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Canonical MAAS

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Spec score 9.3 #2 of 77 in IT Automation Software

What it is

Canonical MAAS is an open source platform for provisioning physical servers as centrally managed cloud resources. It automates server discovery, inventory, commissioning, deployment, and decommissioning, and lets operators manage nodes through a web interface, command line, or API. Hardware discovery uses PXE boot and supports IPMI-enabled machines, as well as subnets, VLANs, and switch fabrics. MAAS integrates with Terraform, Juju, and Ansible for infrastructure automation. It can configure networking and storage, run hardware tests, and manage LXD and KVM virtual machines. Listed images include Ubuntu, CentOS, Windows, and RHEL; images can be synchronized or served from an onsite mirror for offline use. Canonical describes MAAS for private cloud with OpenStack, server automation, and bare-metal Kubernetes. A free self-support plan covers all machines but excludes HA support, RBAC, Knowledge Base, a Sev 1 response SLA, phone support, and ticket support. Paid plans start at $30 a year per managed machine. Ubuntu Pro is required for MAAS controllers; Canonical says it provides security patching and enterprise support for controllers and Ubuntu machines.

Spec sheet

What it does
MAAS is Canonical's private-cloud infrastructure manager that turns physical servers into cloud-like, repeatably deployable resources.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Purpose
MAAS is an open source platform for centrally managing and provisioning physical servers as cloud resources.Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
API
MAAS exposes a REST API with GET, POST, PUT and DELETE methods; version 2.0 is the documented supported API version.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Integrations
Canonical documentation names Juju, Chef, Puppet, Ansible, Terraform, OpenStack and Kubernetes as MAAS automation or orchestration integrations.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
License
The MAAS source repository is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
Headquarters
London, United KingdomRead 23 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Founded
2004Read 23 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
API authentication
API authentication uses 0-legged OAuth, and the documentation provides Python, Ruby, cURL and HTTPie examples.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
API coverage
The latest reference states that every feature available in the UI is also accessible through the API and that the v2 reference is generated from OpenAPI.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Architecture
A PostgreSQL-backed region controller handles operator requests while distributed rack controllers provide DHCP, IPMI, PXE, TFTP and cached images.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Company founded
Canonical's LinkedIn profile lists 2004 as its founding year.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Company headquarters
Canonical's LinkedIn profile lists London, England as headquarters.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Company legal name
Crunchbase lists the maker's legal name as Canonical Ltd.Read 15 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com
Company ownership
Crunchbase describes Canonical as a privately held, for-profit company and identifies Mark Shuttleworth as founder and CEO.Read 15 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com
Company size
LinkedIn places Canonical in the 1,001–5,000-employee range.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Device discovery
MAAS discovers devices and interfaces passively, on demand or periodically.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Documentation depth
The documentation is organized into tutorials, how-to guides, explanations and reference material, including installation, API, Terraform, troubleshooting, metrics, logging and security-hardening sections.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Extensibility
Canonical documents CLI and Python client bindings, custom commissioning scripts, deployment scripts and custom power-driver plugins.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Hardware discovery
PXE boot can automatically discover and enlist servers, while network discovery identifies subnets, VLANs and switch fabrics.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Hardware inventory
Commissioning records processors, memory, storage, networking and other components, with lifecycle event tracking.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Hardware testing
Administrators can run supplied hardware tests or upload their own and review historical component metrics.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
High availability
Region-controller high availability is database-based, and rack controllers can provide local service redundancy.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Infrastructure as code
MAAS provides a cloud-like API and integrates with Terraform, Juju, and Ansible for infrastructure automation and orchestration.Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Installation options
Canonical documentation describes a single-machine region-and-rack installation for homelabs, proofs of concept, or small production environments, and multiple controllers for high availability.Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Lifecycle automation
MAAS automatically discovers, inventories, commissions, deploys, and decommissions physical servers.Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Limit: documentation onboarding
Community feedback said version-specific documentation was hard to locate and that the quick-start guide omitted information needed for a basic real-database installation.Read 15 Oct 2026 · discourse.maas.io
Limit: enterprise DNS concerns
The same large-install report criticized MAAS's authoritative-DNS approach for enterprise environments that already use systems such as Active Directory or external DNS.Read 15 Oct 2026 · discourse.maas.io
Limit: large-install UI speed
A user operating more than 1,400 hosts reported machine-list loading of about one minute in MAAS 2.9, versus three to eight minutes in 2.6.Read 15 Oct 2026 · discourse.maas.io
Limit: PXE compatibility
A user reported difficult HTTP-based PXE deployment on older HP blade hardware and said full-TFTP fallback was unsupported.Read 15 Oct 2026 · discourse.maas.io
Management interfaces
Nodes can be managed remotely through the web UI, command line, or API.Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Multi-architecture
MAAS supports x86_64, ARM64, POWER and IBM Z architectures, among others.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Network configuration
MAAS supports IP assignment, bonding, VLAN configuration, virtual bridges, static routes, DHCP, and DNS management.Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Networking
MAAS integrates DHCP, DNS and image management and supports complex networking scenarios.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Operating system images
The feature tour lists Ubuntu, CentOS, Windows, and RHEL images, and says images can be synchronized or served from an onsite mirror for offline use.Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
OS images
Supported deployment images listed by Canonical include Ubuntu, Windows, CentOS, RHEL, SUSE and VMware ESXi.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Praise: DHCP relay
A MAAS user reported that relayed DHCP worked well across multiple subnets in a production rollout.Read 15 Oct 2026 · discourse.maas.io
Rating on Slashdot
0 out of 5 from 0 reviews; the listing says no user reviews have been submitted.Read 15 Oct 2026 · slashdot.org
Rating on SourceForge
0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews; SourceForge says the software has not been reviewed yet.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
Recent release
The MAAS community site listed MAAS 3.6.6 as released on 1 October 2026.Read 15 Oct 2026 · discourse.maas.io
Remote operations
The UI, CLI and API can power machines on or off, commission, deploy, assign ownership, mark nodes faulty, enter rescue mode and test hardware.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Security and support
Canonical says Ubuntu Pro provides security patching and enterprise support for MAAS controllers and Ubuntu machines; controllers require Ubuntu Pro.Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Security hardening
MAAS hardening can enforce TLS and PostgreSQL certificate checks, restricted service binds, FIPS behavior, password complexity and a strict content-security policy.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Self-hosting
Installation is delivered as a MAAS snap and requires an Ubuntu LTS host, sudo access and PostgreSQL; the current guide uses MAAS 3.8 and PostgreSQL 16 snaps.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Self-service provisioning
Users can deploy or re-image servers through the web interface or API without manual installation steps.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Storage
The documentation describes deployment storage options including software RAID, LVM, ZFS and bcache.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Storage configuration
MAAS supports storage layouts including Bcache, RAID, and LVM.Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Support eligibility
Standalone support requires Ubuntu Pro on the machines hosting MAAS itself.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Target users
Canonical positions MAAS for DevOps teams, system administrators and data-center architects provisioning bare metal at scale.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Virtual machines
MAAS can create and manage LXD-powered virtual machines through its UI, CLI and API.Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com

Plans and prices

Free Free MAAS software · self-support Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Self-support Free Free for all machines · no HA support · no RBAC · no Knowledge Base · no Sev 1 response SLA · no phone or ticket support Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Essential $30 a year per managed machine HA support · RBAC · Knowledge Base · no Sev 1 response SLA · no phone or ticket support Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Essential $30 a year per managed machine annually Knowledge base · high-availability support Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Standard $50 a year per managed machine HA support · RBAC · Knowledge Base · Sev 1 response time: 4 hours · phone and ticket support during office hours Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Standard $50 a year per managed machine annually Office-hours phone and ticket support · 4-hour Severity 1 SLA · knowledge base · high-availability support Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com
Advanced $100 a year per managed machine HA support · RBAC · Knowledge Base · Sev 1 response time: 1 hour · phone and ticket support 24 hours a day, every day Read 30 Sep 2026 · canonical.com
Advanced $100 a year per managed machine annually 24/7 phone and ticket support · 1-hour Severity 1 SLA · knowledge base · high-availability support Read 15 Oct 2026 · canonical.com

Every Canonical MAAS plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Automates server discovery through decommissioning
  • Provides web, command-line, and API management
  • Integrates with Terraform, Juju, and Ansible
  • Supports networking and storage configuration
  • Can manage LXD and KVM virtual machines

Limits

  • Free plan has no HA support
  • Free plan excludes RBAC and Knowledge Base
  • Free plan has no phone or ticket support
  • Ubuntu Pro is required for MAAS controllers

Who it suits

MAAS suits operators managing physical servers for private cloud, server automation, or bare-metal Kubernetes. It also offers a single-machine installation option for homelabs, proofs of concept, or small production environments.

Verdict

MAAS combines physical-server lifecycle automation with hardware, network, storage, and VM management. Review support-tier differences and the Ubuntu Pro requirement for controllers before deployment.

Where Specifiction places it

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