How to manage instances¶
When listing the existing instances, you can see their type, status, and location (if applicable). You can filter the instances and display only the ones that you are interested in.
Enter the following command to list all instances:
lxc list
You can filter the instances that are displayed, for example, by type, status or the cluster member where the instance is located:
lxc list type=container
lxc list status=running
lxc list location=server1
You can also filter by name. To list several instances, use a regular expression for the name. For example:
lxc list ubuntu.*
Enter lxc list --help to see all filter options.
Query the /1.0/instances endpoint to list all instances.
You can use Recursion to display more information about the instances:
lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances?recursion=2
You can filter the instances that are displayed, by name, type, status or the cluster member where the instance is located:
lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances?filter=name+eq+ubuntu
lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances?filter=type+eq+container
lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances?filter=status+eq+running
lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances?filter=location+eq+server1
To list several instances, use a regular expression for the name. For example:
lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances?filter=name+eq+ubuntu.*
See GET /1.0/instances for more information.
Go to Instances to see a list of all instances.
You can filter the instances that are displayed by status, instance type, or the profile they use by selecting the corresponding filter.
In addition, you can search for instances by entering a search text. The text you enter is matched against the name, the description, and the name of the base image.
Show information about an instance¶
Enter the following command to show detailed information about an instance:
lxc info <instance_name>
Add --show-log to the command to show the latest log lines for the instance:
lxc info <instance_name> --show-log
Query the following endpoint to show detailed information about an instance:
lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances/<instance_name>
See GET /1.0/instances/{name} for more information.
Clicking an instance line in the overview will show a summary of the instance information right next to the instance list.
Click the instance name to go to the instance detail page, which contains detailed information about the instance.
Start an instance¶
Enter the following command to start an instance:
lxc start <instance_name>
You will get an error if the instance does not exist or if it is running already.
To immediately attach to the console when starting, pass the --console flag.
For example:
lxc start <instance_name> --console
See How to access the console for more information.
To start an instance, send a PUT request to change the instance state:
lxc query --request PUT /1.0/instances/<instance_name>/state --data '{"action": "start"}'
The return value of this query contains an operation ID, which you can use to query the status of the operation:
lxc query --request GET /1.0/operations/<operation_ID>
Use the following query to monitor the state of the instance:
lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances/<instance_name>/state
See GET /1.0/instances/{name}/state and PUT /1.0/instances/{name}/statefor more information.
To start an instance, go to the instance list or the respective instance and click the Start button (▷).
You can also start several instances at the same time by selecting them in the instance list and clicking the Start button at the top.
On the instance detail page, select the Console tab to see the boot log with information about the instance starting up. Once it is running, you can select the Terminal tab to access the instance.
Stop an instance¶
Enter the following command to stop an instance:
lxc stop <instance_name>
You will get an error if the instance does not exist or if it is not running.
To stop an instance, send a PUT request to change the instance state:
lxc query --request PUT /1.0/instances/<instance_name>/state --data '{"action": "stop"}'
The return value of this query contains an operation ID, which you can use to query the status of the operation:
lxc query --request GET /1.0/operations/<operation_ID>
Use the following query to monitor the state of the instance:
lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances/<instance_name>/state
See GET /1.0/instances/{name}/state and PUT /1.0/instances/{name}/statefor more information.
To stop an instance, go to the instance list or the respective instance and click the Stop button (□). You are then prompted to confirm.
Tip
To skip the confirmation prompt, hold the Shift key while clicking.
You can choose to force-stop the instance. If stopping the instance takes a long time or the instance is not responding to the stop request, click the spinning stop button to go back to the confirmation prompt, where you can select to force-stop the instance.
You can also stop several instances at the same time by selecting them in the instance list and clicking the Stop button at the top.
Delete an instance¶
If you don’t need an instance anymore, you can remove it. The instance must be stopped before you can delete it.
Enter the following command to delete an instance:
lxc delete <instance_name>
To delete an instance, send a DELETE request to the instance:
lxc query --request DELETE /1.0/instances/<instance_name>
See DELETE /1.0/instances/{name} for more information.
To delete an instance, go to its instance detail page and click Delete instance. You are then prompted to confirm.
Tip
To skip the confirmation prompt, hold the Shift key while clicking.
You can also delete several instances at the same time by selecting them in the instance list and clicking the Delete button at the top.
Caution
This command permanently deletes the instance and all its snapshots.
Prevent accidental deletion of instances¶
There are different ways to prevent accidental deletion of instances:
To protect a specific instance from being deleted, set
security.protection.deletetotruefor the instance. See How to configure instances for instructions.In the CLI client, you can create an alias to be prompted for approval every time you use the
lxc deletecommand:lxc alias add delete "delete -i"
Rebuild an instance¶
If you want to wipe and re-initialize the root disk of your instance but keep the instance configuration, you can rebuild the instance.
Rebuilding is only possible for instances that do not have any snapshots.
Stop your instance before rebuilding it.
Enter the following command to rebuild the instance with a different image:
lxc rebuild <image_name> <instance_name>
Enter the following command to rebuild the instance with an empty root disk:
lxc rebuild <instance_name> --empty
For more information about the rebuild command, see lxc rebuild --help.
To rebuild the instance with a different image, send a POST request to the instance’s rebuild endpoint.
For example:
lxc query --request POST /1.0/instances/<instance_name>/rebuild --data '{
"source": {
"alias": "<image_alias>",
"protocol": "simplestreams",
"server": "<server_URL>"
}
}'
To rebuild the instance with an empty root disk, specify the source type as none:
lxc query --request POST /1.0/instances/<instance_name>/rebuild --data '{
"source": {
"type": "none"
}
}'
See POST /1.0/instances/{name}/rebuild for more information.
Rebuilding an instance is not yet supported in the UI.