VM hosting (snap/2.7/UI)

MAAS VM hosts allow for the dynamic composition of nodes from a pool of available hardware resources (e.g. disk space, memory, cores). You can create virtual machines (VMs) as needed within the limits of your resources, without concern for physical hardware. MAAS currently supports VM hosts and VMs created via libvirt.

Three questions you may have:

  1. What is a VM host?
  2. How do I set up SSH for use by libvirt?
  3. How do I add a VM host?

VM hosts are particularly useful for Juju integration, allowing for dynamic allocation of VMs with custom interface constraints. Alternatively, if you would like to use MAAS to manage a collection of VMs, the robust web UI allows you to easily create and manage VMs, logically grouped by VM host. Six conspicuous features include:

  1. Juju integration
  2. At-a-glance visual tools for easy resource management
  3. Set overcommit ratios for physical resources such as CPU and RAM
  4. Assign VMs to resource pools to segregate your VMs into logical groupings
  5. Track VM host storage pool usage and assign default storage pools
  6. Create VMs on multiple networks, specified by space, subnet, VLAN, or IP address

What is a VM host?

Simply put, a VM host is a machine which is designated to run virtual machines (VMs). A VM host divides its resources (CPU cores, RAM, storage) among the number of VMs you want to create, based on choices that you make when creating each VM. It is also possible to overcommit resources – that is, use more resources than the VM host actually has available – as long as you use the VMs carefully. Once MAAS has enlisted, commissioned, and acquired a newly-added machine, you can deploy it as a VM host.