When a node boots unexpectedly, MAAS turns it off using a PXE kernel to shut it down, instead of using the power control method assigned for that node.
When using an external power controller that does not know the actual boot state of the node (such as the DLI, or, as I'm working with, an APC PDU that I just added support for), this puts the node state out of sync with the power controller state. The next time MAAS tries to wake up the node, it checks the power controller state, sees that the node is "up" (the outlet is powered, but the node is offline), and doesn't take any actions.
As a result, MAAS gets stuck and can't control the node until it's power cycled.
I faked a fix for this by having my APC power template always send a wake-on-lan packet whenever the power state is queried, but this was a bit of an ugly hack.
Hi David,
Unfortunately, MAAS will not enforce a machine to power off if it is turned on manually. This is to ensure that if someone turned it on manually on purpose, MAAS doesn't kill it.
That being said, the support for PDU's is a tricky thing because MAAS cannot effectively determine the power status of the machine. MAAS will not provide full support for such devices due to the limitations that they entail, but in the future it will be able to try to tell the user that they might be something wrong going on on other means.