Projects

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LXD supports projects as a way to split your LXD server. Each project holds its own set of instances and may also have its own images and profiles.

What a project contains is defined through the features configuration keys. When a feature is disabled, the project inherits from the default project.

By default all new projects get the entire feature set, on upgrade, existing projects do not get new features enabled.

The key/value configuration is namespaced with the following namespaces currently supported:

• features (What part of the project feature set is in use)

• limits (Resource limits applied on containers and VMs belonging to the project)

• user (free form key/value for user metadata)

Key	Type	Condition	Default	Description
backups.compression_algorithm	string	-	-	Compression algorithm to use for backups (bzip2, gzip, lzma, xz or none) in the project
features.images	bool	-	true	Separate set of images and image aliases for the project
features.networks	bool	-	false	Separate set of networks for the project
features.profiles	bool	-	true	Separate set of profiles for the project
features.storage.volumes	bool	-	true	Separate set of storage volumes for the project
images.auto_update_cached	bool	-	-	Whether to automatically update any image that LXD caches
images.auto_update_interval	integer	-	-	Interval in hours at which to look for update to cached images (0 disables it)
images.compression_algorithm	string	-	-	Compression algorithm to use for images (bzip2, gzip, lzma, xz or none) in the project
images.default_architecture	string	-	-	Default architecture which should be used in mixed architecture cluster
images.remote_cache_expiry	integer	-	-	Number of days after which an unused cached remote image will be flushed in the project
limits.containers	integer	-	-	Maximum number of containers that can be created in the project
limits.cpu	integer	-	-	Maximum value for the sum of individual limits.cpu configurations set on the instances of the project
limits.disk	string	-	-	Maximum value of aggregate disk space used by all instances volumes, custom volumes and images of the project
limits.instances	integer	-	-	Maximum number of total instances that can be created in the project
limits.memory	string	-	-	Maximum value for the sum of individual limits.memory configurations set on the instances of the project
limits.networks	integer	-	-	Maximum value for the number of networks this project can have
limits.processes	integer	-	-	Maximum value for the sum of individual limits.processes configurations set on the instances of the project
limits.virtual-machines	integer	-	-	Maximum number of VMs that can be created in the project
restricted	bool	-	false	Block access to security-sensitive features (this must be enabled to allow the restricted.* keys to take effect, this is so it can be temporarily disabled if needed without having to clear the related keys)
restricted.backups	string	-	block	Prevents the creation of any instance or volume backups.
restricted.cluster.groups	string	-	-	Prevents targeting cluster groups other than the provided ones.
restricted.cluster.target	string	-	block	Prevents direct targeting of cluster members when creating or moving instances.
restricted.containers.lowlevel	string	-	block	Prevents use of low-level container options like raw.lxc, raw.idmap, volatile etc.
restricted.containers.nesting	string	-	block	Prevents setting security.nesting=true.
restricted.containers.privilege	string	-	unpriviliged	If unpriviliged, prevents setting security.privileged=true. If isolated, prevents setting security.privileged=true and also security.idmap.isolated=true. If allow, no restriction apply.
restricted.containers.interception	string	-	block	Prevents use for system call interception options. When set to allow usually safe interception options will be allowed (file system mounting will remain blocked).
restricted.devices.disk	string	-	managed	If block prevent use of disk devices except the root one. If managed allow use of disk devices only if pool= is set. If allow, no restrictions apply.
restricted.devices.disk.paths	string	-	-	If restricted.devices.disk is set to allow, this sets a comma-separated list of path prefixes that restrict the source setting on disk devices. If empty then all paths are allowed.
restricted.devices.gpu	string	-	block	Prevents use of devices of type gpu
restricted.devices.infiniband	string	-	block	Prevents use of devices of type infiniband
restricted.devices.nic	string	-	managed	If block prevent use of all network devices. If managed allow use of network devices only if network= is set. If allow, no restrictions apply. This also controls access to networks.
restricted.devices.pci	string	-	block	Prevents use of devices of type pci
restricted.devices.proxy	string	-	block	Prevents use of devices of type proxy
restricted.devices.unix-block	string	-	block	Prevents use of devices of type unix-block
restricted.devices.unix-char	string	-	block	Prevents use of devices of type unix-char
restricted.devices.unix-hotplug	string	-	block	Prevents use of devices of type unix-hotplug
restricted.devices.usb	string	-	block	Prevents use of devices of type usb
restricted.idmap.uid	string	-	-	Specifies the allowed host UID ranges allowed in the instance raw.idmap setting.
restricted.idmap.gid	string	-	-	Specifies the allowed host GID ranges allowed in the instance raw.idmap setting.
restricted.networks.access	string	-	-	Comma-delimited list of network names that are allowed for use in this project. If not set, all networks are accessible (depending on the restricted.devices.nic setting).
restricted.networks.subnets	string	-	block	Comma-delimited list of network subnets from the uplink networks (in the form <uplink>:<subnet>) that are allocated for use in this project
restricted.networks.uplinks	string	-	block	Comma-delimited list of network names that can be used as uplink for networks in this project
restricted.networks.zones	string	-	block	Comma-delimited list of network zones that can be used (or something under them) in this project
restricted.snapshots	string	-	block	Prevents the creation of any instance or volume snapshots.
restricted.virtual-machines.lowlevel	string	-	block	Prevents use of low-level virtual-machine options like raw.qemu, volatile etc.

Those keys can be set using the lxc tool with:

lxc project set <project> <key> <value>

Project limits

Note that to be able to set one of the limits.* configuration keys, all instances in the project must have that same configuration key defined, either directly or via a profile.

In addition to that:

• The limits.cpu configuration key also requires that CPU pinning is not used.

• The limits.memory configuration key must be set to an absolute value, not a percentage.

The limits.* configuration keys defined on a project act as a hard upper bound for the aggregate value of the individual limits.* configuration keys defined on the project’s instances, either directly or via profiles.

For example, setting the project’s limits.memory configuration key to 50GB means that the sum of the individual values of all limits.memory configuration keys defined on the project’s instances will be kept under 50GB. Trying to create or modify an instance assigning it a limits.memory value that would make the total sum exceed 50GB, will result in an error.

Similarly, setting the project’s limits.cpu configuration key to 100, means that the sum of individual limits.cpu values will be kept below 100.

Project restrictions

If the restricted configuration key is set to true, then the instances of the project won’t be able to access security-sensitive features, such as container nesting, raw LXC configuration, etc.

The exact set of features that the restricted configuration key blocks may grow across LXD releases, as more features are added that are considered security-sensitive.

Using the various restricted.* sub-keys, it’s possible to pick individual features which would be normally blocked by restricted and allow them, so they can be used by instances of the project.

For example:

lxc project set <project> restricted=true
lxc project set <project> restricted.containers.nesting=allow

will block all security-sensitive features except container nesting.

Each security-sensitive feature has an associated restricted.* project configuration sub-key whose default value needs to be explicitly changed if you want for that feature to be allowed it in the project.

Note that changing the value of a specific restricted.* configuration key has an effect only if the top-level restricted key itself is currently set to true. If restricted is set to false, changing a restricted.* sub-key is effectively a no-op.

Most 'restricted.* configuration keys are binary switches that can be set to either block (the default) or allow. However some of them support other values for more fine-grained control.

Setting all restricted.* keys to allow is effectively equivalent to setting restricted itself to false.