LXC (Linux Containers) – quick start tutorial on Ubuntu

LXC (Linux Containers) is an operating-system-level virtualization environment for running multiple isolated Linux systems (containers) on a single Linux control host. Here is a quick start guide for getting started with lxc on Ubuntu Linux.

1. First install lxc package

   $ sudo apt-get install lxc
   

2. Create a container (ubuntu trusty release)

   $ sudo lxc-create -t download -n ubuntu-test -- --dist ubuntu --release trusty --arch amd64
   

3. List existing containers.

   $ sudo lxc-ls --fancy
   NAME         STATE    IPV4  IPV6  AUTOSTART  
   -------------------------------------------
   ubuntu-test  STOPPED  -     -     NO  
   

4. Start the container

   $ sudo lxc-start --name ubuntu-test --daemon
   

5. In case you need to stop and or destroy container

   $ sudo lxc-stop -n ubuntu-test
   $ sudo lxc-destroy -n ubuntu-test
   

6. List existing containers again

   $ sudo lxc-ls --fancy
   NAME         STATE    IPV4       IPV6  AUTOSTART  
   ------------------------------------------------
   ubuntu-test  RUNNING  10.0.3.54  -     NO 
   

7. Display info about container using name

   sudo lxc-info --name ubuntu-test
   Name:           ubuntu-test
   State:          RUNNING
   PID:            7629
   IP:             10.0.3.54
   CPU use:        0.64 seconds
   BlkIO use:      1.62 MiB
   Memory use:     7.79 MiB
   KMem use:       0 bytes
   Link:           veth4WTBQP
    TX bytes:      3.25 KiB
    RX bytes:      3.38 KiB
    Total bytes:   6.64 KiB
   

8. Install python on the container

   $ sudo lxc-attach --name ubuntu-test -- sudo apt-get install python
   

9. Run python hello world on the container

   $ sudo lxc-attach --name ubuntu-test -- python -c "print \"Hello\""
   

10. Run shell on container

    $ sudo lxc-attach --name ubuntu-test
    root@ubuntu-test:/# ls
    bin  boot  dev	etc  home  lib	lib64  media  mnt  opt	proc  root  run  sbin  srv  sys  tmp  usr  var