# LXD

LXD (<a href="#" title="Listen" onclick="document.getElementById('player').play();return false;">`[lɛks'di:]`🔈</a>) is a modern, secure and powerful system container and virtual machine manager.

<audio id="player"><source src="_static/lxd.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"></audio>

<!-- Include content from [../README.md](../README.md) -->

It provides a unified experience for running and managing full Linux systems inside containers or virtual machines. LXD supports images for a large number of Linux distributions (official Ubuntu images and images provided by the community) and is built around a very powerful, yet pretty simple, REST API. LXD scales from one instance on a single machine to a cluster in a full data center rack, making it suitable for running workloads both for development and in production.

LXD allows you to easily set up a system that feels like a small private cloud. You can run any type of workload in an efficient way while keeping your resources optimized.

You should consider using LXD if you want to containerize different environments or run virtual machines, or in general run and manage your infrastructure in a cost-effective way.

---

### In this documentation

**Start here**: a hands-on introduction to LXD for new users, guiding you through your first steps using the CLI or the UI

- [First steps with LXD](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/tutorial/first_steps/index.html.md#first-steps)

**Step-by-step guides** covering key operations and common tasks

- [Get started](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/howto/index.html.md#howtos-getstarted)
- [Work with LXD](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/howto/index.html.md#howtos-work)
- [Get ready for production](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/howto/index.html.md#howtos-production)

**Technical information**

- [General information](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/reference/index.html.md#reference-general)
- [Configuration options](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/reference/index.html.md#reference-config)
- [Releases and snap](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/reference/releases-snap/index.html.md#ref-releases-snap)
- [Production setup](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/reference/index.html.md#reference-production)
- [REST API](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/reference/index.html.md#reference-api)
- [Man pages](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/reference/index.html.md#reference-manpages)
- [Implementation details](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/reference/index.html.md#reference-internal)

**Discussion and clarification** of key topics

- [Important concepts](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/explanation/index.html.md#explanation-concepts)
- [Entities in LXD](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/explanation/index.html.md#explanation-entities)
- [Access management](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/explanation/index.html.md#explanation-iam)
- [Production setup](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/explanation/index.html.md#explanation-production) (including [Security](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/explanation/security/index.html.md#security))

---

### Project and community

LXD is free software and released under [AGPL-3.0-only](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html) (it may contain some contributions that are licensed under the Apache-2.0 license, see [License and copyright](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/contributing/index.html.md)).
It’s an open source project that warmly welcomes community projects, contributions, suggestions, fixes and constructive feedback.

The LXD project is sponsored by [Canonical Ltd](https://canonical.com/).

- [Ubuntu Code of Conduct](https://ubuntu.com/community/ethos/code-of-conduct)
- [Contribute to the project](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/contributing/index.html.md)
- [Release announcements](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/c/lxd/news/143)
- [Release tarballs](https://github.com/canonical/lxd/releases/)
- [Get support](https://canonical.com/lxd/docs/default/support/index.html.md)
- [Watch tutorials and announcements on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/c/LXDvideos)
- [Discuss on IRC](https://web.libera.chat/#lxd) (see [Getting started with IRC](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/getting-started-with-irc/37907) if needed)
- [Ask and answer questions on the forum](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/c/lxd/126)