"Different channel detected" error with an air-gapped deployment

[Nobuto Murata]

MAAS controllers info shows an error as "Different channel detected" when MAAS snap is installed in an air-gapped environment.

How to reproduce:

1. In a focal VM, install snaps in the following steps

sudo snap install maas-test-db
snap download --channel 3.1/stable maas
sudo snap ack maas_*.assert
sudo snap install maas_*.snap

2. Confirm the tracking channel is empty (since it's air-gapped)

$ snap list
Name Version Rev Tracking Publisher Notes
core18 20211215 2284 latest/stable canonical✓ base
core20 20220114 1328 latest/stable canonical✓ base
lxd 4.0.8 21835 4.0/stable/… canonical✓ -
maas 3.1.0-10901-g.f1f8f1505 18199 - canonical✓ -
maas-cli 0.6.5 13 latest/stable canonical✓ -
maas-test-db 12.4-17-g.9e70484 54 3.0/stable canonical✓ -
snapd 2.54.2 14549 latest/stable canonical✓ snapd

3. Configure the rest and open a Web UI

sudo maas init region+rack --database-uri maas-test-db:///
sudo maas createadmin

Then, there is a controller in unhealthy state with an error as "Different channel detected"

[Christian Grabowski (cgrabowski)]

Able to reproduce, in an air-gapped system, there is no channel, making the version comparison flag different versions. As an aside, MAAS should still be able to function properly in this state.