How to Quickly Spin Up Ubuntu VMs with Multipass: A Step‑by‑Step Guide

While VMware is a well‑known VM tool, it requires a paid license; Multipass offers a free, lightweight alternative that runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Multipass

Multipass is a lightweight command‑line VM management tool that simplifies creating and managing Ubuntu instances.

Getting Started

Download and install Multipass from the official website for your operating system (example shown for Windows).

After installation, verify the version:

<code>$ multipass version</code>

Create an Ubuntu VM

List available Ubuntu images:

<code>$ multipass find</code>

The command returns a table of images, such as core18, core20, 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, etc.

<code>Image               Aliases   Version   Description</code>

Launch a new container named dg :

<code>$ multipass launch --name dg
Launched: dg</code>

Check the Ubuntu version inside the VM:

<code>$ multipass exec dg -- lsb_release -d
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS</code>

Managing the VM

List VMs after creation:

<code>Name        State    IPv4          Image
dg          Running  192.168.24.5  Ubuntu 18.04 LTS</code>

The VM is running with IP address 192.168.24.5.

Enter the VM shell :

<code>$ multipass shell dg</code>

Alternatively, use multipass exec for one‑off commands.

Pause / restart :

<code># pause
$ multipass stop dg
# start
$ multipass start dg</code>

Delete / purge :

<code># delete
$ multipass delete dg
# purge
$ multipass purge dg</code>

Automating Configuration

Use --cloud-init with a YAML file to run commands on first boot:

<code>$ multipass launch --name ubuntu --cloud-init config.yaml</code>

Example config.yaml :

<code>#cloud-config

runcmd:
  - curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
  - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
  - wget https://releases.leanapp.cn/leancloud/lean-cli/releases/download/v0.21.0/lean-cli-x64.deb
  - sudo dpkg -i lean-cli-x64.deb</code>

The runcmd section runs these commands when the container first starts.

Conclusion

After using Multipass for a while, it proves useful for quick Linux experiments and small database clusters, though it only supports Ubuntu images because it is developed by Canonical.

Related Links

Official site: https://multipass.run/ Documentation: https://multipass.run/docs/