome screens. From these screens, you can set many system-wide options, including connectivity, image downloads, and authentication keys.
Your main concerns for this experiment are the DNS forwarder, the Ubuntu image import section, and the SSH public key, though you might want to set the region name to something memorable, since this text will appear at the bottom of every MAAS screen in this install domain. Set the DNS forwarder to something obvious, e.g., 8.8.8.8, Google’s DNS server. Set this to your own internal DNS server if you know the IP address.
Select an Ubuntu image to import, noting that you may be required to select at least one LTS version, depending upon the version of MAAS that snap installed. In this example, we’ve already chosen an image, and downloading is partially complete.
When you click on “Continue,” the screen will shift to a screen labelled, “SSH keys for admin:”
In the source drop-down, select “Launchpad,” “Github,” or “Upload.” If you choose one of the first two, you will need to enter your username for that service. For example, if you want to upload your SSH public key from Launchpad, you would enter:
lp:<username>
Likewise, if you want to upload your github public SSH key, you would enter:
gh:<username>
If you want to use your existing public key from your home directory, you can select “Upload”and then copy your entire public key from .ssh/id_rsa.pub (or wherever you may have stored the key):
and paste it into the block labelled “Public key.” Finally, press the “Import” button to import this key:
With this complete, you’ll see that MAAS has been successfully set up. Click ‘Go to the Dashboard’ to proceed.
Note that you may have to wait a few moments for your selected images to sync locally.
Enabling DHCP
Before moving forward with MAAS, you’ll want to enable DHCP. You can do this very easily from the web UI by selecting “Subnets” from the top menu, choosing the VLAN on which you want to enable DHCP, and select the button marked, “Enable DHCP.”
Networking
The Dashboard landing page lists non-registered devices that MAAS detected automatically on the network. This network discovery process allows you to easily add or map devices already connected to your network – devices that you may not necessarily want to manage with MAAS.