maas-devel team mailing list archive

[Andres Rodriguez <andres.rodriguez@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm happy to announce that MAAS 1.9.0 Alpha 1 has been released for testing.
(For full details please refer to
http://maas.ubuntu.com/docs/changelog.html#alpha1 ).

*Features:*

   - *Native Storage configuration support.*
      - Supports different Layouts (Flat, LVM, Bcache) and Advanced
      Partitioning (RAID). API is currently available only.
      - More information for storage layouts in
      http://maas.ubuntu.com/docs/storage.html


   - *Minimal Config Files*
      - The MAAS Region Controller daemon (maas-regiond) now uses
      /etc/maas/regiond.conf as default configuration file.
      - The MAAS Cluster Controller daemon (maas-clusterd) now uses
      /etc/maas/clusterd.conf as default configuration file.


   - *Python Power Drivers*
      - Currenly supported are APC, MSCM, MSFT OCS, SM15K, UCSM, virsh,
      VMWare, IPMI.
      - Not yet supported are AMT, Fence CDU, Moonshot IPMI based nodes,
      DLI.


   - *Better support for HWE Kernels*.
      - MAAS now allows users to select which kernel they would like to
      deploy the machine with, as well as select a minimum kernel for each
      machine (After upgrade, users will need to refresh their browser cache).
      More information in
      http://maas.ubuntu.com/docs/hardware-enablement-kernels.html

*Known problems and Work Arounds*

   - *Re-commissioning required from VM's with VirtIO devices*

In order for MAAS to correctly map VirtIO devices in VM's, these VM nodes
need to be re-commissioned. If not re-comissioned, MAAS will prevent the
deployment until done so. Previously deployed VM's won't be affected, but
will also have to be re-commissioned if released.


   - Curtin deployment failures


   - Trusty: Failure due to lack of bcache-tools

MAAS will fail to deploy Ubuntu Trusty in any storage layout because curtin
now requires bcache-tools to be available. However, these tools are not yet
available in Ubuntu Trusty, and are in the process of being SRU'd. A work
around can be used by providing a custom version of the tools, by modifying
the curtin preseed. This can be done in /etc/maas/preseeds/curtin_userdata
with [2].

[1]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1449099
[2]: *http://paste.ubuntu.com/12195301/* <http://paste.ubuntu.com/12195301/>


   - Trusty: Failure to deploy with LVM

Due to a curtin bug [3], MAAS will fail to deploy with LVM by default. This
can be changed by changing the Setting of the default deploymet layout to
Flat. This can be done in the MAAS Settings page under the storage section.

*[3]:* *https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1488632
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/curtin/+bug/1488632>*

*Testing*
MAAS 1.9.0 Alpha 1 will be available for testing in:

*ppa:maas/experimental*

Happy Testing!

*NOTE: For those experiencing "WARNING: The following packages cannot be
authenticated!", this is due to Launchpad / PPA's bug LP: #374395
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad/+bug/374395>.*

*Other work in progress*
Please note that there's other work in progress, that is not yet visible,
to enhance some of the features above or to complete some new features that
will be made available as part of 1.9. Current work in progress is:

   - Storage Configure WebUI.
   - Native Networking support and re-factoring (to support VLAN, Bonding,
   Spaces, Fabrics, Subnets).
   - Cloud-init/Curtin Status Updates.

-- 
Andres Rodriguez
Engineering Manager, MAAS & OIL DevOps
Canonical USA, Inc.