Why Multipass Is the Fastest Way to Spin Up Ubuntu VMs on Any Platform

Overview

Multipass is a lightweight command‑line tool for creating and managing Ubuntu virtual machines. It runs on Linux (using QEMU/KVM), Windows (using Hyper‑V), and macOS (using HyperKit), selecting the most efficient hypervisor for the host OS. The tool is open‑source, maintained by Canonical, and currently provides only Ubuntu images.

Installation

Download the installer for the target platform from the official site:

https://multipass.run/install

Run the installer, then verify the installed version:

$ multipass version

Listing available Ubuntu images

Use multipass find to enumerate all published images. A typical table includes:

Image                     Aliases   Version   Description
snapcraft:core18         20201111  Snapcraft builder for Core 18
snapcraft:core20         20201111  Snapcraft builder for Core 20
core                     core16    20200818  Ubuntu Core 16
core18                   20200812  Ubuntu Core 18
16.04                    xenial    20210128  Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
18.04                    bionic    20210129  Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
20.04                    focal,lts 20210223  Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
20.10                    groovy    20210209  Ubuntu 20.10
appliance:adguard-home   20200812  Ubuntu AdGuard Home Appliance
appliance:mosquitto      20200812  Ubuntu Mosquitto Appliance
appliance:nextcloud      20200812  Ubuntu Nextcloud Appliance
appliance:openhab        20200812  Ubuntu openHAB Home Appliance
appliance:plexmediaserver20200812 Ubuntu Plex Media Server Appliance

Creating a VM

Launch a new instance named dg with the default Ubuntu image:

$ multipass launch --name dg
Launched: dg

Confirm the OS release inside the VM:

$ multipass exec dg -- lsb_release -d
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS

Inspecting instances

List running instances:

Name   State    IPv4          Image
 dg    Running  192.168.24.5  Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Show detailed resource usage:

$ multipass info --all
Name:           dg
State:          Running
IPv4:           192.168.24.5
Release:        Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS
Image hash:     fe3030933742 (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS)
Load:           0.00 0.00 0.00
Disk usage:     1.5G out of 4.7G
Memory usage:   112.1M out of 985.7M

Accessing the VM

Open an interactive shell: $ multipass shell dg Or run a single command without entering the shell (as shown above with multipass exec).

Lifecycle management

Pause the instance: $ multipass stop dg Start it again: $ multipass start dg Delete marks the VM for removal; purge releases the allocated resources:

$ multipass delete dg
$ multipass purge dg

Automating initialization with cloud‑init

Provide a cloud‑init YAML file to run commands on first boot. Launch with:

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

Sample config.yaml that installs Node.js 12 and the LeanCloud CLI:

#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 executes these commands automatically during the first boot of the instance.