Multipass cheatsheet¶

Multipass Commands¶

find
launch
multipass list
multipass shell \<VM name>

Example command:

multipass launch lunar --name VM1 --disk 20G -m 2G -c 1 --cloud-init cloud-config.yml

Multipass Information¶

snap info multipass
name:      multipass
summary:   Instant Ubuntu VMs
description: |
  Multipass is a tool to launch and manage VMs on Windows, Mac, and Linux that simulates a cloud
  environment with support for cloud-init. Get Ubuntu on-demand with clean integration to your IDE
  and version control on your native platform.

  Launch an instance (by default you get the current Ubuntu LTS)

     multipass launch --name foo

  Run commands in that instance, try running bash (logout or ctrl-d to quit)

     multipass exec foo -- lsb_release -a

  Pass a cloud-init metadata file to an instance on launch

     multipass launch -n bar --cloud-init cloud-config.yaml

  See your instances

     multipass list

  Stop and start instances

     multipass stop <instance_name>
     multipass stop --force <instance_name>
     multipass start <instance_name>

  Get help

     multipass help

::: admonition What is Multipass?

Multipass is a mini-cloud on your workstation. :::

Multipass is already a very user-friendly tool, offering ultra-lightweight virtualization that is very easy to use. There are multiple older alternatives, such as [Vagrant]{.title-ref}, for example.

Tutorial

Installation¶

$ snap install multipass
multipass 1.8.0 from Canonical✓ installed

The multipass service is managed by systemd on Linux, making it very easy to manage:

systemctl status snap.multipass.multipassd

Launch¶

# Spin up an Ubuntu 20.04 instance
# multipass launch 20.04
Launched: accustomed-corgi

$ multipass exec glowing-ibex -- uname -rp
5.4.0-94-generic aarch64

# Delete VM
$ multipass delete glowing-ibex

# Permanently delete VM
$ multipass delete glowing-ibex

$ multipass ls
Name                    State             IPv4             Image
glowing-ibex            Deleted           --               Not Available
$ multipass purge
$ multipass ls
No instances found.

Launch Examples:

multipass launch --name debian11 -vvvv https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/debian-11-generic-amd64.qcow2
multipass launch --name debian12 -vvvv https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-generic-amd64.qcow2
multipass launch --name testvm --cloud-init cloud-init.yaml 23.10
multipass launch --name debian12 --cloud-init cloud-init.yaml https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-generic-amd64.qcow2

Find Image¶

multipass find

Image                       Aliases           Version          Description
20.04                       focal,lts         20220118         Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
21.10                       impish            20220118         Ubuntu 21.10
daily:22.04                 devel,jammy       20220123         Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
docker                                        latest           A Docker environment with Portainer and related tools
minikube                                      latest           Minikube is local Kubernetes

Virtual Machine Configuration¶

multipass launch --name k3s --cpus 4 --mem 2048M --disk 5G

You can list available instances with the command:

$ multipass list

Or stop or start your instances with:

$ multipass stop my-instance
$ multipass start my-instance

Of course, you can execute a shell in your instance:

$ multipass shell my-instance

or:

$ multipass exec k3s -- bash

Miscellaneous¶

Simple to use

You can manage the entire VM lifecycle with 3 commands.

Spin up an Ubuntu 20.04 VM: [multipass launch 20.04]{.title-ref}
Enter the VM terminal: [multipass shell \<vm name>]{.title-ref}
Delete the VM: [multipass delete \<vm name>]{.title-ref}

Simple VM Customization¶

Launch VM with 2 CPUs:
```
multipass launch 20.04 --cpus 2
```
Launch VM with 1GB memory:
```
multipass launch 20.04 --mem 1G
```
Launch VM with 5GB disk:
```
multipass launch 20.04 --disk 5G
```

Mount a Directory¶

Mount a host directory to VM:

multipass mount /host/path <vm name>:/some/path

Mount a partition as native:

multipass mount -u 1000:1000 -g 1000:1000 -t native <directory_path> <machine_name>:<destination_path>

To unmount:

multipass umount <machine_name>:<mounted_path>

Simple File Transfers¶

Transfer a file from host to VM:

multipass transfer script.sh <vm name>:/tmp/script.sh

Transfer a file from VM to host:

multipass transfer <vm name>:/root/script.sh /path/on/host

::: note ::: title Note :::

The [-r]{.title-ref} option allows you to copy (recursively) a directory. :::

Delete¶

Simple cleanup (and recovery):

Delete a VM: multipass delete <vm name>
Permanently delete all VMs: multipass purge
Recover a deleted VM: multipass recover <vm name>

Multipass Info¶

Allows you to get the IP address without opening a shell:

multipass info <name>
Name:           <name>
State:          Running
Snapshots:      0
IPv4:           10.190.208.11
Release:        Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Image hash:     bc984eb1d1ef (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS)
CPU(s):         1
Load:           0.00 0.00 0.00
Disk usage:     2.0GiB out of 4.8GiB
Memory usage:   348.7MiB out of 956.1MiB

Purge or Recover¶

multipass purge: Deletes all instances marked for \"deletion\"

multipass delete --purge <vmname>
multipass purge

Networks¶

[multipass networks]{.title-ref} allows you to configure the network (add interfaces, bridges, routes to another VM, etc...)

::: note ::: title Note :::

At least one important point about network configuration:

The virtual machine must be able to communicate with the outside (bridge mode)
The virtual machine must be able to communicate with the host machine
The virtual machine must be able to communicate with other VMs hosted on the host machine :::

The Service¶

The service is managed by [systemctl]{.title-ref}

systemctl status snap.multipass.multipassd