Using Multipass to Create and Manage Ubuntu Virtual Machines

Multipass is a lightweight, cross‑platform command‑line tool for creating and managing Ubuntu virtual machines. It runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS, offering a quick way to spin up disposable environments for development and testing.

Installation : Download the appropriate installer from the official website and install it on your operating system (the example uses Windows).

After installation, verify the version:

$ multipass version

Finding available Ubuntu images :

$ multipass find

The command lists various Ubuntu releases (e.g., 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, 20.10) along with their aliases.

Launching a new instance named dg :

$ multipass launch --name dg

The VM starts and you can confirm its details:

$ multipass exec dg -- lsb_release -d

Output shows the description, e.g., Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS .

Managing the VM :

List running instances: Name State IPv4 Image dg Running 192.168.24.5 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Show detailed info: $ multipass info --all Name: dg State: Running IPv4: 192.168.24.5 Release: Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS Load: 0.00 0.00 0.00 Disk usage: 1.5G out of 4.7G Memory usage: 112.1M out of 985.7M

Enter the VM shell: $ multipass shell dg

Pause and resume: $ multipass stop dg $ multipass start dg

Delete and purge: $ multipass delete dg $ multipass purge dg

Automating setup with cloud‑init : Use the --cloud-init flag to apply a configuration file 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

The runcmd section runs these commands on first boot, allowing you to provision tools automatically.

Conclusion : Multipass provides a fast, low‑overhead way to create Ubuntu VMs for experiments, small database clusters, or any scenario where a reproducible environment is needed. Its limitation is that it only supports Ubuntu images, as it is maintained by Canonical.

For more information, visit the official site https://multipass.run/ and the documentation https://multipass.run/docs/ .