Quickly Spin Up Ubuntu VMs with Multipass on Any OS

Multipass Overview

While VMware is powerful, it requires a paid license; Multipass is a free, lightweight command‑line tool that runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS, allowing you to quickly create and manage Ubuntu virtual machines.

Installation

Download the appropriate installer from the official Multipass website for your operating system (e.g., Windows) and install it.

Check Version

multipass version

Create an Ubuntu VM

List available Ubuntu images: multipass find Launch a new instance named dg (default Ubuntu image): multipass launch --name dg Verify the VM is running:

multipass list

Inspect the VM

multipass info --all

Enter the VM shell:

multipass shell dg

Control the VM

Pause or start the VM:

# Pause
multipass stop dg
# Start
multipass start dg

Delete or purge the VM:

# Delete
multipass delete dg
# Purge (release resources)
multipass purge dg

Automate with Cloud‑Init

Use the --cloud-init flag to apply an initialization script when launching a VM:

multipass launch --name ubuntu --cloud-init config.yaml

Example config.yaml:

#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

Conclusion

Multipass enables rapid setup of Ubuntu environments for Linux experiments or small database clusters, though it currently supports only Ubuntu images because it is developed by Canonical.