How to use Multipass remotely
This document will demonstrate how to use Multipass remotely. This can be useful, for example, if you want to run your VMs on a more powerful machine.
Contents:
Expose Multipass to your network
To expose Multipass to your network, pass --address when starting the daemon:
$ multipassd --help
# ...
--address <server_name:port> specifies which address to
use for the multipassd
service; a socket can be
specified using
unix:<socket_file>
The client accepts the MULTIPASS_SERVER_ADDRESS environment variable that overrides the default:
https://github.com/canonical/multipass/blob/a1ea65fb63184fc778e277d3c9e2920ef2a9fb3d/src/client/common/client_common.cpp#L171-L173
$ MULTIPASS_SERVER_ADDRESS=<hostname>:51001 multipass find
Image Aliases Version Description
...
21.10 impish 20220118 Ubuntu 21.10
Caveats:
- Because mounts are executed as privileged users, it is recommended to use Multipass 1.9.0, to use client authentication, so you need to explicitly allow clients access with a shared passphrase.
Alternatively, you can multipass set local.privileged-mounts=false to disable the mounts feature altogether.
- Some commands (shell, exec, mount) currently rely on direct networking between the client and the instance, for those to work you’ll need to ensure routing between them is possible.
Change the daemon settings
Linux
You can systemctl edit snap.multipass.multipassd.service and place content along these lines (replace <hostname> with the hostname or the IP you want it to listen on) in:
[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/bin/snap run multipass.multipassd --address <hostname>:51005
Restart the service then:
$ snap stop multipass
$ snap start multipass
macOS
On macOS you’ll need to add it to the service definition (again, replace <hostname>) and reload it:
$ sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy \
-c "Add :ProgramArguments: string --address" \
-c "Add :ProgramArguments: string <hostname>:51001" \
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.canonical.multipassd.plist
$ sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.canonical.multipassd.plist
$ sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.canonical.multipassd.plist
NB: reinstallation / upgrade will overwrite those changes
Windows
On Windows you’d need to edit/recreate the service definition, and that’s non-trivial (if you do, remember to pass /svc as the first argument to the multipassd.exe binary, and that we currently use the LocalService account)…
As a one-time thing you can use the Start parameters field in the Services panel after stopping the service:
Let us know how this worked for you and what you’d like to see next!
Last updated 1 year, 1 day ago.