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How to connect MAAS networks

You can easily manage the basic networking elements of MAAS, including subnets, fabrics, VLANs, spaces, IP ranges, machine interfaces, and proxies. This section shows how to access and edit these elements.

This article will help you learn:

How to manage MAAS network elements

This section will show you:

How to enable network discovery

To enable network discovery, enter the following at the command line:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name=network_discovery value="enabled"

If successful, you should receive output similar to:

Success.
Machine-readable output follows:
OK

Network discovery can be disabled or re-enabled at any time with this CLI command.

How to toggle subnet management

To enable or disable subnet management:

maas $PROFILE subnet update $SUBNET_CIDR managed=false|true

For example, to disable subnet management:

maas $PROFILE subnet update 192.168.1.0/24 managed=false

You can use the subnets ID in place of the CIDR address.

How to determine fabric ID

To determine a fabric ID based on a subnet address:

FABRIC_ID=$(maas $PROFILE subnet read $SUBNET_CIDR \
    | grep fabric | cut -d ' ' -f 10 | cut -d '"' -f 2)

This may come in handy when you need a fabric ID for other CLI calls.

How to set a default gateway

To set the default gateway for a subnet:

maas $PROFILE subnet update $SUBNET_CIDR gateway_ip=$MY_GATEWAY

How to set a DNS server

To set the DNS server for a subnet:

maas $PROFILE subnet update $SUBNET_CIDR dns_servers=$MY_NAME SERVER

How to list available subnets

To view the list of available subnets, enter the following command:

maas admin subnets read | \
jq -r '(["FABRIC", "VLAN", "DHCP", "SUBNET"]
| (., map(length*"-"))),
(.[] | [.vlan.fabric, .vlan.name, .vlan.dhcp_on, .cidr])
| @tsv' \
| column -t

which produces output something like this:

FABRIC        VLAN      DHCP       SUBNET
------        ----      ---------  ------
Patient-Care  untagged  true       192.168.123.0/24
fabric-0      untagged  false      0.0.0.0/0
fabric-0      untagged  false      10.0.0.0/24
fabric-1      untagged  false      10.70.132.0/24
fabric-1      untagged  false      fd42:8b52:7114:9ef8::/64
fabric-3      untagged  true       192.168.43.0/24
fabric-3      untagged  true       2600:100d:b125:d5e9::/64
fabric-3      untagged  true       2600:100d:b120:3933::/64
fabric-3      untagged  true       2600:100d:b109:dee0::/64
fabric-3      untagged  true       2600:100d:b104:94c0::/64

How to view subnet details

You can view the details of an individual subnet with the command:

maas $PROFILE subnet read $SUBNET_ID \
| jq -r '(["NAME","CIDR","GATEWAY","DNS","DISCOVERY","FABRIC","VLAN"]
| (., map(length*"-"))), ([.name,.cidr,.gateway_ip // "-", .allow_dns,.active_discovery,.vlan.name,.vlan.fabric]) | @tsv' | column -t

This command retrieves output similar to this:

NAME              CIDR              GATEWAY  DNS   DISCOVERY  FABRIC    VLAN
----              ----              -------  ---   ---------  ------    ----
192.168.123.0/24  192.168.123.0/24  -        true  false      untagged  default

If you don’t know the subnet ID, you can look it up like this:

maas $PROFILE subnets read \
| jq -r '(["NAME", "SUBNET_ID"]
| (., map(length*"-"))), (.[] | [.name, .id]) | @tsv' \
| column -t | grep $SUBNET_NAME

For example, if you’re using the “admin” profile, and your subnet name contains “192.168.123,” you could find the subnet ID with this command:

maas admin subnets read \
| jq -r '(["NAME", "SUBNET_ID"]
| (., map(length*"-"))), (.[] | [.name, .id]) | @tsv' \
| column -t | grep 192.168.123

How to manage static routes between subnets

To create a static route between two subnets, use the following command:

maas admin static-routes create source=$SOURCE_SUBNET destination=$DEST_SUBNET \
gateway_ip=$GATEWAY_IP

How to set up a bridge with MAAS

At various times in your MAAS network, you may need to set up a bridge to connect between your machines and MAAS, as shown in this section.

NOTE: It’s essential to enforce usage of IP addresses to avoid domain name conflicts, should different controllers resolve the same domain name with different IP addresses. You should also avoid using 127.0.0.1 when running multiple controllers, as it would confuse MAAS.

You can use the MAAS CLI/API to configure a bridge via the following procedure:

  1. Select the interface on which you wish to configure the bridge. This example uses the boot interface, since the boot interface must be connected to a MAAS controlled network – but any interface is allowed:

    INTERFACE_ID=$(maas $PROFILE machine read $SYSTEM_ID | jq .boot_interface.id)

  2. Create the bridge:

     BRIDGE_ID=$(maas $PROFILE interfaces create-bridge $SYSTEM_ID name=br0 parent=$INTERFACE_ID | jq .id)

  3. Select the subnet where you want the bridge (this should be a MAAS controlled subnet):

    SUBNET_ID=$(maas $PROFILE subnets read | jq -r '.[] | select(.cidr == "10.0.0.0/24" and .managed == true).id')

  4. Connect the bridge to the subnet:

      maas $PROFILE interface link-subnet $SYSTEM_ID $BRIDGE_ID subnet=$SUBNET_ID mode="STATIC" ip_address="10.0.0.101"

How to set up a bridge with netplan

You can also use netplan to configure a bridge:

  1. Open your netplan configuration file. This should be in /etc/netplan. It could be called 50-cloud-init.yaml, netplan.yaml, or something else.

  2. Modify the file to add a bridge, using the following example as a guide:

network:
    bridges:
        br0:
            addresses:
            - 10.0.0.101/24
            gateway4: 10.0.0.1
            interfaces:
            - enp1s0
            mac address: 52:54:00:39:9d:f9
            mtu: 1500
            name servers:
                addresses:
                - 10.0.0.2
                search:
                - maas
            parameters:
                forward-delay: 15
                stp: false
    Ethernet's:
        enp1s0:
            match:
                mac address: 52:54:00:39:9d:f9
            mtu: 1500
            set-name: enp1s0
        enp2s0:
            match:
                mac address: 52:54:00:df:87:ac
            mtu: 1500
            set-name: enp2s0
        enp3s0:
            match:
                mac address: 52:54:00:a7:ac:46
            mtu: 1500
            set-name: enp3s0
    version: 2
  1. Apply the new configuration with netplan apply.

How to manage machine interfaces

This section will explain the following procedures related to machine interfaces:

How to edit machine interfaces

If you want to edit the IP assignment mode of a network interface, the existing subnet link first needs to be removed.

Begin by finding the interface ID as well as the interface’s subnet link ID with the command:

maas $PROFILE node read $SYSTEM_ID

Once that’s done, proceed to unlink and link:

maas $PROFILE interface unlink-subnet $SYSTEM_ID $INTERFACE_ID id=$SUBNET_LINK_ID
maas $PROFILE interface link-subnet $SYSTEM_ID $INTERFACE_ID mode=$IP_MODE subnet=$SUBNET_CIDR [$OPTIONS]

For instance, to have interface 58, with subnet link 146, on machine exqn37 use DHCP on subnet 192.168.1.0/24:

maas $PROFILE interface unlink-subnet exqn37 58 id=146
maas $PROFILE interface link-subnet exqn37 58 mode=dhcp subnet=192.168.1.0/24

If instead of DHCP, you desire a static address, then the second command would look like this:

maas $PROFILE interface link-subnet exqn37 58 mode=static subnet=192.168.1.0/24 ip_address=192.168.1.113

See Concepts and terms for the definitions of reserved range types.

How to create a bond interface

A bond can be created with the following command:

maas $PROFILE interfaces create-bond $SYSTEM_ID name=$BOND_NAME \
parents=$IFACE1_ID mac_address=$MAC_ADDR \ 
parents=$IFACE2_ID bond_mode=$BOND_MODE \
bond_updelay=$BOND_UP bond_downdelay=$BOND_DOWN mtu=$MTU

Use the parents parameters to define which interfaces form the aggregate interface.

The bond_updelay and bond_downdelay parameters specify the number of milliseconds to wait before either enabling or disabling a follower after a failure has been detected.

The following is an example of create-bond in action:

maas admin interfaces create-bond 4efwb4 name=bond0 parents=4 \
mac_address=52:52:00:00:00:00 parents=15 bond_mode=802.3ad \
bond_updelay=200 bond_downdelay=200 mtu=9000

There are a wide range of bond parameters you can choose when creating a bond:

Parameter Type and description
mac_address Optional string. MAC address of the interface.
tags Optional string. Tags for the interface.
vlan Optional string. VLAN the interface is connected to. If not provided then the interface is considered disconnected.
parents Required integer. Parent interface ids that make this bond.
bond_miimon Optional integer. The link monitoring frequency in milliseconds. (Default: 100).
bond_downdelay Optional integer. Specifies the time, in milliseconds, to wait before disabling a follower after a link failure has been detected.
bond_updelay Optional integer. Specifies the time, in milliseconds, to wait before enabling a follower after a link recovery has been detected.
bond_lacp_rate Optional string. Option specifying the rate at which to ask the link partner to transmit LACPDU packets in 802.3ad mode. Available options are fast or slow. (Default: slow).
bond_xmit_hash_policy Optional string. The transmit hash policy to use for follower selection in balance-xor, 802.3ad, and tlb modes. Possible values are: layer2, layer2+3, layer3+4, encap2+3, encap3+4. (Default: layer2)
bond_num_grat_arp Optional integer. The number of peer notifications (IPv4 ARP or IPv6 Neighbour Advertisements) to be issued after a failover. (Default: 1)
mtu Optional integer. Maximum transmission unit.
accept_ra Optional Boolean. Accept router advertisements. (IPv6 only)
autoconf Optional Boolean. Perform stateless autoconfiguration. (IPv6 only)
bond_mode Optional string. The operating mode of the bond. (Default: active-backup).

Supported bonding modes include:

Mode Behaviour
balance-rr: Transmit packets in sequential order from the first available follower through the last. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.
active-backup Only one follower in the bond is active. A different follower becomes active if, and only if, the active follower fails. The bond’s MAC address is externally visible on only one port (network adaptor) to avoid confusing the switch.
balance-xor Transmit based on the selected transmit hash policy. The default policy is a simple [(source MAC address XOR’d with destination MAC address XOR packet type ID) modulo follower count].
broadcast Transmits everything on all follower interfaces. This mode provides fault tolerance.
802.3ad IEEE 802.3ad dynamic link aggregation. Creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings. Uses all followers in the active aggregator according to the 802.3ad specification.
balance-tlb Adaptive transmit load balancing: channel bonding that does not require any special switch support.
balance-alb Adaptive load balancing: includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic, and does not require any special switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation.

How to create a bridge interface

Please use the UI interface to create a bridge interface. Select the “UI” dropdown above to see how.

How to delete an interface

A bridge interface is created with the following syntax:

maas $PROFILE interfaces create-bridge $SYSTEM_ID name=$BRIDGE_NAME \
parent=$IFACE_ID

Use parent to define the primary interface used for the bridge:

maas admin interfaces create-bridge 4efwb4 name=bridged0 parent=4

The following parameters may be applied when creating a bridge:

The “delete” command can be used to delete a bridge interface, a bond interface or a physical interface:

maas $PROFILE interface delete $SYSTEM_ID $IFACE_ID

For example:

maas admin interface delete 4efwb4 15

The following is output after the successful deletion of an interface:

Success.
Machine-readable output follows:

Note that while the label is presented, there is no machine-readable output expected after the successful execution of the delete command.

How to assign a network interface to a fabric

This task is made easier with the aid of the jq utility. It filters the maas command (JSON formatted) output and prints it in the desired way, which allows you to view and compare data quickly. Go ahead and install it:

sudo apt install jq

In summary, MAAS assigns an interface to a fabric by assigning it to a VLAN. First, we need to gather various bits of data.

List some information on all machines:

maas $PROFILE machines read | jq ".[] | \
    {hostname:.hostname, system_id: .system_id, status:.status}" --compact-output

Example output:

{"hostname":"machine1","system_id":"dfgnnd","status":4}
{"hostname":"machine2","system_id":"bkaf6e","status":6}
{"hostname":"machine4","system_id":"63wqky","status":6}
{"hostname":"machine3","system_id":"qwkmar","status":4}

NOTE: You can only edit an interface when the corresponding machine has a status of ‘Ready’. This state is numerically denoted by the integer ‘4’.

List some information for all interfaces on the machine in question (identified by its system id ‘dfgnnd’):

maas $PROFILE interfaces read dfgnnd | jq ".[] | \
    {id:.id, name:.name, mac:.mac_address, vid:.vlan.vid, fabric:.vlan.fabric}" --compact-output

Example output:

{"id":8,"name":"eth0","mac":"52:54:00:01:01:01","vid":0,"fabric":"fabric-1"}
{"id":9,"name":"eth1","mac":"52:54:00:01:01:02","vid":null,"fabric":null}

List some information for all fabrics:

maas $PROFILE fabrics read | jq ".[] | \
    {name:.name, vlans:.vlans[] | {id:.id, vid:.vid}}" --compact-output

Example output:

{"name":"fabric-0","vlans":{"id":5001,"vid":0}}
{"name":"fabric-1","vlans":{"id":5002,"vid":0}}
{"name":"fabric-2","vlans":{"id":5003,"vid":0}}

This example will show how to move interface ‘8’ (on machine ‘dfgnnd’) from ‘fabric-1’ to ‘fabric-0’. Based on the gathered information, this will consist of changing the interface’s VLAN from ‘5002’ to ‘5001’:

maas $PROFILE interface update dfgnnd 8 vlan=5001 >/dev/null

Verify the operation by relisting information for the machine’s interface:

maas $PROFILE interfaces read dfgnnd | jq ".[] | \
    {id:.id, name:.name, mac:.mac_address, vid:.vlan.vid, fabric:.vlan.fabric}" --compact-output

The output shows that the interface is now on fabric-0:

{"id":8,"name":"eth0","mac":"52:54:00:01:01:01","vid":0,"fabric":"fabric-0"}
{"id":9,"name":"eth1","mac":"52:54:00:01:01:02","vid":null,"fabric":null}

How to discover interface identifiers

The MAAS CLI uses a numeric interface identifier for many interface operations. Use the following command to retrieve the identifier(s):

maas $PROFILE interfaces read $SYSTEM_ID

Look for either id or the number at the end of an interface’s resource URI, such as 15 in the following example output:

"id": 15,
"mac_address": "52:54:00:55:06:40",
...
"name": "ens9",
...
"resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/nodes/4efwb4/interfaces/15/"

How to create a VLAN interface

To create a VLAN interface, use the following syntax:

maas $PROFILE vlans create $FABRIC_ID name=$NAME vid=$VLAN_ID

For example, the following command creates a VLAN called ‘Storage network:

maas admin vlans create 0 name="Storage network" vid=100

The above command generates the following output:

Success.
Machine-readable output follows:
{
    "vid": 100,
    "mtu": 1500,
    "dhcp_on": false,
    "external_dhcp": null,
    "relay_vlan": null,
    "name": "Storage network",
    "space": "undefined",
    "fabric": "fabric-0",
    "id": 5004,
    "primary_rack": null,
    "fabric_id": 0,
    "secondary_rack": null,
    "resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/vlans/5004/"
}

Be aware that the $VLAN_ID parameter does not indicate a VLAN ID that corresponds to the VLAN tag. You must first create the VLAN and then associate it with the interface:

maas $PROFILE interfaces create-vlan $SYSTEM_ID vlan=$OUTPUT_VLAN_ID \
parent=$IFACE_ID

NOTE: OUTPUT_VLAN_ID corresponds to the id value output when MAAS created the VLAN.

The following example contains values that correspond to the output above:

maas admin interfaces create-vlan 4efwb4 vlan=5004 parent=4

The above command generates the following output:

Success.
Machine-readable output follows:
{
    "tags": [],
    "type": "vlan",
    "enabled": true,
    "system_id": "4efwb4",
    "id": 21,
    "children": [],
    "mac_address": "52:54:00:eb:f2:29",
    "params": {},
    "vlan": {
        "vid": 100,
        "mtu": 1500,
        "dhcp_on": false,
        "external_dhcp": null,
        "relay_vlan": null,
        "id": 5004,
        "secondary_rack": null,
        "fabric_id": 0,
        "space": "undefined",
        "fabric": "fabric-0",
        "name": "Storage network",
        "primary_rack": null,
        "resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/vlans/5004/"
    },
    "parents": [
        "ens3"
    ],
    "effective_mtu": 1500,
    "links": [
        {
            "id": 55,
            "mode": "link_up"
        }
    ],
    "discovered": null,
    "name": "ens3.100",
    "resource_uri": "/MAAS/api/2.0/nodes/4efwb4/interfaces/21/"
}

How to delete a VLAN interface

The following command outlines the syntax required to delete a VLAN interface from the command line:

maas $PROFILE vlan delete $FABRIC__ID $VLAN_ID

Using the values from previous examples, you executed this step as follows:

maas admin vlan delete 0 100

How to manage proxies

MAAS provides a way for its managed machines to use a proxy server when they need to access HTTP/HTTPS-based resources, such as the Ubuntu package archive.

There are three possible options:

  1. internal proxy (default)
  2. external proxy
  3. no proxy

Configuring a proxy with MAAS consists of enabling/disabling one of the above three options and enabling/disabling proxying on a specific subnet. This article will help you learn:

About the MAAS internal proxy

MAAS provides an internal proxy server. Although it is set up to work well with APT/package requests, it is effectively an HTTP caching proxy server. If you configure the MAAS region controller as the default gateway for the machines it manages then the proxy will work transparently (on TCP port 3128). Otherwise, machines will need to access it on TCP port 8000.

By default, the proxy is available to all hosts residing in any subnet detected by MAAS, not just MAAS-managed machines. It is therefore recommended to disable access to those subnets that represent untrusted networks.

MAAS manages its proxy. So although the active configuration, located in file /var/snap/maas/current/proxy, can be inspected, it is not to be hand-edited. The proxy is automatically installed with the MAAS snap.

How to create an external proxy

Enabling and disabling proxying, in general, is done via a Boolean option (‘true’ or ‘false’). The following command will disable proxying completely:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name=enable_http_proxy value=false

To set an external proxy, ensure proxying is enabled (see above) and then define it:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name=http_proxy value=$EXTERNAL_PROXY

For example,

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name=enable_http_proxy value=true
maas $PROFILE maas set-config name=http_proxy value=http://squid.example.com:3128/

Enabling and disabling proxying per subnet is done via a Boolean option (‘true’ or ‘false’). Here is how you can disable proxying on a per-subnet basis:

maas $PROFILE subnet update $SUBNET_CIDR allow_proxy=false

For example,

maas $PROFILE subnet update 192.168.0.0/22 allow_proxy=false

NOTE that the proxy service will still be running.

How to set up Network Time Protocol (NTP)

MAAS provides managed NTP services (with Chrony↗) for all region and rack controllers. This arrangement allows MAAS to both keep its controllers synchronised, and keep deployed machines synchronised as well. You can configure NTP on the ‘Network services’ tab of the ‘Settings’ page.

The region controller configures the NTP service to keep its time synchronised from one or more external sources. By default, the MAAS region controller uses ntp.ubuntu.com. Rack controllers also configure the NTP service, synchronising their time with the region controllers. Rack controllers also configure DHCP with the correct NTP information. Any machine on the network that obtains a DHCP lease from MA/snap/3AS will benefit from NTP support.

Setting an external NTP server

External sites, such as an existing NTP infrastructure, can be used directly as a time source for both rack controllers and machines.

You can specify an external NTP server with two successive commands:

maas $PROFILE maas set-config name=ntp_servers value=$NTP_IP_ADDRESS

followed by:

maas admin maas set-config name=ntp_external_only value=true