--- title: MAAS KVM Pods description: This is a guest post by Michael Iatrou, cloud solutions architect at Canonical OpenStack is the dominant solution in the IaaS space, fueled by the need for reliable, scalable and interoperable private cloud infrastructure to accommodate cloud native applications. Through OpenStack’s open APIs, tenants can easily deploy elaborate virtual ( […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/maas-kvm-pods?format=md --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Canonical](https://canonical.com/blog/author/canonical "More about Canonical") on 18 October 2017 # MAAS KVM Pods [Juju](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/juju) [kvm](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/kvm) [MAAS](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/maas) [OpenStack](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/openstack) [Pods](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/pods) [Server](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/server) [Tutorial](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/tutorial) [Virtual Machines](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/virtual-machines) Share on:* [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www.canonical.com/blog/maas-kvm-pods "Share on Facebook") * [Twitter](https://twitter.com/share?text=MAAS%20KVM%20Pods&url=https://www.canonical.com/blog/maas-kvm-pods&hashtags=ubuntu "Share on Twitter") * [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.canonical.com/blog/maas-kvm-pods&title=MAAS%20KVM%20Pods "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 is a guest post by Michael Iatrou, cloud solutions architect at Canonical** [OpenStack](https://jujucharms.com/openstack) is the dominant solution in the IaaS space, fueled by the need for reliable, scalable and interoperable private cloud infrastructure to accommodate cloud native applications. Through OpenStack’s open APIs, tenants can easily deploy elaborate virtual (overlay) networks, integrate with a variety of storage backends, even leverage modern hypervisor-like [machine containers](https://linuxcontainers.org/lxd/introduction/) ([LXD](https://jujucharms.com/u/openstack-charmers-next/openstack-lxd/)) for bare metal performance. Although the [tooling](https://www.ubuntu.com/download/cloud/try-openstack) allows a full fledged OpenStack deployment on just a single machine, the intrinsic efficiencies that OpenStack’s design promises, materialize at a certain scale — typically at least 12 servers. There is a large number of environments which would benefit from the merits of virtualization, including but not limited to hydrocarbon exploration sites, diagnostic imaging for health centers, backoffice for restaurants and retail store IT operations. But their per location server footprint is very small, usually no more than a handful of machines. We will explore here how to use the same tooling that delivers operational efficiency for large OpenStack and Kubernetes deployments, in order to revamp small scale environments. [MAAS](https://maas.io/) stands for Metal As A Service and enables you to treat physical servers like an elastic cloud-like resource. As of MAAS 2.2 “pod” is introduced as an operational concept. A MAAS pod effectively describes the availability of resources and enables the creation (or composition) of machines with a set of those resources. A user can allocate the needed CPU, RAM, and (local or remote) storage resources manually (using the MAAS UI or CLI) or dynamically (using Juju or the MAAS API). That is, machines can be allocated “just in time”, based on CPU, RAM, and storage constraints of a specific workload. MAAS 2.2. supports two types of pods, (1) Physical systems with [Intel RSD](https://docs.ubuntu.com/maas/2.2/en/nodes-power-types#bmc-driver-support) and (2) Virtual Machines with KVM (using the virsh interface). We have published a detailed [tutorial](https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/create-kvm-pods-with-maas) with step by step instructions on how to install and configure a testbed environment for MAAS KVM pods. You can quickly transform a physical server into a lightweight, reliable virtual machine management node. You can even test it on your laptop. MAAS has been designed to be a modern, agile machine provisioning and infrastructure modelling solution, enabling both physical and virtual infrastructure. Beyond MAAS’ extensive adoption in cloud native environments, it can optimize the utilisation of existing in-house, small scale IT infrastructure using VM pods. The pod abstraction is very powerful and flexible, and it has quickly gained attention, with many new features coming soon! [Try it out!](https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/create-kvm-pods-with-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, ...