Ubuntu Public Images¶
Canonical produces generic (generic kernel) cloud images, LXD images (rootfs tarballs) and KVM optimized cloud images (KVM kernel). These images are public (unlike other cloud-specific images) and are available on cloud-images.ubuntu.com. Canonical also produces so-called Buildd images that are used primarily by Launchpad to serve the purpose of building archive packages and Ubuntu images.
The images create a stable and secure cloud platform that is ideal for scaling development work done on Ubuntu-based systems. Since Ubuntu is one of the most favored operating systems among developers, using an Ubuntu-based image for the corresponding cloud deployment becomes the simplest option.
Everyone from individual developers to large enterprises use these images for developing and deploying their softwares. For highly regulated industries from the government, medical and finance sectors, various security-certified images are also available.
In this documentation¶
Canonical’s offerings |
Ubuntu cloud image artifacts • LXD and OpenStack images • Vagrant boxes • Buildd images |
Building and launching images |
Build a Vagrant box with Bartender • Run a Vagrant box • Launch QCOW images using libvirt • Launch QCOW images using QEMU • Run an OVA using VirtualBox • Create and use a local cloud-init datasource • Verify an image checksum |
Policies |
How this documentation is organized¶
This documentation uses the Diátaxis documentation structure.
How-to guides assume you have basic familiarity with Ubuntu images on public clouds and want to achieve specific goals. They are instructions covering key operations and common tasks involving different types of public Ubuntu cloud images.
Explanation includes topic overviews, background and context and detailed discussion. These include key topics, such as the different types of images that we build and support, security aspects and our image retention policy.
Project and community¶
Ubuntu Public Images is a member of the Ubuntu family and the project warmly welcomes community projects, contributions, suggestions, fixes and constructive feedback.