MAAS 1.8.0
Milestone information
- Active:
- No. Drivers cannot target bugs and blueprints to this milestone.
Activities
- Assigned to you:
- No blueprints or bugs assigned to you.
- Assignees:
- 6 Andres Rodriguez, 60 Blake Rouse, 1 Dimiter Naydenov, 7 Gavin Panella, 19 Mike Pontillo, 2 Newell Jensen, 29 Raphaël Badin, 12 Ricardo Bánffy, 19 Richard McCartney, 9 ubuntudotcom1
- Blueprints:
- No blueprints are targeted to this milestone.
- Bugs:
- 1 Opinion, 4 Invalid, 5 Won't Fix, 217 Fix Released
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Release notes
1.8.0
=====
Important announcements
-------
**Region Controller now running on twisted.**
The MAAS Region Controller is now running as a twisted daemon. It is
no longer dependent on Apache in order to run. The MAAS Region
controller is now controlled by ``maas-regiond`` upstart job or systemd
unit. The ``maas-regiond`` daemon is available in port ``5240``.
**Firewall ports for Region and Cluster controller communication**
The communication between Region and Cluster controller is now limited
to use the ports between ``5250`` and ``5259``. For all of those users who
are using a remote cluster (not running on the same machine as the
MAAS Region Controller), need to ensure that these ports are open in
the firewall.
Major new features
------------------
**Web UI Re-design**
MAAS now includes a newly re-designed Web UI. The new Web UI features
a new design and a lot of usability improvements. Some of the UI new
features include:
* Live Updating
The new UI now allows users to view the current status of the
various nodes of MAAS in real-time and without having to manually
refresh the browser.
* Bulk Actions
Quickly select multiple nodes or devices and perform actions. If
nodes or devices are not in a state where that action can be
performed MAAS will alert you to the machines allowing you to
modify your selection before performing the action.
* Live Searching
View the matching nodes or devices as you search. Just type and the
nodes will start to filter, no reloading or waiting for the page to
load.
* Better Filtering
Easily filter through the list of nodes and devices in MAAS to find
the specific nodes that match your search. Examples:
* All nodes that are Ready and have at least 2 disks::
status:Ready disks:2
* All nodes that are not Ready::
status:!Ready
* All nodes that have Failed to complete an action::
status:Failed
* All nodes that are deployed but their power is off::
status:
* Node & Storage Tag Management
Administrators can now add and remove tags for both Machine and
Storage. This is now possible via the Web UI from the `Node Details`
page.
* Add Chassis
A new `Add Chassis` feature has been added to the UI. This is an
option of `Add Hardware`. This not only allows administrators to
add machines that belong to a single chassis, but also allows
administrators to add Virtual Machines for both KVM and VMWare
based products.
**Support for Devices**
MAAS adds a new concept for a different type of machines, called
`Devices`. `Devices` are machines that MAAS does not fully manage;
this means that MAAS can not power manage nor properly control.
`Devices` are machines in the Network that MAAS can provide network
services for (DHCP/DNS), or can track for inventory.
Administrators can assign three different types of IP Address to a
device:
* `External`, which can be any IP address on the network.
* `Static`, which can be selected manually or automatically, and
belongs to Subnetwork that MAAS can control.
* `Dynamic`, any IP address that is automatically assigned by MAAS
via DHCP. MAAS will automatically create a DNS mapping for any of
the IP addresses belonging to a Device.
**Storage Discovery**
Storage that is attached to a node in MAAS is now a first class
citizen. Easily view and filter nodes based on the number of disks
and the size of each disk attached to a node. Information retrieved
from a storage device includes its name, model, serial, size,
block size, and extra information that is applied to a storage device
as a tag. MAAS will auto tag devices including tags for solid state
device (ssd), rotary, rpm speed, and connected bus.
**Twisted Daemons**
The MAAS Region Controller no longer requires an Apache frontend. It
is still used by default to be backward compatible, but the MAAS
Region Controller is now a standalone Twisted process (the twisted
daemon for the Cluster Controller, ``maas-clusterd``, was introduced
in MAAS 1.7). The MAAS Region Controller is now ``maas-regiond``.
Starting from MAAS 1.8 the Region Controller and Cluster Controller
are noq controlled only by two daemons. (``maas-regiond`` and
``maas-clusterd`` respectively)
**DB Isolation**
Previously PostgreSQL was used in the default READ COMMITTED
transaction isolation mode. It has now been increased to
REPEATABLE READ. PostgreSQL thus provides extra support to ensure
that changes in MAAS are logically consistent, a valuable aid in a
busy distributed system.
**VMware support**
VMware products are now supported in MAAS. This allows MAAS to register
all the Virtual Machines that the VMWare product is running (or a subset
whose name matches a specified prefix), set them up to PXE boot, and
configure them for power management.
This feature requires the ``python-pyvmomi`` package to be installed.
(This is a suggested package, so be sure to use ``--install-
your ``apt-get`` command line when installing the MAAS cluster, or install
it manually.)
The following VMware products have been tested: vSphere Hypervisor 5.5,
ESXi 5.5, and Workstation 11. This feature supports both i386 and amd64
virtual machines.
Minor notable changes
-------
**RPC Communication & Ports**
RPC communication between the Region Controller and the
Cluster Controller has now been limited to use the ports between 5250
and 5259, inclusive.
**Discovered virtual machine names are imported into MAAS**
When using the new `Add Chassis` functionality (or the
``probe_
now use the names defined within the Hypervisor as hostnames in MAAS.
This feature works with KVM (virsh or PowerKVM) and VMWare VMs.
The names of the virtual machines will be converted into valid
hostnames, if possible. For example, if a VM called `Ubuntu 64-bit`
is imported, it will become `ubuntu-64-bit`.
Note that only the hostname portion of the name is used. For example,
if a VM is called `maas1.
name will be used as the node name. (The cluster configuration
determines the remainder of the DNS name.)
**Virtual machine boot order is now set automatically**
When using the new `Add Chassis` functionality (or the
`probe_and_enlist` API) to add KVM or VMware virtual machines, MAAS
will automatically attempt to set each virtual machine’s boot order so
that the network cards (PXE) are attempted first. (This increases the
repeatability of VM deployments, because a VM whose boot order is
incorrectly set may work *once*, but subsequently fail to deploy.)
**Systemd Support**
MAAS now supports systemd, allowing all of the MAAS daemons to run
with Systemd, if the Ubuntu system is running systemd by default
instead Upstart. These daemons include ``maas-regiond``,
``maas-clusterd``, ``maas-dhcpd``, ``maas-dhcpd6``, ``maas-proxy``.
**Upstart & Systemd improvements**
Both Upstart Jobs and Systemd Units now run and supervise various
instances of the ``maas-regiond`` in order to be able to effectively
handle all requests.
Known Problems & Workarounds
-------
**Disk space is not reclaimed when MAAS boot images are superseded**
Whenever new boot images are synced to ``maas-regiond``, new large
objects in the database are created for them, which may replace older
versions of the same image (for the specified version/
combination). Unfortunately, the standard postgresql `autovacuum`
does not remove large objects that are no longer used; a
“full vacuum” is required for this. Therefore, a new command has
been introduced which will run the appropriate postgresql vacuum
command (See bug `1459876`_)::
maas-region-admin db_vacuum_lobjects
This command should be run with care (ideally, during a scheduled
maintenance period), since it could take a long time (on the order
of minutes) if there are a large number of superseded images.
.. _1459876:
https:/
**MAAS logs to maas.log.1 instead of maas.log**
The `/var/log/
rotated in the form of `maas.log.1`, `maas.log.2.gz`, etc. In one
situation it has been seen that `maas.log` is empty, and rsyslog
was sending logs to `maas.log.1` instead. This has been identified
as an issue in rsyslog rather than maas. See bug `1460678`_.
.. _1460678:
https:/
Changelog
This release does not have a changelog.