How to deploy MAAS

With your network properly configured, and suitable images selected and downloaded, you’re ready to enlist, commission, and deploy machines. This major section will help you sort out the theoretical aspects and procedures regarding the MAAS machine life-cycle. You can search for the big picture topics, or consult the life-cycle permuted index.

The big picture of deploying machines

Here are some theoretical aspects of machines to consider:

• About controllers: Most of the functionality of MAAS is contained in a series of controllers. There are two basic types: a region controller and one or more rack controllers. The region controller deals with operator requests, while the rack controller(s) provides high-bandwidth services to the individual machines. In essence, the region controller interacts with the user, while the rack controllers manage the bare metal. Knowing how these controllers communicate – and divvy up the workload – can be very useful when operating MAAS.
• About machines: Machines are the heart of MAAS. They are the backbone of your data centre application(s), providing the functions that are relevant to your customers.
• About customising machines: Prior to deployment, MAAS machines can be customised in a number of ways. Machines can also be customised post-deployment, while running, either by changing out the physical hardware, or by altering the VM from the VM host side.
• About VM hosting: 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.

On the other hand, if you need to get machines deployed, you can consult these practical guides:

• How to manage controllers: Managing region and rack controllers – how many and how they’re arranged – is a critical skill for designing and managing larger MAAS instances.
• How to manage machines: Most of the day-to-day work of managing machines is covered here.
• How to deploy machines: The ultimate purpose of MAAS is to enlist, commission, and deploy machines. This article covers these core operations.
• How to customise machines: MAAS provides the capability to customise machines in many different ways: resources, images, pre-deployment scripting, and much more.
• How to manage VM hosts: Virtual machine hosts provide a way to extend machines to users without having large racks of individual machines. This article details the steps required to make this happen with MAAS.
• How to manage VMs: This article covers a few rudimentary procedures for managing generic virtual machines.
• How to use LXD: The LXD container system provides much greater flexibility in deploying virtual machines. LXD and MAAS are separate products, and it’s useful to allow them to interact as equals, covering a much wider range of use cases. This article devotes quite a bit of detailed instruction to this useful topic.

Permuted index