Enlisting a node sometimes requires manual entry of its MAC address

[Rod Smith]

Upon enlisting a node, MAAS seems unable to control the node's power if the node's BMC is on a network separated from the MAAS server by a router; but if the node's BMC is on the MAAS server's own network, then everything works fine. When enlistment isn't quite successful, it can be rectified by manually entering the node's BMC's MAC address in MAAS. A separate management LAN for BMCs is used in 1SS, so this problem is likely to be common there. The specific steps and symptoms of failure are:

1. Configure a node's BMC on a remote network (such as 192.168.ww.xx, where
   the MAAS server is at 10.245.yy.zz), but with the node's eth* ports on the
   MAAS server's network.
2. Power on the node. It should PXE-boot and begin enlistment, and an entry
   will appear in the MAAS server's node list; HOWEVER, there will be a grey
   question mark "?" in the power control area, and it will be impossible to
   commission the node or control its power via MAAS.
3. Check the node's Configuration tab; all the IPMI data will be present,
   EXCEPT for the MAC address field, which will be blank.
4. Editing the IPMI data and entering a MAC address (even if invalid;
   00:00:00:00:00:00 works fine for me) and saving the result causes the
   power status to change to something valid (probably off), and it
   becomes possible to control the node.
5. Commissioning and deploying the node works normally after this correction.

Enlisting a node with a BMC on the MAAS server's main network works fine; MAAS is able to control its power without problems.

Interestingly, in both cases (fully successful enlistment and enlistment after manually entering a MAC address), the MAC address field in the web UI remains blank.

I've tested this on five servers in the certification lab in 1SS. (We have systems configured both on our own subnet and on the 1SS manlan subnet.) The servers are:

- Fully successful enlistment:
  - hogplum
  - lalande
- Enlistment requires manual MAC address entry:
  - keylime
  - meitner
  - drapion

Our MAAS server information is:

$ dpkg -s maas | grep Version
Version: 2.6.2-7841-ga10625be3-0ubuntu1~18.04.1

[Christian Grabowski (cgrabowski)]

Hi there, so enlisting a node not on the same network does in fact require manual entry as documented here https://maas.io/docs/snap/2.9/ui/add-machines

Have you tried upgrading versions since reporting this bug? Otherwise, I'm add this to the support engineering track.

[Christian Grabowski (cgrabowski)]

I would encourage upgrading, as this is not replicating in newer versions of MAAS