Get started with MicroCloud¶

MicroCloud is quick to set up. Once installed, you can start using MicroCloud in the same way as a regular LXD cluster.

This tutorial guides you through installing and initializing MicroCloud in a confined environment, then starting some instances to see what you can do with MicroCloud. It uses LXD virtual machines (VMs) for the MicroCloud cluster members, so you don’t need any extra hardware to follow the tutorial.

Tip

While VMs are used as cluster members for this tutorial, we recommend that you use physical machines in a production environment. You can use VMs as cluster members in testing or development environments. To do so, your host machine must have nested virtualization enabled. See the Ubuntu Server documentation on how to check if nested virtualization is enabled.

We also limit each machine in this tutorial to 2 GiB of RAM, which is less than the recommended hardware requirements. In the context of this tutorial, this amount of RAM is sufficient. However, in a production environment, make sure to use machines that fulfill the Hardware requirements.

1. Install and initialize LXD¶

Note

You can skip this step if you already have a LXD server installed and initialized on your host machine. However, you should make sure that you have a storage pool set up that is big enough to store four VMs. We recommend a minimum storage pool size of 40 GiB.

MicroCloud requires LXD version 5.21:

Install snapd:
1. Run snap version to find out if snap is installed on your system:
  
  ~$ snap version
  snap 2.59.4snapd 2.59.4series 16ubuntu 24.04kernel 5.15.0-73-generic
  
  If you see a table of version numbers, snap is installed. If the version for snapd is 2.59 or later, you are all set and can continue with the next step of installing LXD.
2. If the version for snapd is earlier than 2.59, or if the snap version command returns an error, run the following commands to install the latest version of snapd:
```
sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd
```
If LXD is already installed, enter the following command to update it:
```
sudo snap refresh lxd --channel=5.21/stable
```
Otherwise, enter the following command to install LXD:
```
sudo snap install lxd
```
Enter the following command to initialize LXD:
```
lxd init
```
Accept the default values except for the following questions:
- Size in GiB of the new loop device (1GiB minimum)
  
  Enter 40.
- What IPv4 address should be used? (CIDR subnet notation, “auto” or “none”)
  
  Enter 10.1.123.1/24.
- What IPv6 address should be used? (CIDR subnet notation, “auto” or “none”)
  
  Enter fd42:1:1234:1234::1/64.
- Would you like the LXD server to be available over the network? (yes/no)
  
  Enter yes.
Modify the default network so we can later define specific IPv6 addresses for the VMs:
```
lxc network set lxdbr0 ipv6.dhcp.stateful true
```

Note

In the steps above, we ask you to specify the IP addresses to be used instead of accepting the defaults. While this is not strictly required for this setup, it causes the example IPs displayed in this tutorial to match what you see on your system, which improves clarity.

2. Provide storage disks¶

MicroCloud supports both local and remote storage. For local storage, you need one disk per cluster member. For remote storage with high availability (HA), you need at least three disks that are located across three different cluster members.

In this tutorial, we will set up each of the four cluster members with local storage. We will also set up three of the cluster members with remote storage. In total, we will set up seven disks. It’s possible to add remote storage on the fourth cluster member, if desired. However, it is not required for HA.

Complete the following steps to create the required disks in a LXD storage pool:

Create a ZFS storage pool called disks:

lxc storage create disks zfs size=100GiB

Configure the default volume size for the disks pool:
```
lxc storage set disks volume.size 10GiB
```

Create four disks to use for local storage:

lxc storage volume create disks local1 --type block
lxc storage volume create disks local2 --type block
lxc storage volume create disks local3 --type block
lxc storage volume create disks local4 --type block

Create three disks to use for remote storage:

lxc storage volume create disks remote1 --type block size=20GiB
lxc storage volume create disks remote2 --type block size=20GiB
lxc storage volume create disks remote3 --type block size=20GiB

Check that the disks have been created correctly:

root@micro1:~# lxc storage volume list disks
+--------+---------+-------------+--------------+---------+| TYPE | NAME | DESCRIPTION | CONTENT-TYPE | USED BY |+--------+---------+-------------+--------------+---------+| custom | local1 | | block | 0 |+--------+---------+-------------+--------------+---------+| custom | local2 | | block | 0 |+--------+---------+-------------+--------------+---------+| custom | local3 | | block | 0 |+--------+---------+-------------+--------------+---------+| custom | local4 | | block | 0 |+--------+---------+-------------+--------------+---------+| custom | remote1 | | block | 0 |+--------+---------+-------------+--------------+---------+| custom | remote2 | | block | 0 |+--------+---------+-------------+--------------+---------+| custom | remote3 | | block | 0 |+--------+---------+-------------+--------------+---------+

3. Create a network¶

MicroCloud requires an uplink network that the cluster members can use for external connectivity. See Networking for more information.

Complete the following steps to set up this network:

Create a bridge network without any parameters:
```
lxc network create microbr0
```
Enter the following commands to find out the assigned IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for the network, and note them down:
```
lxc network get microbr0 ipv4.address
lxc network get microbr0 ipv6.address
```

4. Create and configure your VMs¶

Next, we’ll create the VMs that will serve as the MicroCloud cluster members.

Complete the following steps:

Create the VMs, but don’t start them yet:

lxc init ubuntu:24.04 micro1 --vm --config limits.cpu=2 --config limits.memory=2GiB -d eth0,ipv4.address=10.1.123.10 -d eth0,ipv6.address=fd42:1:1234:1234::10
lxc init ubuntu:24.04 micro2 --vm --config limits.cpu=2 --config limits.memory=2GiB -d eth0,ipv4.address=10.1.123.20 -d eth0,ipv6.address=fd42:1:1234:1234::20
lxc init ubuntu:24.04 micro3 --vm --config limits.cpu=2 --config limits.memory=2GiB -d eth0,ipv4.address=10.1.123.30 -d eth0,ipv6.address=fd42:1:1234:1234::30
lxc init ubuntu:24.04 micro4 --vm --config limits.cpu=2 --config limits.memory=2GiB -d eth0,ipv4.address=10.1.123.40 -d eth0,ipv6.address=fd42:1:1234:1234::40

Tip

Run these commands in sequence, not in parallel.

LXD downloads the image the first time you use it to initialize a VM. For subsequent runs, LXD uses the cached image. Therefore, the init command will take longer to complete on the first run.

Attach the disks to the VMs:

lxc storage volume attach disks local1 micro1
lxc storage volume attach disks local2 micro2
lxc storage volume attach disks local3 micro3
lxc storage volume attach disks local4 micro4
lxc storage volume attach disks remote1 micro1
lxc storage volume attach disks remote2 micro2
lxc storage volume attach disks remote3 micro3

Create and add network interfaces that use the dedicated MicroCloud network to each VM:

lxc config device add micro1 eth1 nic network=microbr0
lxc config device add micro2 eth1 nic network=microbr0
lxc config device add micro3 eth1 nic network=microbr0
lxc config device add micro4 eth1 nic network=microbr0

Start the VMs:

lxc start micro1
lxc start micro2
lxc start micro3
lxc start micro4

5. Install MicroCloud on each VM¶

Before you can create the MicroCloud cluster, you must install the required snaps on each VM. In addition, you must configure the network interfaces so they can be used by MicroCloud.

Complete the following steps on each VM (micro1, micro2, micro3, and micro4):

Tip

You can run the following commands in parallel on each VM. We recommend that you open three additional terminals, so that you have a terminal for each VM.

Access the shell in each VM. For example, for micro1:
```
lxc exec micro1 -- bash
```
Tip

If you get an error message stating that the LXD VM agent is not currently running, the VM hasn’t fully started up yet. Wait a while and then try again. If the error persists, try restarting the VM (lxc restart micro1).

MicroCloud requires a network interface that doesn’t have an IP address assigned. Thus, configure the network interface connected to microbr0 to refuse any IP addresses:

cat << EOF > /etc/netplan/99-microcloud.yaml
# MicroCloud requires a network interface that doesn't have an IP address
network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        enp6s0:
            accept-ra: false
            dhcp4: false
            link-local: []
EOF
chmod 0600 /etc/netplan/99-microcloud.yaml

Note

enp6s0 is the name that the VM assigns to the network interface that we previously added as eth1.

Bring the network interface up:
```
netplan apply
```

Install the required snaps:

sudo snap install lxd --channel=5.21/stable --cohort="+"
snap install microceph --channel=squid/stable --cohort="+"
snap install microovn --channel=24.03/stable --cohort="+"
snap install microcloud --channel=2/stable --cohort="+"

Note

The --cohort="+" flag in the command ensures that the same version of the snap is installed on all machines. See Synchronize updates using the cohort flag for more information.

Repeat these steps on all VMs.

6. Initialize MicroCloud¶

We use the micro1 VM to initialize MicroCloud in the instructions below, but you can use any of the four VMs.

Complete the following steps:

Access the shell in micro1 and start the initialization process:
```
lxc exec micro1 microcloud init
```
Tip

In this tutorial, we initialize MicroCloud interactively. Alternatively, you can use a preseed file for Non-interactive configuration.
Answer the questions:
1. Select yes to select more than one cluster member.
2. As the address for MicroCloud’s internal traffic, select the listed IPv4 address.
3. Copy the session passphrase.
Head to the other VMs (micro2, micro3, and micro4) and start the join process on each:
```
lxc exec micro2 microcloud join
```
In each joining cluster member, select the listed IPv4 address for MicroCloud’s internal traffic.

When prompted, enter the session passphrase for each joining member.
Return to micro1 to continue the initialization process:
1. Select all listed systems to join the cluster. These should be micro2, micro3, and micro4.
2. Select yes to set up local storage.
3. Select the listed local disks. These should be local1, local2, local3, and local4.
  
  Tip
  
  Type local to display only the local disks. The table is filtered by the characters that you type.
4. You don’t need to wipe any local disks, because we just created them. Press Enter without selecting any disks to wipe.
5. Select yes to set up distributed storage.
6. Select yes to confirm that there are fewer disks available than machines.
7. Select all listed disks (these should be remote1, remote2, and remote3).
8. You don’t need to wipe any remote disks, because we just created them. Press Enter without selecting any disks to wipe.
9. You don’t need to encrypt any disks to get started.
10. Select yes to optionally configure the CephFS distributed file system.
11. Press Enter to accept the default option for the IPv4 or IPv6 CIDR subnet address used for the Ceph internal network.
12. Press Enter to accept the default option for the IPv4 or IPv6 CIDR subnet address used for the Ceph public network.
13. Select yes to configure distributed networking.
14. Select all listed network interfaces. These should be enp6s0 on all four cluster members.
15. Specify the IPv4 address that you noted down for your microbr0 network’s IPv4 gateway.
16. Specify an IPv4 address in the address range as the first IPv4 address. For example, if your IPv4 gateway is 192.0.2.1/24, the first address could be 192.0.2.100.
17. Specify a higher IPv4 address in the range as the last IPv4 address. As we’re setting up four machines only, the range must contain a minimum of four addresses, but setting up a bigger range is more fail-safe. For example, if your IPv4 gateway is 192.0.2.1/24, the last address could be 192.0.2.254.
18. Specify the IPv6 address that you noted down for your microbr0 network as the IPv6 gateway.
19. Press Enter to accept the default option for the DNS addresses for the distributed network.
20. Press Enter to accept the default option for configuring an underlay network for OVN.

MicroCloud will now initialize the cluster. See About the initialization process for more information.

See the full process here for the initiating side:

root@micro1:~# microcloud init

Do you want to set up more than one cluster member? (yes/no) [default=yes]: yesSelect an address for MicroCloud's internal traffic:Space to select; enter to confirm; type to filter results.Up/down to move; right to select all; left to select none. +----------------------+--------+ | ADDRESS | IFACE | +----------------------+--------+> [X] | 10.1.123.10 | enp5s0 | [ ] | fd42:1:1234:1234::10 | enp5s0 | +----------------------+--------+ Using address "10.1.123.10" for MicroCloud Use the following command on systems that you want to join the cluster: microcloud join When requested enter the passphrase: koala absorbing update dorsal Verify the fingerprint "5d0808de679d" is displayed on joining systems.Waiting to detect systems ...Systems will appear in the table as they are detected. Select those that should join the cluster:Space to select; enter to confirm; type to filter results.Up/down to move; right to select all; left to select none. +---------+-------------+--------------+ | NAME | ADDRESS | FINGERPRINT | +---------+-------------+--------------+> [x] | micro3 | 10.1.123.30 | 4e80954d6a64 | [x] | micro2 | 10.1.123.20 | 84e0b50e13b3 | [x] | micro4 | 10.1.123.40 | 98667a808a99 | +---------+-------------+--------------+ Selected "micro1" at "10.1.123.10" Selected "micro3" at "10.1.123.30" Selected "micro2" at "10.1.123.20" Selected "micro4" at "10.1.123.40" Would you like to set up local storage? (yes/no) [default=yes]: yesSelect exactly one disk from each cluster member:Space to select; enter to confirm; type to filter results.Up/down to move; right to select all; left to select none. +----------+---------------+----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+

       | LOCATION |     MODEL     | CAPACITY | TYPE |                         PATH                         |

       | LOCATION |     MODEL     | CAPACITY | TYPE |                         PATH                         |

+----------+---------------+----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+> [ ] | micro1 | QEMU HARDDISK | 10.00GiB | scsi | /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_local1 | [ ] | micro2 | QEMU HARDDISK | 10.00GiB | scsi | /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_local2 | [ ] | micro3 | QEMU HARDDISK | 10.00GiB | scsi | /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_local3 | [ ] | micro4 | QEMU HARDDISK | 10.00GiB | scsi | /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_local4 | +----------+---------------+----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+ Using "/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_local3" on "micro3" for local storage pool Using "/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_local4" on "micro4" for local storage pool Using "/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_local1" on "micro1" for local storage pool Using "/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_local2" on "micro2" for local storage pool Would you like to set up distributed storage? (yes/no) [default=yes]: yesUnable to find disks on some systems. Continue anyway? (yes/no) [default=yes]: yesSelect from the available unpartitioned disks:Space to select; enter to confirm; type to filter results.Up/down to move; right to select all; left to select none. +----------+---------------+----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+

       | LOCATION |     MODEL     | CAPACITY | TYPE |                         PATH                         |

       | LOCATION |     MODEL     | CAPACITY | TYPE |                         PATH                         |

+----------+---------------+----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+> [ ] | micro1 | QEMU HARDDISK | 20.00GiB | scsi | /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_remote1 | [ ] | micro2 | QEMU HARDDISK | 20.00GiB | scsi | /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_remote2 | [ ] | micro3 | QEMU HARDDISK | 20.00GiB | scsi | /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0QEMU_QEMU_HARDDISK_lxd_remote3 | +----------+---------------+----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+ Using 1 disk(s) on "micro1" for remote storage pool Using 1 disk(s) on "micro2" for remote storage pool Using 1 disk(s) on "micro3" for remote storage pool Do you want to encrypt the selected disks? (yes/no) [default=no]: noWould you like to set up CephFS remote storage? (yes/no) [default=yes]: yesWhat subnet (either IPv4 or IPv6 CIDR notation) would you like your Ceph internal traffic on? [default: 10.1.123.0/24]:What subnet (either IPv4 or IPv6 CIDR notation) would you like your Ceph public traffic on? [default: 10.1.123.0/24]:Configure distributed networking? (yes/no) [default=yes]: yesSelect an available interface per system to provide external connectivity for distributed network(s):Space to select; enter to confirm; type to filter results.Up/down to move; right to select all; left to select none. +----------+--------+----------+ | LOCATION | IFACE | TYPE | +----------+--------+----------+> [x] | micro2 | enp6s0 | physical | [x] | micro3 | enp6s0 | physical | [x] | micro1 | enp6s0 | physical | [x] | micro4 | enp6s0 | physical | +----------+--------+----------+ Using "enp6s0" on "micro3" for OVN uplink Using "enp6s0" on "micro1" for OVN uplink Using "enp6s0" on "micro2" for OVN uplink Using "enp6s0" on "micro4" for OVN uplink Specify the IPv4 gateway (CIDR) on the uplink network (empty to skip IPv4): 192.0.2.1/24Specify the first IPv4 address in the range to use on the uplink network: 192.0.2.100Specify the last IPv4 address in the range to use on the uplink network: 192.0.2.254Specify the IPv6 gateway (CIDR) on the uplink network (empty to skip IPv6): 2001:db8:d:200::1/64

Specify the DNS addresses (comma-separated IPv4 / IPv6 addresses) for the distributed network (default: 192.0.2.1,2001:db8:d:200::1):

Configure dedicated underlay networking? (yes/no) [default=no]: Initializing new services Local MicroCloud is ready Local LXD is ready Local MicroOVN is ready Local MicroCeph is readyAwaiting cluster formation ... Peer "micro2" has joined the cluster Peer "micro3" has joined the cluster Peer "micro4" has joined the clusterConfiguring cluster-wide devices ...MicroCloud is ready

See the full process here for one of the joining sides (micro2):

root@micro1:~# microcloud join

Select an address for MicroCloud's internal traffic:Space to select; enter to confirm; type to filter results.Up/down to move; right to select all; left to select none. +----------------------+--------+ | ADDRESS | IFACE | +----------------------+--------+> [ ] | 10.1.123.20 | enp5s0 | [ ] | fd42:1:1234:1234::20 | enp5s0 | +----------------------+--------+ Using address "10.1.123.20" for MicroCloud Verify the fingerprint "84e0b50e13b3" is displayed on the other system.Specify the passphrase for joining the system: koala absorbing update dorsalSearching for an eligible system ... Found system "micro1" at "10.1.123.10" using fingerprint "5d0808de679d" Select "micro2" on "micro1" to let it join the cluster Received confirmation from system "micro1" Do not exit out to keep the session alive.Complete the remaining configuration on "micro1" ...Successfully joined the MicroCloud cluster and closing the session.Commencing cluster join of the remaining services (LXD, MicroCeph, MicroOVN)

7. Inspect your MicroCloud setup¶

You can now inspect your cluster setup.

Tip

You can run these commands on any of the cluster members. We continue using micro1, but you will see the same results on the others.

Inspect the cluster setup:

root@micro1:~# lxc cluster list
+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| NAME |            URL           |      ROLES       | ARCHITECTURE | FAILURE DOMAIN | DESCRIPTION | STATE |      MESSAGE      |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| micro1 | https://10.1.123.10:8443 | database-leader | x86_64       | default        |             | ONLINE | Fully operational ||        |                          | database         |              |                |             |        |                   |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| micro2 | https://10.1.123.20:8443 | database         | x86_64       | default        |             | ONLINE | Fully operational |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| micro3 | https://10.1.123.30:8443 | database         | x86_64       | default        |             | ONLINE | Fully operational |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| micro4 | https://10.1.123.40:8443 | database-standby | x86_64       | default        |             | ONLINE | Fully operational |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+
root@micro1:~# microcloud cluster list
+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| NAME |      ADDRESS     | ROLE     |                           FINGERPRINT                            | STATUS |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro1 | 10.1.123.10:9443 | voter    | 47a74cb2ed8b844544ce71f45e96acb2c8021d4c1ffc2f1f449cdbf2f6898fd8 | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro2 | 10.1.123.20:9443 | voter    | 56bee3adbd5e1de2186dd22788baffd5e1358e408ec3d9b713ed930741a339f2 | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro3 | 10.1.123.30:9443 | voter    | aabdd5f64d4c2796a50d6ce9d91939f248bfeb27195426158dff05d660f93f86 | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro4 | 10.1.123.40:9443 | stand-by | 649ec21815135104f1faa5fca099daddf995f554119c6e34706a2b31681ad1d7 | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+
root@micro1:~# microceph cluster list
+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| NAME |      ADDRESS     | ROLE     |                           FINGERPRINT                            | STATUS |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro1 | 10.1.123.10:7443 | voter    | a2b370cce1deb02437b583aa73be5e5c519aed75f02f4b98f6df150fd62c648a | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro2 | 10.1.123.20:7443 | voter    | e37ea1acd14b984152cac4cb861cbe35ac438151233b9d0ee606c44c2e27d759 | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro3 | 10.1.123.30:7443 | voter    | 152ccf372ecc93faffa8a6801cedd5eca49d977eea72e3f2239245cc22965399 | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro4 | 10.1.123.40:7443 | stand-by | 9b75b396f6d59481b8c14221942d775cff4d27c5621b0b541eb5ba3245618093 | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+
root@micro1:~# microovn cluster list
+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| NAME |      ADDRESS     | ROLE     |                           FINGERPRINT                            | STATUS |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro1 | 10.1.123.10:6443 | voter    | a552d316c159a50a4e11253c36a1cd25a3902bee50e24ed1e073ee7728be0410 | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro2 | 10.1.123.20:6443 | voter    | 2c779eb10409576a33fa01a29cede39abea61f7cd6a07837c369858b515ed02a | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro3 | 10.1.123.30:6443 | voter    | 7f76cddfdbbe3d768c343b1a5f402842565c25d0e4e3ebbc8514263fc14ea28b | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+| micro4 | 10.1.123.40:6443 | stand-by | 5d62b2a63dec514c45c07b24ff93e2bd83ad8b9af4ab774aad3d2ac51ee102d5 | ONLINE |+--------+------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+
Inspect the storage setup:

root@micro1:~# lxc storage list
+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------+---------+---------+| NAME | DRIVER | DESCRIPTION | USED BY | STATE |+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------+---------+---------+| local | zfs | Local storage on ZFS | 8 | CREATED |+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------+---------+---------+| remote | ceph | Distributed storage on Ceph | 1 | CREATED |+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------+---------+---------+| remote-fs | cephfs | Distributed file-system storage using Ceph | 1 | CREATED |+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------+---------+---------+
root@micro1:~# lxc storage info local
info: description: Local storage on ZFS driver: zfs name: local space used: 747.00KiB total space: 9.20GiBused by: volumes: - backups (location "micro1") - backups (location "micro2") - backups (location "micro3") - backups (location "micro4") - images (location "micro1") - images (location "micro2") - images (location "micro3") - images (location "micro4")
root@micro1:~# lxc storage info remote
info: description: Distributed storage on Ceph driver: ceph name: remote space used: 25.41KiB total space: 29.67GiBused by: profiles: - default
root@micro1:~# lxc storage info remote-fs
info: description: Distributed file-system storage using CephFS driver: cephfs name: remote-fs space used: 0B total space: 29.67GiBused by: {}
Inspect the OVN network setup:

root@micro1:~# lxc network list
+---------+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------+-------------+---------+---------+| NAME | TYPE | MANAGED | IPV4 | IPV6 | DESCRIPTION | USED BY | STATE |+---------+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------+-------------+---------+---------+| UPLINK | physical | YES | | | | 1 | CREATED |+---------+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------+-------------+---------+---------+| br-int | bridge | NO | | | | 0 | |+---------+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------+-------------+---------+---------+| default | ovn | YES | 198.51.100.1/24 | 2001:db8:d960:91cf::1/64 | | 1 | CREATED |+---------+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------+-------------+---------+---------+| enp5s0 | physical | NO | | | | 0 | |+---------+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------+-------------+---------+---------+| enp6s0 | physical | NO | | | | 1 | |+---------+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------+-------------+---------+---------+| lxdovn1 | bridge | NO | | | | 0 | |+---------+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------+-------------+---------+---------+
root@micro1:~# lxc network show default
config: bridge.mtu: "1442" ipv4.address: 198.51.100.1/24 ipv4.nat: "true" ipv6.address: 2001:db8:d960:91cf::1/64 ipv6.nat: "true" network: UPLINK volatile.network.ipv4.address: 192.0.2.100 volatile.network.ipv6.address: 2001:db8:e647:610d:216:3eff:fe96:ed5cdescription: ""name: defaulttype: ovnused_by:- /1.0/profiles/defaultmanaged: truestatus: Createdlocations:- micro1- micro3- micro2- micro4
Make sure that you can ping the virtual router within OVN.
1. Within the output of the previous command (lxc network show default), find the value for volatile.network.ipv4.address. This is the virtual router’s IPv4 address.
2. Ping that IPv4 address.
root@micro1:~# ping 192.0.2.100
PING 192.0.2.100 (192.0.2.100) 56(84) bytes of data.64 bytes from 192.0.2.100: icmp_seq=1 ttl=253 time=2.05 ms64 bytes from 192.0.2.100: icmp_seq=2 ttl=253 time=2.01 ms64 bytes from 192.0.2.100: icmp_seq=3 ttl=253 time=1.78 ms^C--- 192.0.2.100 ping statistics ---4 packets transmitted, 3 received, 25% packet loss, time 3005msrtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.777/1.945/2.052/0.120 ms
root@micro1:~# ping6 -n 2001:db8:e647:610d:216:3eff:fe96:ed5c
PING 2001:db8:e647:610d:216:3eff:fe96:ed5c(2001:db8:e647:610d:216:3eff:fe96:ed5c) 56 data bytes64 bytes from 2001:db8:e647:610d:216:3eff:fe96:ed5c: icmp_seq=1 ttl=253 time=1.61 ms64 bytes from 2001:db8:e647:610d:216:3eff:fe96:ed5c: icmp_seq=2 ttl=253 time=1.99 ms64 bytes from 2001:db8:e647:610d:216:3eff:fe96:ed5c: icmp_seq=3 ttl=253 time=15.7 ms^C--- 2001:db8:e647:610d:216:3eff:fe96:ed5c ping statistics ---3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2004msrtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.606/6.432/15.704/6.558 ms
Inspect the default profile:

root@micro1:~# lxc profile show default
config: {}description: ""devices: eth0: name: eth0 network: default type: nic root: path: / pool: remote type: diskname: defaultused_by: []

8. Launch some instances¶

Now that your MicroCloud cluster is ready to use, let’s launch a few instances:

Launch an Ubuntu container with the default settings:
```
lxc launch ubuntu:24.04 u1
```
Launch another Ubuntu container, but use local storage instead of the default remote storage:
```
lxc launch ubuntu:24.04 u2 --storage local
```
Launch an Ubuntu VM:
```
lxc launch ubuntu:24.04 u3 --vm
```
Check the list of instances. Note that the instances are running on different cluster members.

root@micro1:~# lxc list
+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+| NAME | STATE | IPV4 | IPV6 | TYPE | SNAPSHOTS | LOCATION |+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+| u1 | RUNNING | 198.51.100.2 (eth0) | 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe4e:9642 (eth0) | CONTAINER | 0 | micro1 |+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+| u2 | RUNNING | 198.51.100.3 (eth0) | 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe79:6765 (eth0) | CONTAINER | 0 | micro3 |+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+| u3 | RUNNING | 198.51.100.4 (eth0) | 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe66:f24b (eth0) | VIRTUAL-MACHINE | 0 | micro2 |+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+
Check the storage. Note that the instance volumes are located on the specified storage pools.

root@micro1:~# lxc storage volume list remote
+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| TYPE | NAME | DESCRIPTION | CONTENT-TYPE | USED BY | LOCATION |+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| container | u1 | | filesystem | 1 | |+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| image | 17fbc145125c659b7ef926b2de5e5304370083e28846f084a0d514c7a96777bc | | block | 1 | |+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| image | 45613e262f8a5fc9467330f679862147c289516f045e3edc313e07ebcb0aab4a | | filesystem | 1 | |+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| virtual-machine | u3 | | block | 1 | |+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+
root@micro1:~# lxc storage volume list local
+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| TYPE | NAME | DESCRIPTION | CONTENT-TYPE | USED BY | LOCATION |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| container | u2 | | filesystem | 1 | micro3 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| custom | backups | | filesystem | 1 | micro2 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| custom | backups | | filesystem | 1 | micro3 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| custom | backups | | filesystem | 1 | micro4 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| custom | backups | | filesystem | 1 | micro1 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| custom | images | | filesystem | 1 | micro2 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| custom | images | | filesystem | 1 | micro3 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| custom | images | | filesystem | 1 | micro4 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| custom | images | | filesystem | 1 | micro1 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+| image | 45613e262f8a5fc9467330f679862147c289516f045e3edc313e07ebcb0aab4a | | filesystem | 1 | micro3 |+-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+--------------+---------+----------+

9. Inspect your networking¶

The instances that you have launched are all on the same subnet. You can, however, create a different network to isolate some instances from others.

Check the list of running instances:

root@micro1:~# lxc list
+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+| NAME | STATE | IPV4 | IPV6 | TYPE | SNAPSHOTS | LOCATION |+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+| u1 | RUNNING | 198.51.100.2 (eth0) | 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe4e:9642 (eth0) | CONTAINER | 0 | micro1 |+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+| u2 | RUNNING | 198.51.100.3 (eth0) | 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe79:6765 (eth0) | CONTAINER | 0 | micro3 |+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+| u3 | RUNNING | 198.51.100.4 (eth0) | 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe66:f24b (eth0) | VIRTUAL-MACHINE | 0 | micro2 |+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+
Access the shell in u1:
```
lxc exec u1 -- bash
```
Ping the IPv4 address of u2:

root@u1:~# ping 198.51.100.3
PING 198.51.100.3 (198.51.100.3) 56(84) bytes of data.64 bytes from 198.51.100.3: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.33 ms64 bytes from 198.51.100.3: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.74 ms64 bytes from 198.51.100.3: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.985 ms^C--- 198.51.100.3 ping statistics ---3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2004msrtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.985/1.352/1.739/0.308 ms
Ping the IPv6 address of u3:

root@u1:~# ping6 -n 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe66:f24b
PING 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe66:f24b(2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe66:f24b) 56 data bytes64 bytes from 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe66:f24b: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=16.8 ms64 bytes from 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe66:f24b: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=3.41 ms64 bytes from 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe66:f24b: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=3.86 ms^C--- 2001:db8:d960:91cf:216:3eff:fe66:f24b ping statistics ---3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2004msrtt min/avg/max/mdev = 3.407/8.012/16.774/6.197 ms
Confirm that the instance has connectivity to the outside world:

root@u1:~# ping www.example.com
PING www.example.com (93.184.216.34) 56(84) bytes of data.64 bytes from 93.184.216.34 (93.184.216.34): icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=111 ms64 bytes from 93.184.216.34 (93.184.216.34): icmp_seq=2 ttl=49 time=95.2 ms64 bytes from 93.184.216.34 (93.184.216.34): icmp_seq=3 ttl=49 time=96.2 ms^C--- www.example.com ping statistics ---3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2018msrtt min/avg/max/mdev = 95.233/100.870/111.165/7.290 ms
Log out of the u1 shell:
```
exit
```
Create an OVN network with the default settings:
```
lxc network create isolated --type=ovn
```
There is only one UPLINK network, so the new network uses this one as its parent.
Show information about the new network:

root@micro1:~# lxc network show isolated
config: bridge.mtu: "1442" ipv4.address: 198.51.100.201/24 ipv4.nat: "true" ipv6.address: 2001:db8:452a:32b2::1/64 ipv6.nat: "true" network: UPLINK volatile.network.ipv4.address: 192.0.2.101 volatile.network.ipv6.address: 2001:db8:e647:610d:216:3eff:feef:6361description: ""name: isolatedtype: ovnused_by: []managed: truestatus: Createdlocations:- micro1- micro3- micro2- micro4
Check that you can ping the volatile.network.ipv4.address:

root@micro1:~# ping 192.0.2.101
PING 192.0.2.101 (192.0.2.101) 56(84) bytes of data.64 bytes from 192.0.2.101: icmp_seq=1 ttl=253 time=1.25 ms64 bytes from 192.0.2.101: icmp_seq=2 ttl=253 time=1.04 ms64 bytes from 192.0.2.101: icmp_seq=3 ttl=253 time=1.68 ms^C--- 192.0.2.101 ping statistics ---3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2002msrtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.042/1.321/1.676/0.264 ms
Launch an Ubuntu container that uses the new network:
```
lxc launch ubuntu:24.04 u4 --network isolated
```
Access the shell in u4:
```
lxc exec u4 -- bash
```
Confirm that the instance has connectivity to the outside world:

root@u4:~# ping www.example.com
PING www.example.com (93.184.216.34) 56(84) bytes of data.64 bytes from 93.184.216.34 (93.184.216.34): icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=95.6 ms64 bytes from 93.184.216.34 (93.184.216.34): icmp_seq=2 ttl=49 time=118 ms64 bytes from 93.184.216.34 (93.184.216.34): icmp_seq=3 ttl=49 time=94.6 ms^C--- www.example.com ping statistics ---3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2004msrtt min/avg/max/mdev = 94.573/102.587/117.633/10.646 ms
Ping the IPv4 address of u2:

root@u4:~# ping 198.51.100.3
PING 198.51.100.3 (198.51.100.3) 56(84) bytes of data.^C--- 198.51.100.3 ping statistics ---14 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 13301ms

The ping fails; u2 is not reachable because it is on a different OVN subnet.

10. Access the UI¶

Instead of managing your instances and your LXD setup from the command line, you can also use the LXD UI. See How to access the LXD web UI for more information.

Check the LXD cluster list to determine the IP addresses of the cluster members:

root@micro1:~# lxc cluster list
+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| NAME | URL | ROLES | ARCHITECTURE | FAILURE DOMAIN | DESCRIPTION | STATE | MESSAGE |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| micro1 | https://10.1.123.10:8443 | database-leader | x86_64 | default | | ONLINE | Fully operational || | | database | | | | | |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| micro2 | https://10.1.123.20:8443 | database | x86_64 | default | | ONLINE | Fully operational |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| micro3 | https://10.1.123.30:8443 | database | x86_64 | default | | ONLINE | Fully operational |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+| micro4 | https://10.1.123.40:8443 | database-standby | x86_64 | default | | ONLINE | Fully operational |+--------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------+----------------+-------------+--------+-------------------+
In your web browser, navigate to the URL of one of the cluster members. For example, for micro1, navigate to https://10.1.123.10:8443.
By default, MicroCloud uses a self-signed certificate, which will cause a security warning in your browser. Use your browser’s mechanism to continue despite the security warning.

Example for a security warning in Chrome¶
You should now see the LXD UI, prompting you to set up a certificate.

Certificate selection in the LXD UI¶
Note

Since LXD 5.21, the LXD UI is enabled by default.

If you don’t see the certificate screen, you might have an earlier version of LXD. Run snap info lxd to check. If you have an earlier version, run the following commands on the cluster member that you’re trying to access (for example, micro1) to enable the UI:
```
snap set lxd ui.enable=true
systemctl reload snap.lxd.daemon
```
Follow the instructions in the UI to set up the certificates.
Tip

If you create a new certificate, you must transfer it to one of the cluster members to add it to the trust store.

To do this, use the file push command. For example:
```
lxc file push lxd-ui.crt micro1/root/lxd-ui.crt
```
You can then access the shell on that cluster member and add the certificate to the trust store:
```
lxc exec micro1 -- bash
lxc config trust add lxd-ui.crt
```
You can now browse the UI and inspect, for example, the instances you created and the networks and storage that MicroCloud set up.

Instances view in the LXD UI¶

Next steps¶

Now that your MicroCloud is up and running, you can start using it!

If you’re already familiar with LXD, see How to work with MicroCloud (command cheat sheet) for a reference of the most common commands.

If you’re new to LXD, check out the LXD tutorials to familiarize yourself with what you can do in LXD:

Getting started with the UI guides you through common operations in LXD, using the UI.
First steps with LXD goes through the same functionality, but using the CLI.

In both tutorials, you can skip the first section about installing and initializing LXD, because LXD is already operational as part of your MicroCloud setup.