--- title: About MAAS 3.0 and LXD description: With the release of MAAS 3.0, we moved LXD virtual machines out of Beta. Several articles in the MAAS documentation address LXD.  Since no document ties all these features together, though, it’s time for a topical blog about LXD. About LXD LXD, pronounced “lex-DEE,” is a container manager, as well as a virtual machine manager. […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/about-maas-3-0-and-lxd?format=md --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Bill Wear](https://canonical.com/blog/author/billwear "More about Bill Wear") 19 August 2021 # About MAAS 3.0 and LXD [LXD](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/lxd) [MAAS](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/maas) [sc:snap:maas](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/scsnapmaas) --- Share the article With the release of MAAS 3.0, we moved LXD virtual machines out of Beta. Several articles in the MAAS documentation address LXD.  Since no document ties all these features together, though, it’s time for a topical blog about LXD. ### About LXD [LXD](https://linuxcontainers.org/), pronounced “lex-DEE,” is a container manager, as well as a virtual machine manager. LXD offers a user experience that is very similar to virtual machines. The MAAS core team carried LXD through several versions of MAAS as a Beta option. We wanted time to test the integration of MAAS with LXD and ensure that users had the opportunity to shake it out. Since it has proven to be very stable and useful, it was promoted to a mainstream feature with the release of MAAS 3.0. Along the way, MAAS also integrated support for LXD projects. From a user perspective, advantages of choosing LXD over libvirt are that LXD offers a nice REST API and that it is a Canonical product, which allows for a tighter integration with MAAS. ### About using LXD as a VM host When you create a KVM with MAAS 3.0, the MAAS UI pre-selects LXD as the default KVM host type: The MAAS 3.0 *Add KVM* UI panel Notice that the “Beta” designation has disappeared. You *must* enter a name for the KVM host, and an LXD address (more on that in a minute). When you’ve done so, and you click “Authenticate,” you’ll see the *projects* screen: The second MAAS UI *Add KVM* panel, allowing selection of a project You can choose an existing project (in this case, “default”). You can also create a new project in real time, using the *Add new project* box: You can now create new projects while adding an LXD KVM Clicking *Next* brings you to the detail screen for your new, LXD KVM host: The MAAS LXD KVM host detail screen Any VMs you create for this LXD KVM host will be assigned to the project *my-lxd-project-1*. You can compose a new VM within this KVM by simply selecting the *+ Compose VM* button: When you use `lxc list` to view your LXD inventory, you probably won’t see your newly-minted VM by default: The list of LXD machines running in the default project Instead, you would need to switch to the LXD project that you created when composing the VM: You can create LXD projects as desired; it’s an easy way to group virtual machines ### About addressing LXD We’ll round out this blog with a note about LXD networking and MAAS. When you initialize LXD after installation, via `lxd init`, you have the option to create a bridge. If you choose the defaults while doing so, you should be able to communicate with LXD containers from MAAS. Here’s a cheat-sheet: ``` Would you like to use LXD clustering? (yes/no) [default=no]: no Do you want to configure a new storage pool? (yes/no) [default=yes]: yes Name of the new storage pool [default=default]: Name of the storage back-end to use (btrfs, dir, lvm, zfs, ceph) [default=zfs]: dir Would you like to connect to a MAAS server? (yes/no) [default=no]: no Would you like to create a new local network bridge? (yes/no) [default=yes]: no Would you like to configure LXD to use an existing bridge or host interface? (yes/no) [default=no]: yes Name of the existing bridge or host interface: br0 Would you like LXD to be available over the network? (yes/no) [default=no]: yes pAddress to bind LXD to (not including port) [default=all]: Port to bind LXD to [default=8443]: Trust password for new clients: Again: Would you like stale cached images to be updated automatically? (yes/no) [default=yes] Would you like a YAML "lxd init" preseed to be printed? (yes/no) [default=no]: no ``` Note a couple of key points here: ``` Would you like to configure LXD to use an existing bridge or host interface? (yes/no) [default=no]: yes Name of the existing bridge or host interface: br0 Would you like LXD to be available over the network? (yes/no) [default=no]: yes pAddress to bind LXD to (not including port) [default=all]: Port to bind LXD to [default=8443]: Trust password for new clients: Again: ``` It doesn’t matter whether you let LXD create the bridge for you (most common) or use a bridge that you’ve created (what’s done here). When creating the LXD address, you’ll formulate it like this: ``` https:// + + .1:8443 e.g., "https://10.49.16.1:8443" ``` Likewise the *password* will be the “Trust password” you entered while initializing LXD (above). ### Pausing for experiments There’s quite a bit more to say about MAAS 3.0 and LXD KVMs / VMs. We’ll cover that in later blogs. For now, try experimenting with MAAS 3.0 and LXD. ## Sign up for our newsletter Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/dataprivacy). Sign up ## Share on --- ## Related posts [### Ubuntu Server: a platform made for enterprise scale](https://canonical.com/blog/ubuntu-server-a-platform-made-for-enterprise-scale) A platform is an environment that allows software to run smoothly across the infrastructure, runtime, and application layers. The key word there is “smoothly”: a good platform... [Rhys Knipe](https://canonical.com/blog/author/rhysknipe) 7 July 2026 [### MAAS installation: bare metal provisioning is easier than ever](https://canonical.com/blog/maas-installation-bare-metal-provisioning-is-easier-than-ever) MAAS brings cloud-like automation to physical servers. It helps teams discover, commission, deploy, and repurpose machines from a central control plane, turning bare metal into... [David Beamonte](https://canonical.com/blog/author/dbeamonte) 14 July 2026 [### Managing Ubuntu on bare metal at scale](https://canonical.com/blog/managing-ubuntu-on-bare-metal-at-scale) Modern infrastructure teams are expected to deliver cloud-like speed, consistency, and reliability, even when their workloads run on physical servers. Bare metal remains... [David Beamonte](https://canonical.com/blog/author/dbeamonte) 9 July 2026 [### VMware hypervisor deployment using MAAS](https://canonical.com/blog/vmware-hypervisor-deployment-using-maas) Most modern datacenters are inherently heterogeneous. VMware environments coexist with container platforms, databases, and other bare-metal workloads, often on the same... [David Beamonte](https://canonical.com/blog/author/dbeamonte) 28 May 2026