How to add a network to an existing instance

See also: networks, get, set, local.<instance-name>.bridged

This guide explains how to bridge an existing Multipass instance with the available networks.

This feature is available starting from Multipass version 1.14.

First, you need to select a Multipass-wide preferred network to bridge with (you can always change it later). To do so, list all available networks using the multipass networks command. The output will be similar to the following:

Name      Type       Description
br-eth0   bridge     Network bridge with eth0
br-eth1   bridge     Network bridge with eth1
eth0      ethernet   Ethernet device
eth1      ethernet   Ethernet device
lxdbr0    bridge     Network bridge
mpbr0     bridge     Network bridge for Multipass
virbr0    bridge     Network bridge

Set the preferred network (for example, eth0) using the multipass set command:

multipass set local.bridged-network=eth0

Before bridging the network, you need to stop the instance (called ultimate-grosbeak in our example) using the multipass stop command:

multipass stop ultimate-grosbeak

You can now ask Multipass to bridge your preferred network using the local.<instance-name>.bridged setting:

multipass set local.ultimate-grosbeak.bridged=true

To add further networks, update the preferred bridge and repeat:

multipass set local.bridged-network=eth1
multipass set local.ultimate-grosbeak.bridged=true

Use the multipass get command to check whether an instance is bridged with the currently configured preferred network:

multipass get local.ultimate-grosbeak.bridged

After following the recipe above, the result should be true.


Errors or typos? Topics missing? Hard to read? Let us know or open an issue on GitHub.

Last updated 2 months ago. Help improve this document in the forum.