maas-devel team mailing list archive

[Julian Edwards <julian.edwards@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is something that we've talked about before but not got around to 
deciding on a solution because we've been kinda busy with the Cobbler removal 
...

We have a chicken and egg problem of adding new workers if we want to automate 
it.  Basically, the new worker would need to discover the MAAS server ("Region 
Controller") and register itself.  To do anything useful, the worker has to 
have an API key for the server so we don't want any old worker coming along 
and getting a key and potentially handling compromised nodes.  Additionally, 
the workers need to be configured with DHCP details.  We can fill most of 
these in automatically but not everything.  Admins will still need to set up 
IP ranges, netmask, etc.

Therefore, I see no option other than to introduce a manual step when adding 
new workers.  I can think of two immediate ways of doing this:

1. Worker uses Avahi to discover the MAAS and enlists itself in much the same 
way as a node does.  We'd then wait for the admin to fill in the blank details 
and accept the worker.

2. Have an "Add Worker" form on the MAAS admin pages where the admin just does 
everything.

Once a worker is fully defined we already have a way for it to receive an API 
key from MAAS, it just needs to be pushed down at the right point.

What are your thoughts on this?  Have I made any bad assumptions?

J