MAAS documentation

MAAS (Metal as a Service) provisions bare-metal and virtual machines into an agile cloud with a single point of control. Extensive automation makes deployment quick, consistent, and repeatable. MAAS can rapidly scale your infrastructure with automated network management and load balancing that engage without user intervention.

MAAS seeks to transform provisioning through:

  • Comprehensive automation
    – Discovery maps networks and devices without guesswork.
    – Curtin and cloud-init add a portfolio of repeatable setups.
    – Embedded DHCP, DNS, NTP, and TFTP are optimized for MAAS.
  • Rapid reconfiguration
    – Fast-loading and custom OS images quickly match app needs.
    – Machines can be quickly regrouped with tags and notes.
    – Zones and resource pools offer redundancy and separation.
  • Built-in reliability
    – HA/load balancing auto-engages based on topology.
    – Fully-integrated monitoring and security are available.
    – User-editable, life-cycle scripts boost repeatability.
    – Single control point keeps focus on provisioning.

MAAS is particularly useful in sectors with rapidly-changing infrastructures, like telecommunications, supercomputing, media streaming, disaster recovery, and computer security analytics. It offers cloud-like flexibility for physical server environments, making it effective for applications needing regular server reconfiguration. MAAS meets the need for fast, flexible, efficient server provisioning.

In this documentation

Serve our study Serve our work
Tutorials
Hands-on introductions to MAAS features
How-to guides
Step-by-step guides covering key operations
Explanation
Detailed theory on the inner workings of MAAS
Reference
Technical specifications

Project and community

MAAS is a member of the Ubuntu family. It’s an open source project that warmly welcomes community projects, contributions, suggestions, fixes and constructive feedback.

Considering MAAS for your next project? Get in touch


Last updated 4 days ago.