Introduction¶

This Guide gives you more information about the several features of LXD.

Configuration of instances¶

A list of configuration keys can be found in the LXD documentation for instances.

You can apply them during launch of instances (see launch flags) or add them later.

Basically you can apply two types of configurations:

• General options, including:
  • instance start
  • security
  • hardware limits
  • kernel modules
  • snapshots
  • user keys (for cloud-init instructions)
  • and more
• Devices, including:
  • network
  • storage
  • usb
  • sockets
  • gpu
  • and more

Difference between containers and virtual machines¶

For now virtual machines support less features than containers.

You can see what configuration options are available for virtual machines in the LXD documentation for instances. All categories and keys that contain the terms virtual-machine or VM are supported.

lxc launch flags¶

You can apply flags to add configuration options to lxc launch.

Short list of flags:¶

-p profilename   # apply a profile

-c key=value   # apply a config key/value

Usage:

lxc launch imageserver:imagename instancename -p profile1 -c key1=value

lxc launch imageserver:imagename instancename -p profile1 -p profile2

lxc launch imageserver:imagename instancename -c key1=value -c key2=value

Profiles¶

Profiles are like configuration files for instances (but they are saved in a database).

No profile/default profile¶

If you don't apply specific profiles to an instance, only the default profile is applied automatically.

You can view the content of the default profile with:

lxc profile show default

Create a profile¶

Use:

lxc profile create profilename

After that edit the profile, see below.

Edit a profile¶

Profiles can be edited in multiple ways:

1. Write a textfile and apply the content to a profile¶

See Write a profile below for details.

2. Edit a profile with a terminal editor¶

Use:

lxc profile edit profilename

Choose a specific editor¶

You can set the editor in /home/user/.profile.

This will set the standard terminal editor to nano:

echo 'export EDITOR=nano' >> ~/.profile

3. Set specific keys in a profile¶

Use:

lxc profile set profilename key=value

Write a profile¶

Profiles are written in yaml (markup language). So you need to follow a specific syntax.

Steps:

1. Create an empty textfile and name it profilename.profile (replace profilename with a name of your choice).
2. Open the file with a texteditor of your choice.
3. Edit and save.

Example (default profile):

config: {}
description: ""
devices:
  eth0:
    name: eth0
    nictype: bridged
    parent: lxdbr0
    type: nic
  root:
    path: /
    pool: one
    type: disk
name: default
used_by: []

Explanation:

config:¶

You can apply all configuration keys listed in LXD documentation - Instance keys.

Example:

config:
  snapshots.expiry: 1M
  security.protection.delete: true
  security.idmap.isolated: true

description:¶

Adds a description for the profile.
Can be empty.

devices:¶

You can apply all configuration keys listed in LXD documentation - Instance device types.

name:¶

Name of the profile (replace with a name of your choice).

used_by:¶

Stays empty, will indicate to which instances this profile is applied.

Add the profile to LXD¶

Create a new empty profile:

lxc profile create myprofile

"Copy" the textfile to the new profile:

cat myprofile.profile | lxc profile edit myprofile

Now you can apply this profile to an instance during launch or later (see below).

Apply and edit options later¶

You can apply/remove/modify a profile or edit the instance configuration directly.

Apply a profile¶

Use:

lxc profile add instancename profilename

Remove a profile¶

Use:

lxc profile remove instancename profilename

Edit a profile¶

Use:

lxc profile edit profilename

Edit instance configuration¶

Edit the instance configuration in a terminal editor:

lxc config edit instancename

Set specific keys:

lxc config set instancename key=value

Show configuration¶

This will show all applied configurations (including attached profiles):

lxc config show instancename -e

Cloud-init¶

cloud-init is a software for automatic customization of a linux distribution.

Features include:

• install packages
• apply/edit configuration
• add users
• and more

Requirements:

• Images with cloud-init support: For example, official LXD images that contain the term cloud in ALIAS have implemented cloud-init support.

Apply instructions for cloud-init¶

You can apply instructions for cloud-init inside a LXD profile.

For easier editing, we write the content of the profile in a texteditor and apply the textfile to a new profile.

Write a cloud-init profile¶

1. Create a new textfile and name it for example: cloud-profile1.profile
2. Open it in a texteditor of your choice and start editing.

Every instruction for cloud-init is applied in section config-> user.user-data (or other sections for instance data, see below):

config:
  user.user-data: |
    #cloud-config
    key: value

Example:

config:
  user.user-data: |
    #cloud-config
    package_upgrade: true
    packages:
      - package1
      - package2

This will upgrade all installed packages and install package1 and package2.

More instructions for cloud-init¶

For more instructions see examples in the cloud-init documentation.

Other config-sections for instance data¶

• user.meta-data - see cloud-init docs - instance metadata
• user.vendor-data - see cloud-init docs - vendordata
• user.network-config - see cloud-init docs - network configuration

Apply the profile¶

After you saved the textfile, we can apply it with the following steps.

Create a new profile in LXD:

lxc profile create cloud-profile1

Apply the textfile to the new profile:

cat cloud-profile1.profile | lxc profile edit cloud-profile1

Launch the instance with cloud-init¶

Apply the profile during lxc launch with flag -p:

lxc launch imageserver:image instancename -p cloud-profile1

Now cloud-init will start working.

Cloud-init status¶

You can get the status of cloud-init with:

cloud-init status

Reports:

status: running: means cloud-init is still working

or

status: done: means cloud-init has finished work

You can also use the following flag, which will only respond when cloud-init is finished:

cloud-init status --wait

More information¶

See the Cloud-init documentation.

Server configuration¶

See LXD documentation - Server settings for all Server configuration options.

Below we will introduce some topics, including:

• Projects
• Security
• Remote servers

Projects¶

You can split your server into projects. Each project can have its own instances, profiles etc.

See LXD documentation - Projects for more information and configuration.

Security¶

See LXD documentation - Security for details on Server security.

Remote servers¶

LXD supports different kinds of remote servers:

• simplestream servers: pure image servers (see below)
• LXD-Servers: regular LXD-Servers that you can manage over a network (can also be used as image servers). You can choose between multiple methods:
  • Default (TLS + password)
  • Public (image) server
  • Candid (Authentication service)
  • Candid+RBAC (Role Based Access Control)

Set up simplestream servers¶

There are multiple servers available, for example:

• the LXD image server from Avature: Link to GitHub Repo

Connect to a simplestream server:

See Add simplestream servers.

Set up your LXD server as remote server¶

Default (TLS + password)¶

This will set up a server with authentication based on TLS-certificates. For easier adding of clients, you can set a password which will authenticate the clients the first time they connect.

Set up a LXD-server as a remote server, with:

lxc config set core.https_address "[::]"
lxc config set core.trust_password some-password

core.https_address "[::]" tells LXD to bind all addresses on port 8443. core.trust_password sets a trust password to be used by new clients.

For details see: LXD Documentation - Security

Connect to this server:

See Add remote servers for how to add a server to your clients remote server list.

Public image server¶

You can use an empty LXD Server (with no storage pools, no networks etc.) as a public image server.

Install LXD and run:

lxc config set core.https_address :8443

This will make the LXD-Server available over network on port 8443. You also need to set the images you want to share, to public.

Candid¶

Candid is an Authentication service. See Ubuntu tutorials - Candid authentication for LXD for details and howto.

Candid + RBAC¶

See LXD documentation - Security RBAC for details.

Add remote servers¶

Add simplestream servers¶

Use:

lxc remote add some-name https://example.com/some/path --protocol=simplestreams

A list of images on that server can be obtained with:

lxc image list some-name:

Launch an instance based on an image of that server:

lxc launch some-name:image-name your-instance [--vm]

Add remote LXD servers¶

Default (TLS + password)¶

You can add more servers to the remote server list with:

lxc remote add some-name <IP|FQDN|URL> [flags]

Example with IP:

lxc remote add remoteserver2 1.2.3.4

This will prompt you to confirm the remote server fingerprint and then ask you for the password.

Candid¶

Use:

lxc remote add some-name <IP|FQDN|URL> --auth-type=candid

Use remote servers¶

Image list on a remote server¶

A list of images on that server can be obtained with:

lxc image list my-images:

Launch an instance¶

Launch an instance based on an image of that server:

lxc launch some-name:image-name your-instance [--vm]

Manage instances on a remote server¶

You can use the same commands but prefixing the server and instance name like:

lxc exec remoteserver-name:instancename -- apt-get update

You can replace apt-get update with any command the instance supports.

Images - part 2¶

Advanced options for images¶

1. Add additional remote (image) servers
2. Manually import an image
3. Build your own image

Import images¶

You can import images, that you:

• built yourself (see Build Images),
• downloaded manually (see Manual Download)
• exported from images or containers (see Export Images and Create Image from Containers)

Import container image¶

Components:

• lxd.tar.xz
• rootfs.squashfs

Use:

lxc image import lxd.tar.xz rootfs.squashfs --alias custom-imagename

Import virtual-machine image¶

Components:

• lxd.tar.xz
• disk.qcow2

Use:

lxc image import lxd.tar.xz disk.qcow2 --alias custom-imagename

Manual download¶

You can also download images manually. For that you need to download the components described above.

From official LXD image server¶

Link to official image server:

https://images.linuxcontainers.org/images/

Export images¶

Use:

lxc image export imagename [target folder] [flags]

Flags:

--vm - Query virtual machine images

Create image from containers¶

See command:

lxc publish

Build images¶

For building your own images, you can use distrobuilder (a tool developed by us).

Install distrobuilder¶

You can install distrobuilder via snap or compile it manually:

Install via Snap¶

See https://snapcraft.io/distrobuilder.

Compile¶

See Instructions on distrobuilder GitHub repo.

Write or edit a template¶

You need an image template (e.g. ubuntu.yaml) to give instructions to distrobuilder.

You can start by using one of the example templates below. Modify those templates so they fit your needs.

See Template details below for an overview of configuration keys.

Example templates¶

Standard template (includes all available options): https://github.com/lxc/distrobuilder/blob/master/doc/examples/scheme.yaml

Official LXD templates for various distributions: https://github.com/lxc/lxc-ci/tree/master/images

Template details¶

You can define multiple keys in templates:

Build an image¶

Container image¶

Build a container image with:

distrobuilder build-lxd filename [target folder]

Replace:

• filename - with a template file (e.g. ubuntu.yaml).
• (optional)[target folder] - with the path to a folder of your choice; if not set, distrobuilder will use the current folder

After the image is built, see Import images for how to import your image to LXD.

See Building.md on distrobuilder's GitHub repo for details.

Virtual machine image¶

Build a virtual machine image with:

distrobuilder build-lxd filename --vm [target folder]

Replace:

• filename - with a template file (e.g. ubuntu.yaml).
• (optional)[target folder] - with the path to a folder of your choice; if not set, distrobuilder will use the current folder

After the image is built, see Import images for how to import your image to LXD.

More information¶

Distrobuilder GitHub repo

Distrobuilder documentation

Networks¶

See LXD-documentation for details:

• Networks documentation
• Network devices
• Proxy devices

Storages¶

See LXD-documentation for details:

Storage documentation

Command aliases¶

You can create internal command aliases with:

lxc alias

List all aliases:

lxc alias list

Create a new alias:

lxc alias add <alias> <target>

For example:

lxc alias add delete "delete -i"

This will link the command lxc delete to lxc delete -i. So if you run lxc delete the LXD-client will run lxc delete -i instead.

Tips & tricks¶

Prevent accidental deletion of an instance¶

Method 1: Set an alias to be always prompted for approval when using lxc delete:

lxc alias add delete "delete -i"

Method 2: Or apply this configuration key to the instance: security.protection.delete=true

This way the instance can't be deleted, until you change this config key.

Further information & links¶

You find more information on the following pages:

• LXD documentation

• Forum

  • Tutorials Section