lxd Installation Guide Installation Guide

lxd is a free and open-source next generation system container manager. LXD offers a user experience similar to virtual machines but using Linux containers, providing an alternative to traditional VMs

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 512MB minimum (2GB+ recommended)

Storage: 3GB for installation

Network: REST API over HTTPS

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 8443 (default lxd port)

Clustering ports if used

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install lxd
sudo dnf install -y lxd

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now lxd

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
lxd --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install lxd
sudo apt install -y lxd

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now lxd

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 8443

# Verify installation
lxd --version

bash

# Install lxd
sudo pacman -S lxd

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now lxd

# Verify installation
lxd --version

bash

# Install lxd
apk add --no-cache lxd

# Enable and start service
rc-update add lxd default
rc-service lxd start

# Verify installation
lxd --version

bash

# Install lxd
sudo zypper install -y lxd

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now lxd

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
lxd --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install lxd

# Start service
brew services start lxd

# Verify installation
lxd --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install lxd

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'lxd_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service lxd start

# Verify installation
lxd --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install lxd

# Or using Scoop
scoop install lxd

# Verify installation
lxd --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/lxd

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
lxd --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable lxd

# Start service
sudo systemctl start lxd

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop lxd

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart lxd

# Check status
sudo systemctl status lxd

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u lxd -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add lxd default

# Start service
rc-service lxd start

# Stop service
rc-service lxd stop

# Restart service
rc-service lxd restart

# Check status
rc-service lxd status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'lxd_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service lxd start

# Stop service
service lxd stop

# Restart service
service lxd restart

# Check status
service lxd status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start lxd
brew services stop lxd
brew services restart lxd

# Check status
brew services list | grep lxd

powershell

# Start service
net start lxd

# Stop service
net stop lxd

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service lxd
Stop-Service lxd
Restart-Service lxd

# Check status
Get-Service lxd

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream lxd_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:8443;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name lxd.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name lxd.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/lxd.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/lxd.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://lxd_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName lxd.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://lxd.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName lxd.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/lxd.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/lxd.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8443/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8443/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend lxd_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/lxd.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend lxd_backend

backend lxd_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server lxd1 127.0.0.1:8443 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R lxd:lxd /etc/lxd
sudo chmod 750 /etc/lxd

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status lxd

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u lxd -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep lxd)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/lxd"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/lxd-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/lxd /var/lib/lxd

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/lxd-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop lxd

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/lxd/lxd-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start lxd

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u lxd -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/lxd/lxd.log

# Check configuration
lxd --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/lxd

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 8443

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 8443

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep lxd)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep lxd)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 8443

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  lxd:
    image: lxd:latest
    ports:
      - "8443:8443"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/lxd
      - ./data:/var/lib/lxd
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update lxd

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade lxd

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu lxd

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade lxd

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update lxd

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade lxd

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/lxd-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/lxd

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart lxd

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/lxd

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/lxd -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/lxd

Official Documentation: https://docs.lxd.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/lxd/lxd

Community Forum: https://forum.lxd.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.lxd.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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