Skip to main content
  1. Blog
  2. Article

Alex Cattle
on 18 July 2019

How to build a lightweight system container cluster


LXD, the system container manager, developed by Canonical and shipped by default with Ubuntu, makes it possible to create many containers of various Linux distributions and manage them in a way similar to virtual machines (VMs) but with lower overhead costs associated with them.

Unlike VMs, containers have the benefit of using a shared kernel such as; kernel security updates in Ubuntu, Livepatch support, minimal memory footprint, ease of sharing resources and an extremely low CPU usage/wakeups at idle.

This whitepaper explores the use of LXD containers as part of a team development environment, effectively setting up a shared lab on physical hardware or in the cloud.

You will learn how working in this environment:

  • Reduces the time spent by team members getting a functional work environment
  • Makes it easy to collaborate with colleagues, accessing their containers if needed
  • Makes it possible to access the work environment of team members who are on leave
  • Better use and control of resources by using shared systems
  • Easy to implement snapshots and backups, huge time savers when a mistake happens

To view the whitepaper, complete the below form:

Related posts


Abdelrahman Hosny
21 May 2026

Developing web apps with local LLM inference

AI Article

I’ve yet to meet a developer that enjoys working with metered AI APIs. The need to pay for every API call in development works in direct opposition to the ethos of rapid iteration, and it’s easy for the costs to get out of hand. That’s why Canonical has created a different approach to building AI-powered ...


ilvipero
6 May 2026

Three weeks to go: A sneak peek of the Ubuntu Summit 26.04 experience

Ubuntu Article

The countdown to the Ubuntu Summit is officially on! We are just three weeks away from Ubuntu Summit 26.04, and the orange energy levels in our community channels are peaking. We’ve been reviewing the talk submissions, and have been blown away by the passion and creativity of our circle of friends. Once again, the schedule ...


Samir Kamerkar
22 April 2026

From Jammy to Resolute: how Ubuntu’s toolchains have evolved

Ubuntu Article

We cover new toolchain versions, devpacks and workflows that improve the developer experience. The evolution of Ubuntu’s toolchains story goes beyond just providing up-to-date GCC, LLVM, and Python. It is also about opinionated openJDK variants, task-focused devpacks, FIPS compliant toolchains, and snaps, like the new .NET snap and Snapcr ...