An overview of MAAS events

Cracking the code of MAAS events

Understanding MAAS events is critical for effective debugging and system verification. Events signify state transitions in MAAS components like controllers, networks, or machines. These transitions may be triggered internally, by external agents like a DHCP server, or by user actions such as machine commissioning.

Where to find event information

• MAAS Logs: The raw and detailed source, accessible directly from the file system.
• UI Event Log: A user-friendly interface that provides a summarised view.
• CLI events query Command: Offers a quick, text-based snapshot of events.

Each source delivers slightly different details. Let's explore how they differ with an example concerning a node named "fun-zebra".

MAAS log sample

maas.log:2022-09-29T15:04:07.795515-05:00 neuromancer maas.node: [info] fun-zebra: Status transition from COMMISSIONING to TESTING
maas.log:2022-09-29T15:04:17.288763-05:00 neuromancer maas.node: [info] fun-zebra: Status transition from TESTING to READY

CLI output

{
    "username": "unknown",
    "node": "bk7mg8",
    "hostname": "fun-zebra",
    "id": 170,
    "level": "INFO",
    "created": "Thu, 29 Sep. 2022 20:04:17",
    "type": "Ready",
    "description": ""
},
{
    "username": "unknown",
    "node": "bk7mg8",
    "hostname": "fun-zebra",
    "id": 167,
    "level": "INFO",
    "created": "Thu, 29 Sep. 2022 20:04:07",
    "type": "Running test",
    "description": "smartctl-validate on sda"
}

UI Log

While all three are reliable sources, they offer varying levels of detail and perspective. Tapping into the right source for your needs can make debugging and system verification far more efficient.