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Multipass from Canonical is a tool for quickly deploying VM’s (running Ubuntu) on the native Hypervisor, the VM also has a kernel optimized for the Hypervisor.

Pros and Cons

• Rapid provisioning with cloud-init
• Better performance than Virtualbox
• Difficult networking options (no bridge, no secondary network cards, no secondary IP addresses that work (some workarounds later)

First the basics

Create machines

$ multipass launch --name machine1 -d 8G -m 4192M -c 4
$ multipass launch --name machine2 -d 8G -m 1024M -c 1

Shell

$ multipass exec machine1 -- bash

List Machines

$ multipass list
Name              State             IPv4             Image
machine1          Running           192.168.64.2   Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
machine2          Running           192.168.64.3   Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Problems with networking

Some things just don’t work very well. For example, using cloud-init to set a fixed IP address. The machine will ignore this and acquire a dhcp address from they hypervisor/bootp. Adding a second nic is not possible. Adding a second IP to the existing nic is possible but it will have limited functionality. Manually changing the IP will cause the multipass cmd to get disconnected from the VM making it hard to delete the VM or get a shell on it.

Workaround for static address on Mac

On your Mac after you have created a machine you will have a file called /var/db/dhcpd_leases this is where the machine gets its address from. Edit this file and assign the addresses you want (you must keep 192.168.). Restart your VM’s and they will be dynamically be assigned your static address.

sudo vi /var/db/dhcpd_leases
{
        name=machine2
        ip_address=192.168.64.102
        hw_address=1,aa:74:48:50:b9:b9
        identifier=1,aa:74:48:50:b9:b9
        lease=0x5e7b72c5
}
{
        name=machine1
        ip_address=192.168.64.101
        hw_address=1,56:2:58:38:b1:7d
        identifier=1,56:2:58:38:b1:7d
        lease=0x5e7b72c4
}

$ multipass list
Name              State             IPv4             Image
machine1          Running           192.168.64.101   Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
machine2          Running           192.168.64.102   Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Other issues

DNS resolution becomes difficult if you use a VPN, but at least using the above and a hosts file you should be able to get by.