---
title: From Bare Metal to Cloud with MAAS
description: This article originally appeared on Konstantinos Tsakalozos’ blog When
  was the last time you had one of those “I wish I knew about that <time period> ago”
  moments? One of mine was when I saw MAAS (Metal as a Service). Back at the University,
  as a member of the MADgIK lab, I had to administer  […]
url: https://canonical.com/blog/from-bare-metal-to-cloud-with-maas?format=md
---

1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog)
2. Article

---

[Konstantinos Tsakalozos](https://canonical.com/blog/author/kos-tsakalozos "More about Konstantinos Tsakalozos")

on 19 October 2017

# From Bare Metal to Cloud with MAAS

[juju charms](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/juju-charms)
[MAAS](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/maas)
[QEMU](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/qemu)
[Xen](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/xen)

Share on:* [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www.canonical.com/blog/from-bare-metal-to-cloud-with-maas "Share on Facebook")
* [Twitter](https://twitter.com/share?text=From%20Bare%20Metal%20to%20Cloud%20with%20MAAS&url=https://www.canonical.com/blog/from-bare-metal-to-cloud-with-maas&hashtags=ubuntu "Share on Twitter")
* [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.canonical.com/blog/from-bare-metal-to-cloud-with-maas&title=From%20Bare%20Metal%20to%20Cloud%20with%20MAAS "Share on LinkedIn")

---

---

## Newsletter signup

Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox.

Work email:

\*I agree to receive information about Canonical's
products and services.

By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/data-privacy).

Sign up

This article originally appeared on [Konstantinos Tsakalozos' blog](https://medium.com/@ktsakalozos/from-bare-metal-to-cloud-with-maas-b17eededd58e)

When was the last time you had one of those “I wish I knew about that <time period> ago” moments? One of mine was when I saw [MAAS (Metal as a Service)](https://maas.io/). Back at the University, as a member of the [MADgIK lab](http://www.madgik.di.uoa.gr/), I had to administer a couple of racks. These were the days of Xen paravirtualization, Eucaliptus and the GRID. Interesting times, but I now realise that if I had MAAS and Juju back then, I would have finished with that adventure a couple of years sooner!

From a high level MAAS will render your physical cluster into an IaaS cloud that provisions physical instead of virtual machines. As you might expect a PXE server will serve the images you ask via a good looking web UI. MAAS will discover what is on your network and make it dead simple to set VLANs and network spaces. Juju can use your MaaS deployment as if it were a cloud. This enables you to deploy [OpenStack, Kubernetes and BigData](https://jujucharms.com/store) solutions directly onto your hardware. It is a really powerful combination that can save you time (in the range of years in my case).

### Lets do it!

Do not waste any more time on this blog, go and try MAAS on QEMU instances on your own machine. [This play list](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvn2jxYHUxFlxNmc1dAbw524aoPmHxNpC) will get you started. At the end you will have a (virtual) cluster on QEMU. One of the machines will act as the MAAS controller, the rest will be the cluster nodes.

Your virtual cluster.

MAAS nodes

Next step is to use [MAAS from Juju](https://jujucharms.com/docs/2.1/clouds-maas).

Just to show off :)

### Conclusion

I am off to the shop to get more RAM. No wonder this is such a short blog.

### Resources

* MAAS — <https://maas.io/>
* MADgIK — <http://www.madgik.di.uoa.gr/>
* Juju — <https://jujucharms.com/store>
* MAAS on QEMU — <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvn2jxYHUxFlxNmc1dAbw524aoPmHxNpC>
* Juju on MAAS — <https://jujucharms.com/docs/2.1/clouds-maas>

#### Related posts

---

[David Beamonte](https://canonical.com/blog/author/dbeamonte)

14 July 2026

### [MAAS installation: bare metal provisioning is easier than ever](https://canonical.com/blog/maas-installation-bare-metal-provisioning-is-easier-than-ever)

Cloud and Infrastructure

Ubuntu tech blog

MAAS brings cloud-like automation to physical servers. It helps teams discover, commission, deploy, and repurpose machines from a central control plane, turning bare metal into a programmable resource. But to experience that value, users first need to get MAAS up and running. That path is now cleaner and easier to follow. We’ve created ne ...

---

[David Beamonte](https://canonical.com/blog/author/dbeamonte)

9 July 2026

### [Managing Ubuntu on bare metal at scale](https://canonical.com/blog/managing-ubuntu-on-bare-metal-at-scale)

Cloud and Infrastructure

Ubuntu tech blog

Modern infrastructure teams are expected to deliver cloud-like speed, consistency, and reliability, even when their workloads run on physical servers. Bare metal remains essential for many environments: private clouds, Kubernetes clusters, AI infrastructure, edge sites, regulated platforms, and large Ubuntu estates. But operating physical ...

---

[Rhys Knipe](https://canonical.com/blog/author/rhysknipe)

7 July 2026

### [Ubuntu Server: a platform made for enterprise scale](https://canonical.com/blog/ubuntu-server-a-platform-made-for-enterprise-scale)

Cloud and Infrastructure

Ubuntu tech blog

A platform is an environment that allows software to run smoothly across the infrastructure, runtime, and application layers. The key word there is “smoothly”: a good platform connects those layers so well that you don’t notice it. That’s what Ubuntu Server has become: the essential layer between bare metal and the apps running on top, ...