Canonical Announces Metal as a Service
Canonical's MAAS "metal-as-a-service" provisioning tool is available for testing in Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 and LTS.
Canonical has announced a new provisioning tool, MAAS (for metal-as-a-service) which lets system administrators provision hyperscale deployments of physical servers. According to the website, MAAS is designed for horizontally scaled environments, such as big data workloads and internal clouds, but works just as well for any cloud-like deployment.
Mark Shuttleworth says: “Metal as a Service – MAAS – is a new way of thinking about physical infrastructure. Compute, storage and network are commodities on the metal just as they are commodities in the cloud. MAAS lets you treat farms of servers as a malleable resource for allocation to specific problems, and for re-allocation on a dynamic basis.”
According to the announcement, the tool’s web front end makes it easy for administrators to quickly add, update, commission, deploy, and retire physical servers. The web dashboard provides an at-a-glance overview of the status of the MAAS cluster, letting administrators easily see how much computing resource is available for deployment.
The MAAS roadmap calls for an update to MAAS with each point release of 12.04 LTS, extending the capabilities and range of hardware certified and supported by both Ubuntu and the MAAS.
MAAS is available for testing in 12.04 Beta 2, with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS scheduled for general availability on April 26, 2012. For more information, Click here.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.
-
What Open Source Pros Look for in a Job Role
Learn what professionals in technical and non-technical roles say is most important when seeking a new position.
-
Asahi Linux Runs into Issues with M4 Support
Due to Apple Silicon changes, the Asahi Linux project is at odds with adding support for the M4 chips.
-
Plasma 6.3.4 Now Available
Although not a major release, Plasma 6.3.4 does fix some bugs and offer a subtle change for the Plasma sidebar.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 First Release Candidate Now Available
Linux Torvalds has announced that the release candidate for the final release of the Linux 6.15 series is now available.
-
Akamai Will Host kernel.org
The organization dedicated to cloud-based solutions has agreed to host kernel.org to deliver long-term stability for the development team.
-
Linux Kernel 6.14 Released
The latest Linux kernel has arrived with extra Rust support and more.