CLI Image Management

This is a list of image management tasks to perform with the MAAS CLI. See MAAS CLI on how to get started.

See MAAS Images for an overview of images.

List image sources

To list image sources:

maas $PROFILE boot-sources read

List image selections

To list image selections for a boot source:

maas $PROFILE boot-source-selections read $SOURCE_ID

List currently available images

To list currently available images:

maas $PROFILE boot-resources read

Select images

To select images from an image source by specifying series; architecture; and HWE kernel:

maas $PROFILE boot-source-selections create $SOURCE_ID \
    os="ubuntu" release="$SERIES" arches="$ARCH" \
    subarches="$HWE_KERNEL" labels="*"

For example, to select all HWE kernels for 64-bit Trusty:

maas $PROFILE boot-source-selections create 1 \
    os="ubuntu" release="trusty" arches="amd64" \
    subarches="*" labels="*"

Often users would simply want the latest HWE kernel available for Trusty, which, at time of writing, is from Xenial:

maas $PROFILE boot-source-selections create 1 \
    os="ubuntu" release="trusty" arches="amd64" \
    subarches="hwe-x" labels="*"

After new images are selected MAAS will need to import them.

Import newly-selected images

To import newly-selected images:

maas $PROFILE boot-resources import

Once newly-selected images are imported a sync mechanism is enabled (by default) to keep them up to date. The refresh time interval is 60 minutes.

Available images resulting from this action are reflected in the web UI.

Delete an image source

To delete an image source:

maas $PROFILE boot-source delete $SOURCE_ID

If the source that was deleted was the sole boot source then the fields 'Sync URL' and 'Keyring Path' in the web UI will take on null values.

Edit an image source

An existing source can be edited by changing the GPG keyring file (KEYRING_FILE) and/or the location (URL).

Update the source:

maas $PROFILE boot-source update $SOURCE_ID \
    url=$URL keyring_filename=$KEYRING_FILE

At this time MAAS only fully supports a source containing official MAAS images. This implies that an image source would only be edited if a mirror of such images has been set up. The location can change but the keyring remains constant:

KEYRING_FILE=/usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-cloudimage-keyring.gpg

Add an image source

Presented below are two use cases for adding an image source:

1. Use a local image mirror (official images)
2. Recreate the default image source (if it was ever deleted)

The general syntax is:

maas $PROFILE boot-sources create \
    url=$URL keyring_filename=$KEYRING_FILE

The output will include a new numeric ID that identifies the source (SOURCE_ID).

Since MAAS can only practically work with a single image source this scenario implies that any existing sources have first been deleted, or will be deleted. In addition, as is the case with editing a source, the location (URL) is the only acting variable. The only supported keyring is:

KEYRING_FILE=/usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-cloudimage-keyring.gpg

If the source that was added is now the sole boot source then the fields 'Sync URL' and 'Keyring Path' in the web UI will reflect its values.

Once the source is added, proceed to the Select and Import images step.

Using a local image mirror

Once the mirror is set up according to Local Image Mirror it is just a matter of specifying the mirror location (URL). Since the images come from the default source the default keyring should be used. If the aforementioned mirror document was followed, the variable values should be:

• URL=https://myserver/maas/images/ephemeral-v2/daily/
• KEYRING_FILE=/usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-cloudimage-keyring.gpg

Where myserver identifies your mirror server's hostname or IP address.

Recreate the default image source

Recreate the default image source if it was ever deleted using the following variable values:

• URL=https://images.maas.io/ephemeral-v2/daily/
• KEYRING_FILE=/usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-cloudimage-keyring.gpg