MAAS supports deploying custom OS images. Canonical provides both lp:maas-image-builder↗ and gh:canonical/packer-maas↗ to support creating custom images. These custom images can include static Ubuntu images, created with whatever tool you choose, as well as other OS images. Note that MAAS Image Builder requires the purchase of Ubuntu Advantage support.
NOTE: While it may be possible to deploy a certain image with MAAS, the particular use case may not be supported by that image’s vendor due to licensing or technical reasons. Canonical recommends that, whenever possible, you should customise machines using cloud-init user_data or Curtin preseed data, instead of creating a custom image.
There are two methods for building custom images to be deployed to MAAS machines: MAAS Image Builder, and packer↗. This section will help you learn:
How to verify packer prequisites
The following are required to to create a packer MAAS image:
↗As an example for this article, we will be building a custom Ubuntu image from the default template, which has the following prerequisites:
Note that these requirements may vary by template and target image.
How to verify packer deployment requirements
The following are required to deploy a packer MAAS image:
It is possible to customize the image either during the Ubuntu installation, or afterwards (before packing the final image). The former is done by providing autoinstall config↗, editing the user-data-flat and user-data-lvm files. The latter is performed by the install-custom-packages script.
How to build images via a proxy
The Packer template downloads the Ubuntu net installer from the Internet. To tell Packer to use a proxy, set the HTTP_PROXY environment variable to your proxy server. Alternatively, you may redefine iso_url to a local file, set iso_checksum_type to none to disable the checksums, and remove iso_checksum_url.
How to use packer to build MAAS images
Packer↗ can be used to build images to be deployed by MAAS. In order to use packer, you must have a packer template↗ for the OS version you intend to build.
Currently, templates are available for:
This section will help you learn:
Note that additional templates will be made available from time to time.
Packer is easily installed from its Debian package:
sudo apt install packer
For this example Ubuntu template, the following dependencies should also be installed – but note that these dependencies may vary by template and/or target image:
sudo apt install qemu-utils
sudo apt install qemu-system
sudo apt install ovmf
sudo apt install cloud-image-utils
All of these should install without additional prompts.
You can obtain the packer templates by cloning the packer-maas github repository↗, like this:
git clone https://github.com/canonical/packer-maas.git
Make sure to pay attention to where the repository is cloned. The Packer template in this cloned repository creates a Ubuntu AMD64 image for use with MAAS.
How to create and use packer images
This subsection will help you learn:
How to build a packer raw image
To build a packer image, you must change to the template repository directory, then to the subdirectory for the image you want to build. From that subdirectory, you can easily build a raw image with LVM, using the Makefile:
$ make custom-ubuntu-lvm.dd.gz
This makefile will run for a couple of minutes before attempting to boot the image. While waiting for the image to boot, packer will attempt to SSH into the machine repeatedly until it succeeds. You will see terminal messages similar to this one for upwards of three to five minutes:
2022/05/09 15:50:46 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] handshaking with SSH
2022/05/09 15:50:50 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] SSH handshake err: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none password], no supported methods remain
2022/05/09 15:50:50 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] Detected authentication error. Increasing handshake attempts.
Eventually, you should see a successful SSH connection:
2022/05/09 15:50:57 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [INFO] Attempting SSH connection to 127.0.0.1:2351...
2022/05/09 15:50:57 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] reconnecting to TCP connection for SSH
2022/05/09 15:50:57 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] handshaking with SSH
2022/05/09 15:51:17 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] handshake complete!
If the process seems to run for a long time, you can predict whether it’s going to work by doing a series of netstat -a on the IP:port given in the connection attempt. Attempts may fail repeatedly, but if you repeat the netstat -a command frequently, you will see some tentative connections, like this one:
stormrider@neuromancer:~$ netstat -a | grep 2281
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2281 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost:46142 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46120 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46138 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46134 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46130 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46124 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
stormrider@neuromancer:~$ netstat -a | grep 2281
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2281 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost:46142 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46146 localhost:2281 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 localhost:2281 localhost:46146 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 localhost:46138 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46134 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46130 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46124 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
This ESTABLISHED connection may not hold the first few times, but eventually, the SSH connection will be made, and the provisioning process will finish. If you want to walk away and come back, be advised that the Makefile clears the terminal buffer at the end, but echoes one final instruction:
rm OVMF_VARS.fd
You can check the validity of the operation with ls, like this:
stormrider@neuromancer:~/mnt/Dropbox/src/git/packer-maas/ubuntu$ ls
custom-ubuntu-lvm.dd.gz packages seeds-lvm.iso user-data-lvm
http packer_cache ubuntu-flat.json
Makefile README.md ubuntu-lvm.json
meta-data scripts user-data-flat
You can also manually run packer. Your current working directory must be in the subdirectory where the packer template is located. In the case of this example, that’s packer-maas/ubuntu. Once in packer-maas/ubuntu, you can generate an image with the following command sequence:
$ sudo PACKER_LOG=1 packer build ubuntu-lvm.json
NOTE: ubuntu-lvm.json is configured to run Packer in headless mode. Only Packer output will be seen. If you wish to see the installation output connect to the VNC port given in the Packer output, or change the value of headless to false in the JSON file.
This process is non-interactive.
How to upload packer images to MAAS
You can upload a packer image with the following command:
$ maas admin boot-resources create \
name='custom/ubuntu-raw' \
title='Ubuntu Custom RAW' \
architecture='amd64/generic' \
filetype='ddgz' \
content@=custom-ubuntu-lvm.dd.gz
Before relying on it in production, you should test your custom image by deploying it to a test (virtual) machine. It’s the machine named open-gannet in this listing:
maas admin machines read | jq -r '(["HOSTNAME","SYSID","POWER","STATUS",
"OWNER", "OS", "DISTRO"] | (., map(length*"-"))),
(.[] | [.hostname, .system_id, .power_state, .status_name, .owner // "-",
.osystem, .distro_series]) | @tsv' | column -t
HOSTNAME SYSID POWER STATUS OWNER OS DISTRO
-------- ----- ----- ------ ----- -- ------
valued-moth e86c7h on Deployed admin ubuntu focal
open-gannet nk7x8y on Deployed admin custom ubuntu-raw
About the default image username
The default username for packer-created images is ubuntu, the same as the default username for other MAAS images.
How to pack an Ubuntu image for MAAS deployment
Here’s how to build a deployable Ubuntu image with packer:
Packer is easily installed from its Debian package:
sudo apt install packer
This should install with no additional prompts.
sudo apt install qemu-utils
sudo apt install qemu-system
sudo apt install ovmf
sudo apt install cloud-image-utils
All of these should install with no additional prompts.
You can obtain the packer templates by cloning the packer-maas github repository↗, like this:
git clone https://github.com/canonical/packer-maas.git
Make sure to pay attention to where the repository is cloned. The Packer template in this cloned repository creates a Ubuntu AMD64 image for use with MAAS.
To build a packer image, you must change to the template repository directory, then to the subdirectory for the image you want to build. From that subdirectory, you can easily build a raw image with LVM, using the Makefile:
$ make custom-ubuntu-lvm.dd.gz
This makefile will run for a couple of minutes before attempting to boot the image. While waiting for the image to boot, packer will attempt to SSH into the machine repeatedly until it succeeds. You will see terminal messages similar to this one for upwards of three to five minutes:
2022/05/09 15:50:46 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] handshaking with SSH
2022/05/09 15:50:50 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] SSH handshake err: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none password], no supported methods remain
2022/05/09 15:50:50 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] Detected authentication error. Increasing handshake attempts.
Eventually, you should see a successful SSH connection:
2022/05/09 15:50:57 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [INFO] Attempting SSH connection to 127.0.0.1:2351...
2022/05/09 15:50:57 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] reconnecting to TCP connection for SSH
2022/05/09 15:50:57 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] handshaking with SSH
2022/05/09 15:51:17 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [DEBUG] handshake complete!
If the process seems to run for a long time, you can predict whether it’s going to work by doing a series of netstat -a on the IP:port given in the connection attempt. Attempts may fail repeatedly, but if you repeat the netstat -a command frequently, you will see some tentative connections, like this one:
stormrider@neuromancer:~$ netstat -a | grep 2281
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2281 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost:46142 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46120 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46138 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46134 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46130 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46124 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
stormrider@neuromancer:~$ netstat -a | grep 2281
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2281 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost:46142 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46146 localhost:2281 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 localhost:2281 localhost:46146 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 localhost:46138 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46134 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46130 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46124 localhost:2281 TIME_WAIT
This ESTABLISHED connection may not hold the first few times, but eventually, the SSH connection will be made, and the provisioning process will finish. If you want to walk away and come back, be advised that the Makefile clears the terminal buffer at the end, but echoes one final instruction:
rm OVMF_VARS.fd
You can check the validity of the operation with ls, like this:
stormrider@neuromancer:~/mnt/Dropbox/src/git/packer-maas/ubuntu$ ls
custom-ubuntu-lvm.dd.gz packages seeds-lvm.iso user-data-lvm
http packer_cache ubuntu-flat.json
Makefile README.md ubuntu-lvm.json
meta-data scripts user-data-flat
You can also manually run packer. Your current working directory must be in the subdirectory where the packer template is located. In the case of this example, that’s packer-maas/ubuntu. Once in packer-maas/ubuntu, you can generate an image with the following command sequence:
$ sudo PACKER_LOG=1 packer build ubuntu-lvm.json
NOTE: ubuntu-lvm.json is configured to run Packer in headless mode. Only Packer output will be seen. If you wish to see the installation output connect to the VNC port given in the Packer output, or change the value of headless to false in the JSON file.
This process is non-interactive.
You can upload an Ubuntu raw packer image with the following command:
$ maas admin boot-resources create \
name='custom/ubuntu-raw' \
title='Ubuntu Custom RAW' \
architecture='amd64/generic' \
filetype='ddgz' \
content@=custom-ubuntu-lvm.dd.gz
Before relying on it in production, you should test your custom image by deploying it to a test (virtual) machine. It’s the machine named open-gannet in this listing:
maas admin machines read | jq -r '(["HOSTNAME","SYSID","POWER","STATUS",
"OWNER", "OS", "DISTRO"] | (., map(length*"-"))),
(.[] | [.hostname, .system_id, .power_state, .status_name, .owner // "-",
.osystem, .distro_series]) | @tsv' | column -t
HOSTNAME SYSID POWER STATUS OWNER OS DISTRO
-------- ----- ----- ------ ----- -- ------
valued-moth e86c7h on Deployed admin ubuntu focal
open-gannet nk7x8y on Deployed admin custom ubuntu-raw
You should log into your newly-deployed image and verify that it has all the customisations you added to the build process. The default username for packer-created images is ubuntu, the same as the default username for other MAAS images.
How to pack a RHEL7 image for MAAS deployment
You can create a RHEL7 image for MAAS deployment via the following procedure.
To create a RHEL7 image to upload to MAAS, you must have a machine running Ubuntu 18.04+ or higher with the ability to run KVM virtual machines. You must also aquire the following items, as described in later instructions:
To deploy the image to MAAS, you must also have:
Packer is easily installed from its Debian package:
sudo apt install packer
This should install with no additional prompts.
sudo apt install qemu-utils
You can obtain the packer templates by cloning the packer-maas github repository↗, like this:
git clone https://github.com/canonical/packer-maas.git
Make sure to pay attention to where the repository is cloned. The Packer template in this cloned repository creates a RHEL7 AMD64 image for use with MAAS.
This package should install with no additional prompts.
The packer template in the directory rhel7 subdirectory creates a RHEL 7 AMD64 image for use with MAAS.
Download the RHEL7 DVD ISO↗ to your rhel7 subdirectory.
NOTE: You may have to scroll down the page at the above link to find the RHEL7 version. Be sure you are getting the ISO image (a much larger file) and not the bootstrap file.
The deployment image may be customized by modifying http/rhel7.ks. See the CentOS kickstart documentation for more information.
The Packer template pulls all packages from the DVD except for Canonical’s cloud-init repository. To use a proxy during the installation add the –proxy=$HTTP_PROXY flag to every line starting with url or repo in http/rhel7.ks. Alternatively you may set the –mirrorlist values to a local mirror.
You can easily build the image using the Makefile:
$ make ISO=/PATH/TO/rhel-server-7.9-x86_64-dvd.iso
Almost immediately, the terminal will prompt you for your user password (to access sudo rights). Then, for a few minutes, you will encounter a stream qemu text similar to this:
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu path: /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64, Qemu Image page: /usr/bin/qemu-img
==> qemu: Retrieving ISO
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Leaving retrieve loop for ISO
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: No floppy files specified. Floppy disk will not be made.
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: No CD files specified. CD disk will not be made.
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [INFO] Creating disk with Path: output-qemu/packer-qemu and Size: 4G
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Executing qemu-img: []string{"create", "-f", "qcow2", "output-qemu/packer-qemu", "4G"}
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: stdout: Formatting 'output-qemu/packer-qemu', fmt=qcow2 cluster_size=65536 extended_l2=off compression_type=zlib size=4294967296 lazy_refcounts=off refcount_bits=16
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: stderr:
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Found available port: 8144 on IP: 0.0.0.0
==> qemu: Starting HTTP server on port 8144
qemu: No communicator is set; skipping port forwarding setup.
==> qemu: Looking for available port between 5900 and 6000 on 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Looking for available port between 5900 and 6000 on 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Found available port: 5970 on IP: 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Found available VNC port: 5970 on IP: 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu --version output: QEMU emulator version 6.2.0 (Debian 1:6.2+dfsg-2ubuntu6)
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Copyright (c) 2003-2021 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu version: 6.2.0
==> qemu: Starting VM, booting from CD-ROM
qemu: view the screen of the VM, connect via VNC without a password to
qemu: vnc://127.0.0.1:70
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu Builder has no floppy files, not attaching a floppy.
qemu: The VM will be run headless, without a GUI. If you want to
qemu: view the screen of the VM, connect via VNC without a password to
qemu: vnc://127.0.0.1:70
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Executing /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64: []string{"-netdev", "user,id=user.0", "-vnc", "127.0.0.1:70", "-serial", "stdio", "-device", "virtio-net,netdev=user.0", "-drive", "file=output-qemu/packer-qemu,if=virtio,cache=writeback,discard=ignore,format=qcow2", "-drive", "file=/home/stormrider/mnt/Dropbox/src/git/packer-maas/...
==> qemu: Overriding default Qemu arguments with qemuargs template option...
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Started Qemu. Pid: 7970
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stderr: qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: CPUID.80000001H:ECX.svm [bit 2]
==> qemu: Waiting 3s for boot...
==> qemu: Connecting to VM via VNC (127.0.0.1:5970)
2022/06/07 13:28:05 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Connected to VNC desktop: QEMU (packer-qemu)
==> qemu: Typing the boot command over VNC...
2022/06/07 13:28:05 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Special code '<up>' found, replacing with: 0xFF52
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Special code '<tab>' found, replacing with: 0xFF09
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char ' ', code 0x20, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 'i', code 0x69, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 'n', code 0x6E, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 's', code 0x73, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:07 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 't', code 0x74, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:07 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char '.', code 0x2E, shift false
Eventually, the screen will clear and you will see an anaconda window. Anaconda is the RedHat installer tool, which is preparing your custom image:
7) [x] Network configuration 8) [ ] User creation
(Wired (ens3) connected) (No user will be created)
2022/06/07 13:29:19 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
================================================================================
================================================================================
Progress07 13:29:19 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:19 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
.022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Setting up the installation environment
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Setting up com_redhat_kdump addon
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Setting up org_fedora_oscap addon
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: ..
2022/06/07 13:29:23 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Configuring storage
...2/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
Running pre-installation scriptser-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
.022/06/07 13:29:23 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
Running pre-installation taskslder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
...2/06/07 13:29:24 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:24 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Installing.
2022/06/07 13:29:25 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Starting package installation process
Downloading packagespacker-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:29 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
[anaconda]1:main* 2:shell 3:log 4:storage-log >Switch tab: Alt+Tab | Help: F1 :shell 3:log 4:sto><'echo -n "Switch tab: Alt+Tab | Help: F
Anaconda will run for three to five minutes. When it finishes, it will clear the screen and return you to the shell prompt.
Alternatively, you can manually run packer. Your current working directory must be in packer-maas/rhel7, where this file is located. Once in packer-maas/rhel7, you can generate an image with:
$ sudo PACKER_LOG=1 packer build -var 'rhel7_iso_path=/PATH/TO/rhel-server-7.9-x86_64-dvd.iso' rhel7.json
NOTE:
rhel7.json is configured to run Packer in headless mode. Only Packer output will be seen. If you wish to see the installation output, connect to the VNC port given in the Packer output or change the value of headless to false in rhel7.json.
You can upload the RHEL7 raw packer image with the following command:
$ maas $PROFILE boot-resources create
name='rhel/7-custom' title='RHEL 7 Custom' architecture='amd64/generic' filetype='tgz' content@=rhel7.tar.gz
Before relying on it in production, you should test your custom image by deploying it to a test (virtual) machine. It’s the machine named open-gannet in this listing:
maas admin machines read | jq -r '(["HOSTNAME","SYSID","POWER","STATUS",
"OWNER", "OS", "DISTRO"] | (., map(length*"-"))),
(.[] | [.hostname, .system_id, .power_state, .status_name, .owner // "-",
.osystem, .distro_series]) | @tsv' | column -t
HOSTNAME SYSID POWER STATUS OWNER OS DISTRO
-------- ----- ----- ------ ----- -- ------
valued-moth e86c7h on Deployed admin ubuntu focal
open-gannet nk7x8y on Deployed admin custom rhel7-raw
You should log into your newly-deployed image and verify that it has all the customisations you added to the build process. The default username for packer-created RHEL images is cloud-user.
How to pack a RHEL8 image for MAAS deployment
You can create a RHEL8 image for MAAS deployment via the following procedure.
To create a RHEL8 image to upload to MAAS, you must have a machine running Ubuntu 18.04+ or higher with the ability to run KVM virtual machines. You must also aquire the following items, as described in later instructions:
To deploy the image to MAAS, you must also have:
Packer is easily installed from its Debian package:
sudo apt install packer
This should install with no additional prompts.
sudo apt install qemu-utils
You can obtain the packer templates by cloning the packer-maas github repository↗, like this:
git clone https://github.com/canonical/packer-maas.git
Make sure to pay attention to where the repository is cloned. The Packer template in this cloned repository creates a RHEL8 AMD64 image for use with MAAS.
This package should install with no additional prompts.
The packer template in the directory rhel8 subdirectory creates a RHEL 8 AMD64 image for use with MAAS.
Download the RHEL8 DVD ISO↗ to your rhel8 subdirectory.
NOTE: You may have to scroll down the page at the above link to find the RHEL8 version. Be sure you are getting the ISO image (a much larger file) and not the bootstrap file.
The deployment image may be customized by modifying http/rhel8.ks. See the CentOS kickstart documentation for more information.
The Packer template pulls all packages from the DVD except for Canonical’s cloud-init repository. To use a proxy during the installation add the –proxy=$HTTP_PROXY flag to every line starting with url or repo in http/rhel8.ks. Alternatively you may set the –mirrorlist values to a local mirror.
You can easily build the image using the Makefile:
$ make ISO=/PATH/TO/rhel-server-8.6-x86_64-dvd.iso
Almost immediately, the terminal will prompt you for your user password (to access sudo rights). Then, for a few minutes, you will encounter a stream qemu text similar to this:
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu path: /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64, Qemu Image page: /usr/bin/qemu-img
==> qemu: Retrieving ISO
==> qemu: Trying ./rhel-8.6-x86_64-dvd.iso
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Acquiring lock for: ./rhel-8.6-x86_64-dvd.iso (/home/stormrider/mnt/Dropbox/src/git/packer-maas/rhel8/packer_cache/4142f50427ed611570687aee099b796c00359ae6.iso.lock)
==> qemu: Trying ./rhel-8.6-x86_64-dvd.iso
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Leaving retrieve loop for ISO
==> qemu: ./rhel-8.6-x86_64-dvd.iso => /home/stormrider/mnt/Dropbox/src/git/packer-maas/rhel8/rhel-8.6-x86_64-dvd.iso
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: No floppy files specified. Floppy disk will not be made.
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: No CD files specified. CD disk will not be made.
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [INFO] Creating disk with Path: output-qemu/packer-qemu and Size: 4G
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Executing qemu-img: []string{"create", "-f", "qcow2", "output-qemu/packer-qemu", "4G"}
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: stdout: Formatting 'output-qemu/packer-qemu', fmt=qcow2 cluster_size=65536 extended_l2=off compression_type=zlib size=4294967296 lazy_refcounts=off refcount_bits=16
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: stderr:
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Found available port: 8144 on IP: 0.0.0.0
==> qemu: Starting HTTP server on port 8144
qemu: No communicator is set; skipping port forwarding setup.
==> qemu: Looking for available port between 5900 and 6000 on 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Looking for available port between 5900 and 6000 on 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Found available port: 5970 on IP: 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Found available VNC port: 5970 on IP: 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu --version output: QEMU emulator version 6.2.0 (Debian 1:6.2+dfsg-2ubuntu6)
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Copyright (c) 2003-2021 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu version: 6.2.0
==> qemu: Starting VM, booting from CD-ROM
qemu: view the screen of the VM, connect via VNC without a password to
qemu: vnc://127.0.0.1:70
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu Builder has no floppy files, not attaching a floppy.
qemu: The VM will be run headless, without a GUI. If you want to
qemu: view the screen of the VM, connect via VNC without a password to
qemu: vnc://127.0.0.1:70
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Executing /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64: []string{"-netdev", "user,id=user.0", "-vnc", "127.0.0.1:70", "-serial", "stdio", "-device", "virtio-net,netdev=user.0", "-drive", "file=output-qemu/packer-qemu,if=virtio,cache=writeback,discard=ignore,format=qcow2", "-drive", "file=/home/stormrider/mnt/Dropbox/src/git/packer-maas/rhel8/rhel-8.6-x86_64-dvd.iso,media=cdrom", "-boot", "once=d", "-name", "packer-qemu", "-machine", "type=pc,accel=kvm", "-m", "2048M"}
==> qemu: Overriding default Qemu arguments with qemuargs template option...
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Started Qemu. Pid: 7970
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stderr: qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: CPUID.80000001H:ECX.svm [bit 2]
==> qemu: Waiting 3s for boot...
==> qemu: Connecting to VM via VNC (127.0.0.1:5970)
2022/06/07 13:28:05 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Connected to VNC desktop: QEMU (packer-qemu)
==> qemu: Typing the boot command over VNC...
2022/06/07 13:28:05 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Special code '<up>' found, replacing with: 0xFF52
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Special code '<tab>' found, replacing with: 0xFF09
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char ' ', code 0x20, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 'i', code 0x69, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 'n', code 0x6E, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 's', code 0x73, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:07 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 't', code 0x74, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:07 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char '.', code 0x2E, shift false
Eventually, the screen will clear and you will see an anaconda window. Anaconda is the RedHat installer tool, which is preparing your custom image:
7) [x] Network configuration 8) [ ] User creation
(Wired (ens3) connected) (No user will be created)
2022/06/07 13:29:19 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
================================================================================
================================================================================
Progress07 13:29:19 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:19 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
.022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Setting up the installation environment
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Setting up com_redhat_kdump addon
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Setting up org_fedora_oscap addon
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: ..
2022/06/07 13:29:23 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Configuring storage
...2/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
Running pre-installation scriptser-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
.022/06/07 13:29:23 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
Running pre-installation taskslder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
...2/06/07 13:29:24 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:24 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Installing.
2022/06/07 13:29:25 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Starting package installation process
Downloading packagespacker-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:29 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
[anaconda]1:main* 2:shell 3:log 4:storage-log >Switch tab: Alt+Tab | Help: F1 :shell 3:log 4:sto><'echo -n "Switch tab: Alt+Tab | Help: F
Anaconda will run for three to five minutes. When it finishes, it will clear the screen and return you to the shell prompt.
Alternatively, you can manually run packer. Your current working directory must be in packer-maas/rhel8, where this file is located. Once in packer-maas/rhel8, you can generate an image with:
$ sudo PACKER_LOG=1 packer build -var 'rhel8_iso_path=/PATH/TO/rhel-server-8.6-x86_64-dvd.iso' rhel8.json
NOTE:
rhel8.json is configured to run Packer in headless mode. Only Packer output will be seen. If you wish to see the installation output, connect to the VNC port given in the Packer output or change the value of headless to false in rhel8.json.
You can upload the RHEL8 raw packer image with the following command:
$ maas $PROFILE boot-resources create
name='rhel/8-custom' title='RHEL 8 Custom' architecture='amd64/generic' filetype='tgz' content@=rhel8.tar.gz
Before relying on it in production, you should test your custom image by deploying it to a test (virtual) machine. It’s the machine named open-gannet in this listing:
maas admin machines read | jq -r '(["HOSTNAME","SYSID","POWER","STATUS",
"OWNER", "OS", "DISTRO"] | (., map(length*"-"))),
(.[] | [.hostname, .system_id, .power_state, .status_name, .owner // "-",
.osystem, .distro_series]) | @tsv' | column -t
HOSTNAME SYSID POWER STATUS OWNER OS DISTRO
-------- ----- ----- ------ ----- -- ------
valued-moth e86c7h on Deployed admin ubuntu focal
open-gannet nk7x8y on Deployed admin custom rhel8-raw
You should log into your newly-deployed image and verify that it has all the customisations you added to the build process. The default username for packer-created RHEL images is cloud-user.
How to pack a CentOS 7 image for MAAS deployment
You can create a CentOS 7 image for MAAS deployment via the following procedure.
To create a CentOS 7 image to upload to MAAS, you must have a machine running Ubuntu 18.04+ or higher with the ability to run KVM virtual machines. You must also aquire the following items, as described in later instructions:
Note that a suitable CentOS 7 image is downloaded as part of the template.
To deploy the image to MAAS, you must also have:
Packer is easily installed from its Debian package:
sudo apt install packer
This should install with no additional prompts.
sudo apt install qemu-utils
You can obtain the packer templates by cloning the packer-maas github repository↗, like this:
git clone https://github.com/canonical/packer-maas.git
Make sure to pay attention to where the repository is cloned. The Packer template in this cloned repository creates a CentOS 7 AMD64 image for use with MAAS.
This package should install with no additional prompts.
The packer template in the directory centos7 subdirectory creates a CentOS 7 AMD64 image for use with MAAS.
The deployment image may be customized by modifying http/centos7.ks. See the CentOS kickstart documentation for more information.
The Packer template downloads the CentOS net installer from the Internet. To tell Packer to use a proxy set the HTTP_PROXY environment variable to your proxy server. Alternatively you may redefine iso_url to a local file, set iso_checksum_type to none to disable checksuming, and remove iso_checksum_url.
To use a proxy during the installation add the –proxy=$HTTP_PROXY flag to every line starting with url or repo in http/centos7.ks. Alternatively you may set the –mirrorlist values to a local mirror.
You can easily build the image using the Makefile:
$ make
For a few minutes, you will encounter a stream qemu text similar to this:
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu path: /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64, Qemu Image page: /usr/bin/qemu-img
==> qemu: Retrieving ISO
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Leaving retrieve loop for ISO
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: No floppy files specified. Floppy disk will not be made.
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: No CD files specified. CD disk will not be made.
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: [INFO] Creating disk with Path: output-qemu/packer-qemu and Size: 4G
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Executing qemu-img: []string{"create", "-f", "qcow2", "output-qemu/packer-qemu", "4G"}
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: stdout: Formatting 'output-qemu/packer-qemu', fmt=qcow2 cluster_size=65536 extended_l2=off compression_type=zlib size=4294967296 lazy_refcounts=off refcount_bits=16
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: stderr:
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Found available port: 8144 on IP: 0.0.0.0
==> qemu: Starting HTTP server on port 8144
qemu: No communicator is set; skipping port forwarding setup.
==> qemu: Looking for available port between 5900 and 6000 on 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Looking for available port between 5900 and 6000 on 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Found available port: 5970 on IP: 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Found available VNC port: 5970 on IP: 127.0.0.1
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu --version output: QEMU emulator version 6.2.0 (Debian 1:6.2+dfsg-2ubuntu6)
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Copyright (c) 2003-2021 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu version: 6.2.0
==> qemu: Starting VM, booting from CD-ROM
qemu: view the screen of the VM, connect via VNC without a password to
qemu: vnc://127.0.0.1:70
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu Builder has no floppy files, not attaching a floppy.
qemu: The VM will be run headless, without a GUI. If you want to
qemu: view the screen of the VM, connect via VNC without a password to
qemu: vnc://127.0.0.1:70
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Executing /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64: []string{"-netdev", "user,id=user.0", "-vnc", "127.0.0.1:70", "-serial", "stdio", "-device", "virtio-net,netdev=user.0", "-drive", "file=output-qemu/packer-qemu,if=virtio,cache=writeback,discard=ignore,format=qcow2", "-drive", "file=/home/stormrider/mnt/Dropbox/src/git/packer-maas/...
==> qemu: Overriding default Qemu arguments with qemuargs template option...
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Started Qemu. Pid: 7970
2022/06/07 13:28:00 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stderr: qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: CPUID.80000001H:ECX.svm [bit 2]
==> qemu: Waiting 3s for boot...
==> qemu: Connecting to VM via VNC (127.0.0.1:5970)
2022/06/07 13:28:05 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Connected to VNC desktop: QEMU (packer-qemu)
==> qemu: Typing the boot command over VNC...
2022/06/07 13:28:05 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Special code '<up>' found, replacing with: 0xFF52
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Special code '<tab>' found, replacing with: 0xFF09
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char ' ', code 0x20, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 'i', code 0x69, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 'n', code 0x6E, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:06 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 's', code 0x73, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:07 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char 't', code 0x74, shift false
2022/06/07 13:28:07 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Sending char '.', code 0x2E, shift false
Eventually, the screen will clear and you will see an anaconda window. Anaconda is the RedHat installer tool, which is preparing your custom image:
7) [x] Network configuration 8) [ ] User creation
(Wired (ens3) connected) (No user will be created)
2022/06/07 13:29:19 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
================================================================================
================================================================================
Progress07 13:29:19 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:19 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
.022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Setting up the installation environment
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Setting up com_redhat_kdump addon
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Setting up org_fedora_oscap addon
2022/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: ..
2022/06/07 13:29:23 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Configuring storage
...2/06/07 13:29:20 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
Running pre-installation scriptser-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
.022/06/07 13:29:23 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
Running pre-installation taskslder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
...2/06/07 13:29:24 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:24 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Installing.
2022/06/07 13:29:25 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout: Starting package installation process
Downloading packagespacker-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
2022/06/07 13:29:29 packer-builder-qemu plugin: Qemu stdout:
[anaconda]1:main* 2:shell 3:log 4:storage-log >Switch tab: Alt+Tab | Help: F1 :shell 3:log 4:sto><'echo -n "Switch tab: Alt+Tab | Help: F
Anaconda will run for three to five minutes. When it finishes, it will clear the screen and return you to the shell prompt.
Alternatively you can manually run packer. Your current working directory must be in packer-maas/centos7, where this file is located. Once in packer-maas/centos7 you can generate an image with:
$ sudo PACKER_LOG=1 packer build centos7.json
NOTE: centos7.json is configured to run Packer in headless mode. Only Packer output will be seen. If you wish to see the installation output connect to the VNC port given in the Packer output or change the value of headless to false in centos7.json.
Installation is non-interactive.
You can upload the CentOS 7 raw packer image with the following command:
$ maas $PROFILE boot-resources create
name='centos/7-custom' title='CentOS 7 Custom' architecture='amd64/generic' filetype='tgz' content@=centos7.tar.gz
Before relying on it in production, you should test your custom image by deploying it to a test (virtual) machine. It’s the machine named open-gannet in this listing:
maas admin machines read | jq -r '(["HOSTNAME","SYSID","POWER","STATUS",
"OWNER", "OS", "DISTRO"] | (., map(length*"-"))),
(.[] | [.hostname, .system_id, .power_state, .status_name, .owner // "-",
.osystem, .distro_series]) | @tsv' | column -t
HOSTNAME SYSID POWER STATUS OWNER OS DISTRO
-------- ----- ----- ------ ----- -- ------
valued-moth e86c7h on Deployed admin ubuntu focal
open-gannet nk7x8y on Deployed admin custom centos7-raw
You should log into your newly-deployed image and verify that it has all the customisations you added to the build process. The default username for packer-created CentOS 7 images is centos.
How to pack an ESXi image for MAAS deployment
You can create an ESXi image for MAAS deployment via the following procedure. MAAS cannot directly deploy the VMware ESXi ISO; a specialized image must be created from the ISO. Canonical has created a Packer template to automatically do this for you.
VMware ESXi has a specific set of requirements and limitations which are more stringent than MAAS.
The machine building the deployment image must be a GNU/Linux host with a dual core x86_64 processor supporting hardware virtualization with at least 4GB of RAM and 10GB of disk space available. Additionally the qemu-kvm and qemu-utils packages must be installed on the build system.
While VMware ESXi does not support running in any virtual machine it is possible to deploy to one. The libvirt machine must be a KVM instance with at least CPU 2 cores and 4GB of RAM. To give VMware ESXi access to hardware virtualization go into machine settings, CPUs, and select ‘copy host CPU configuration.’
VMware ESXi has no support for libvirt drivers. Instead an emulated IDE disk and an emulated e1000 NIC must be used.
Only datastores may be configured using the devices available on the system. The first 9 partitions of the disk are reserved for VMware ESXi operating system usage.
NOTE: WARNING: VMware does not support cloning boot devices - you may run into issues triggered by non-unique UUID. This may lead to data corruption on VMFS datastores when using cloned boot devices.
Bridges are not supported in VMware ESXi. In addition, certain MAAS bond modes are mapped to VMware ESXi NIC team sharing with load balancing, as follows:
No other bond modes are currently supported.
NOTE: WARNING: VMware ESXi does not allow VMs to use a PortGroup that has a VMK attached to it. All configured devices will have a VMK attached. To use a vSwitch with VMs you must leave a device or alias unconfigured in MAAS.
If the image fails to build due to a qemu-nbd error, try disconnecting the device with:
$ sudo qemu-nbd -d /dev/nbd4
↗.Packer is easily installed from its Debian package:
sudo apt install packer
This should install with no additional prompts.
sudo apt install qemu-utils
pip, if not installedsudo apt install pip
You can obtain the packer templates by cloning the packer-maas github repository↗, like this:
git clone https://github.com/canonical/packer-maas.git
Make sure to pay attention to where the repository is cloned. This package should install with no additional prompts.
The appropriate packer template can be found in the subdirectory vmware-esxi in the packer repository.
The deployment image may be customized by modifying packer-maas/vmware-esxi/KS.CFG see Installation and Upgrade Scripts in the VMware ESXi installation and Setup manual↗ for more information.
You can easily build the image using the Makefile:
$ make ISO=/path/to/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.7.0.update03-14320388.x86_64.iso
````
### Alternative: Run packer manually
Alternatively, you can manually run packer. Your current working directory must be in `packer-maas/vmware-esxi`, where this file is located. Once in `packer-maas/vmware-esxi`, you can generate an image with:
```nohighlight
$ sudo PACKER_LOG=1 packer build -var 'vmware_esxi_iso_path=/path/to/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.7.0.update03-14320388.x86_64.iso' vmware-esxi.json
NOTE:
vmware-esxi.json is configured to runpPacker in headless mode. Only packer output will be seen. If you wish to see the installation outputj, connect to the VNC port given in the packer output, or remove the line containing “headless” in vmware-esxi.json.
Installation is non-interactive.
You can upload the ESXi image to MAAS with the following command:
$ maas $PROFILE boot-resources create name='esxi/6.7' title='VMware ESXi 6.7' architecture='amd64/generic' filetype='ddgz' content@=vmware-esxi.dd.gz
How to use MAAS Image Builder to build MAAS images
MAAS Image Builder is an older tool, still required to build some images (e.g., Windows images). Wherever possible, we recommend you use packer, as described above.
NOTE:
In order to use MAAS Image Builder, you must purchase Ubuntu Advantage for Infrastructure↗.
This article will help you learn:
You can customise most images as much or as little as you wish, then use them to commission machines with MAAS.
How to install MAAS Image Builder
To get MAAS Image Builder, you must be subscribed to a private PPA provided by Canonical Support to those customers who have purchased Ubuntu Advantage for Infrastructure↗. Note that the steps below will fail if you have not purchased Ubuntu Advantage and been subscribed to the private PPA by your Canonical support rep.
Once subscribed, you need to obtain your credentials at this external link:
https://launchpad.net/~/+archivesubscriptions
Also, you must add the repository with the add-apt-repository command. Note: Be sure to substitute your unique URL in the command below:
$ sudo add-apt-repository \
“https://LaunchpadID:Password@private-ppa.launchpad.net/maas-image-builder-partners/stable/ubuntu"
Once you have added the private PPA, you can install the Image Builder like this:
$ sudo apt-get install maas-image-builder
All done? Great! Now you can build and customise images for MAAS machines, as shown in the sections below.
How to create custom CentOS images
MAAS already provides the latest available CentOS 7 and CentOS 8 for automatic download. If you need something else, though, MAAS Image Builder supports the ability to create various CentOS images.
Network Requirements for CentOS
Access to the Internet is required, since you will need to start with one of these sites:
Creating CentOS images behind a proxy
MAAS Image Builder can create CentOS images behind a proxy – just set the ‘http_proxy’ environment variable to your particular proxy. Once deployed, yum will use this MAAS-configured proxy.
maas-image-builder is designed to automate the process of generating the images for MAAS and curtin. Here are some specific examples:
$ sudo maas-image-builder -o centos6-amd64-root-tgz --arch amd64 centos --edition 6
$ sudo maas-image-builder -o centos6-i386-root-tgz --arch i386 centos --edition 6
$ sudo maas-image-builder -o centos7-amd64-root-tgz --arch amd64 centos --edition 7
Starting from MAAS Image Builder 1.0.4, customisation of CentOS images is now supported. You can provide a custom kickstart, in addition to the kickstart that MAAS Image Builder uses to create the images. You can customise your image like this:
$ sudo maas-image-builder -o centos7-amd64-root-tgz --arch amd64 centos --edition 7 --custom-kickstart ./custom.ks
Uploading the CentOS image into MAAS
Custom CentOS images can be uploaded to MAAS as shown in the command below. Do note that the name must start with ‘centos’ and must be one line:
maas admin boot-resources create name=centos/centos6-custom architecture=amd64/generic content@=./build-output/centos-amd64-root-tgz
You can use the MAAS WebUI to check that your custom CentOS image is valid and selectable for deployment.
How to create custom RHEL images
Currently, MAAS only supports RHEL as a custom image. In future versions of MAAS, RHEL will be natively supported.
In order to create RHEL images, you will need access to these sites:
↗ - Access to the EPEL repository to install required deps↗ - Access to the Canonical maintained cloud-init copr repositoryCreating RHEL images behind a proxy
MAAS image builder supports creating RHEL images behind a proxy. To use a proxy when building a RHEL image, just set the ‘http_proxy’ environment variable to your local proxy. Once deployed, yum will use the MAAS-configured proxy.
To generate a usable RHEL image, maas-image-builder automates image generation; these images can be used by MAAS and curtin.
$ sudo maas-image-builder -a amd64 -o rhel8-amd64-root-tgz rhel --rhel-iso blah.iso
Install the RHEL image into MAAS
The custom RHEL image can be uploaded to MAAS, but note that the name must start with ‘rhel’ and must be expressed as a single line, like this:
maas admin boot-resources create name=rhel/8 title="RedHat Enterprise Linux 8" architecture=amd64/generic content@=rhel8-amd64-root-tgz
Since Windows is a proprietary operating system, MAAS can’t download these images. You need to manually generate images to use with MAAS by using Windows ISO images. On the upside, the end result will be much simpler, since there are CLI and WebUI tools to upload a Windows image – which helps automate the process.
You can obtain Windows ISO images at the Microsoft Evaluation Center:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter ↗
Windows editions
There are several Windows editions/install options supported by maas-image-builder (--windows-edition options):
win2008r2win2008hvr2win2012win2012hvwin2012r2win2012hvr2win2016win2016-corewin2016hvwin2016dcwin2016dc-corewin2019win2019-corewin2019dcwin2019dc-corewin10entwin10ent-evalwin2022win2022-coreThe examples in this section use Windows Hyper-V 2012 R2.
MAAS Image Builder (also known as “MIB”) can automate the process of generating images for MAAS and curtin.
Note, though, you may need Windows drivers to deploy the image on your specific hardware (see the --windows-drivers option).
In order to obtain Windows updates, provide the –windows-updates option (and sufficient disk space, depending on the Windows edition/updates size, with the –disk-size option). This requires access to a bridged connection with a DHCP server (provide a network interface with the maas-image-builder -i option).
Important: UEFI and BIOS systems require different Windows images, built with or without the --uefi option, respectively.
(Windows ISO images in UEFI mode usually require connecting using a VNC client early to press any key to start Windows setup; see below.)
Important: LXD Virtual Machines require an UEFI image (--uefi) and VirtIO drivers (--windows-drivers).
(In order to use/test the VirtIO drivers during image build, not just during image deploy, use --virtio and --driver-store.)
sudo maas-image-builder -o windows-win2012hvr2-amd64-root-dd windows \
--windows-iso win2012hvr2.iso --windows-edition win2012hvr2 \
--windows-language en-US \
[--windows-drivers ~/Win2012hvr2_x64/DRIVERS/] \
[--windows-updates] [--disk-size 128G] \
[--uefi] [--virtio] [--driver-store]
Image Builder options for Windows
MAAS Image Builder options for Windows images can be listed with the following command:
sudo maas-image-builder -o windows --help
Note that this is different from the MAAS Image Builder generic/image-independent options, which can be listed with the following command:
sudo maas-image-builder --help
Some of the Windows-specific options include:
--windows-iso: path to the Windows ISO image.--windows-edition: identifier for the Windows edition/option being installed (see above).--windows-license-key: Windows license key (required with non-evaluation editions)--windows-language: Windows installation language (default: en-US)--windows-updates: download and install Windows Updates (requires internet access; might require a larger --disk-size option)--windows-drivers: path to directory with Windows drivers to be installed (requires internet access; uses the Windows Driver Kit, by default)--driver-store: combined with --windows-drivers, uses the Windows Driver Store to install drivers early into Windows Setup and image (does not require internet access; does not use the Windows Driver Kit).Some Windows-specific platform options:
--uefi: use UEFI partition layout and firmware--virtio: use paravirtualized VirtIO SCSI and VirtIO NET devices (instead of emulated devices) for installation (requires --windows-drivers)--disk-size: specify the (virtual) disk size for Windows setup (must be larger for --windows-updates; increases deployment/copy-to-disk time, and is expanded to physical disk size during deployment)Debugging custom Windows images
You can debug the Windows installation process by connecting to localhost:5901 using a VNC client (e.g., vncviewer).
You can pause the Windows installation process at the last step for inspection/debugging in PowerShell with the --powershell option.
Installing Windows images into MAAS
The generated images need to be placed into the correct directories so MAAS can deploy them onto a node:
maas admin boot-resources create name=windows/win2012hvr2 \
architecture=amd64/generic filetype=ddtgz \
content@=./build-output/windows-win2012hvr2-amd64-root-dd
Now, using the MAAS WebUI, a node can be selected to use Windows Hyper-V 2012 R2. This selection gets reset when a node is stopped, so make sure to set it before starting nodes. You can also set the default operating system (and release) in the settings menu, which removes the need to set it per-node.
How to create other kinds of custom images
To install other custom images, use the following command sequence:
maas <user> boot-resources create name=<custom-image-codename> title="Ubuntu Custom Image" \
architecture=amd64/generic content@=/location/of/custom/image/ubuntu-custom-root-tgz
As an example:
maas admin boot-resources create name=custom1 \
title=”Ubuntu Custom Image” architecture=amd64/generic \
content@=/home/ubuntu/ubuntu-custom-root-tgz