How to install MAAS(deb/2.9/UI)
About installing MAAS
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.
MAAS initialisation modes reference
MAAS supports the following modes, which dictate what services will run on the local system:
| Mode | Region | Rack | Database | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 |
About SSH keys
MAAS uses your Launchpad or Github SSH keys to access machines that have been deployed. Normally, you enter this key during the initialisation of MAAS. If you don’t have a key associated with either of these services, you will have an opportunity to paste your public key into the MAAS SSH key list, after you’ve started MAAS for the first time as part of the welcome screens.
About the 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.
About the 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.
How to install MAAS
This article will show you:
- How to check system requirements for MAAS
- How to upgrade from MAAS 2.8 or lower to MAAS 2.9
- How to do a fresh install of MAAS 2.9 from packages
- How to create a MAAS user
- How to check the status of MAAS services
- How to re-initialise MAAS
- How to list additional MAAS initialisation options
- How to configure MAAS
Note that all headings are hyperlinks for bookmarking.
How to check system requirements for MAAS
Before installing MAAS for the first time, you should make sure that the target system meets the minimum hardware requirements.
How to upgrade from MAAS 2.8 or lower to MAAS 2.9
MAAS 2.8 is the last supported version for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Newer versions of MAAS will not be back-portable, and consequently, to upgrade to MAAS 2.9 and all future versions, you will also need to upgrade the base operating system to Ubuntu 20.04. You do these two operations all at once, with the following procedure:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maas/2.9
You will get a message similar to this:
For stable releases of 2.9.x
More info: https://launchpad.net/~maas/+archive/ubuntu/2.9
Press [ENTER] to continue or Ctrl-c to cancel adding it.
Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease
Hit:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net/maas/2.8/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease
Ign:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net/maas/2.9/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease
Err:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/maas/2.9/ubuntu bionic Release
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.95.85 80]
Reading package lists... Done
E: The repository 'http://ppa.launchpad.net/maas/2.9/ubuntu bionic Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
This message seems to indicate that nothing happened, but, in fact, this command still creates the file:
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/maas-ubuntu-2_9-bionic.list
This file identifies the path to the 2.9 PPA, even though it incorrectly implies there’s a Bionic release there:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/maas/2.9/ubuntu bionic main
Still, that’s enough for do-release-upgrade to figure out that there is a 2.9 PPA, and when it checks, it will find a Focal version of MAAS, which it will bring over and install in place of 2.8. It isn’t necessary to stop MAAS or do anything else, except go ahead and run the upgrade:
sudo do-release-upgrade --allow-third-parties
This command will produce a lot of output, ask you a few questions (for which the defaults are usually fine), and eventually ask you to reboot. Once your machine has come back up, you can check whether your upgrade has been successful by entering:
lsb_release -a
If the ugprade was successful, this command should yield output similar to the following:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal
You have now upgraded to the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS base, and if you check your running MAAS install, you should see that the version has been updated to the latest stable 2.9 release.
How to do a fresh install of MAAS 2.9 from packages
The recommended way to set up an initial MAAS environment is to put everything on one machine:
sudo apt-get -y install maas
Executing this command leads you to a list of dependent packages to be installed, and a summary prompt that lets you choose whether to continue with the install:
Choosing “Y” proceeds with a standard apt package install.
Distributed environment
For a more distributed environment, you can place the region controller on one machine:
sudo apt install maas-region-controller
and the rack controller on another:
sudo apt install maas-rack-controller
sudo maas-rack register
These two steps will lead you through two similar apt install sequences.
How to create a MAAS user
You will need to create a MAAS administrator user to access the web UI:
sudo maas createadmin --username=$PROFILE --email=$EMAIL_ADDRESS
$PROFILE is the administrative MAAS username you wish to create. $EMAIL_ADDRESS is an email address you may type in at random (currently, MAAS does not use this email address).
The createadmin option will ask for an SSH key. If you have an SSH key associated with your launchpad or github accounts, you can enter the username here to use the associated key. For launchpad, just enter lp:username, and for github, enter gh:username at the prompt. In both cases, the actual username has to be supplied after the lp: or gh: prefix.
How to check the status of MAAS services
You can check the status of running services with:
sudo maas status
Typically, the output looks something like this:
bind9 RUNNING pid 7999, uptime 0:09:17
dhcpd STOPPED Not started
dhcpd6 STOPPED Not started
ntp RUNNING pid 8598, uptime 0:05:42
postgresql RUNNING pid 8001, uptime 0:09:17
proxy STOPPED Not started
rackd RUNNING pid 8000, uptime 0:09:17
regiond:regiond-0 RUNNING pid 8003, uptime 0:09:17
regiond:regiond-1 RUNNING pid 8008, uptime 0:09:17
regiond:regiond-2 RUNNING pid 8005, uptime 0:09:17
regiond:regiond-3 RUNNING pid 8015, uptime 0:09:17
tgt RUNNING pid 8040, uptime 0:09:15
How to re-initialise MAAS
It is also possible to re-initialise MAAS to switch modes. For example, to switch from rack to region:
sudo maas init region
How to list additional MAAS initialisation options
The init command can takes optional arguments. To list them, as well as read a brief description of each, you can enter:
sudo maas init --help
How to configure MAAS
Once you’ve successfully installed MAAS (regardless of method), you can now login here:
http://${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.
How to enable 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.”
About network discovery
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.
Last updated 7 days ago.