Knowing the components and machine states of MAAS is one thing; understanding how they fit together into a provisioning workflow is another. This cheat sheet is designed to make that process clear.
Install and configure MAAS
Only four steps are required to get MAAS up and running:
- Install MAAS or upgrade an older version.
- Choose whether you want to build a proof-of-concept or jump straight to production.
- Configure MAAS domain name services (DNS) and image acquisition.
- Enable DHCP to provide IP addresses to provisioned machines.
- And don’t forget to back up MAAS once you get it running properly.
Fine-tune MAAS networks
MAAS provides pre-configured versions of DHCP, NTP, STP and DNS for routine operation. If your situation is different, you may want to manage networks to suit your environment:
- Make routine adjustments, like adding default gateways, loopback, bridges, and bonds, or even enable two-NIC interfaces.
- Manage network discovery, which automatically detects connected devices to limit guesswork.
- Manage standard network infrastructure, like subnets, VLANs, local DHCP configuration, and IP addresses.
- Manage network services – like DHCP, DNS and NTP – to match your local and corporate policies.
Provision & manage servers
Manage machines to build and flex data centers with MAAS:
- Discover which devices are already connected and find them again when you need them.
- Add and configure machines, whether bare metal or virtual, and manage their power state.
- Discover and remember server capabilities by commissioning machines.
- Deploy machines to make them productive.
- Create specialty configurations for specific needs and special cases.
- Rescue, recover and recycle machines, including full data erasure.
Group machines for quick categorization & redeployment
Manage machine groups create failover redundancy (availability zones), ensure functional allocation (resource pools), easily track machine capabilities(tags) and track operational status (notes and annotations):
- Set up to create redundant failover for critical systems.
- Assign resource pools to budget provisioning by corporate or data center function.
- Keep track of machine setup and tooling with tags.
- Remember what machines are doing both offline (notes) and when in production (annotations).
Manage deployment OS images
MAAS supports a very wide range of Linux, Windows, and specialty operating systems, so it pays to manage images carefully:
- Set up [image SimpleStreams to keep your standard images up-to-date.
- Use custom and local mirrors to improve download performance.
- Build your own Ubuntu images.
- Build custom images, including RHEL, CentOS, Oracle Linux, VMWare ESXI, Windows, and others.
Keep things running smoothly
Performance, security, and auditing are integrated capabilities of MAAS.
- Manage high availability by managing your region and rack controllers carefully and keeping them tuned.
- Use logging wisely to keep track.
- Monitor MAAS to manage performance and find bottlenecks.
- Enhance MAAS security and manage MAAS users to maintain data and operational security.
Handle specialty situations
Deal with a variety of special cases:
- Deploy real-time or FIPS-compliant kernels.
- Run MAAS in air-gapped mode.
- Script your MAAS instance with Python.
- Deploy virtual machines on an IBM Z series machine.
While some of these steps are either repeated frequently (like provisioning and managing servers), or done on demand (e.g. running MAAS in air-gapped mode), this general workflow will help you drive provisioning in the right direction.
Last updated 20 days ago.