What is intended usage of Multipass?

Multipass
#1

I first saw Multipass as an alternative to Docker. But I have realized that that assumption is totally wrong.

Multipass cannot expose any ports, you have to setup SSH tunnels for that, and that makes no sense. I have found where the images are stored, but there is no way to export / import images.

So my conclusion is that I’m completely clueless as to what Multipass is intended to be used for. I have not been able to come up with any ideas. Maybe I’m completely lacking in imagination.

There are clearly many people using it, but for what ? I’m a long time experienced developer and docker made all sense in the world to me, multipass does not.

Someone please explain why Multipass exist, what its intended use is, please. Not being able to figure this out is annoying the heck out of me.

/BR Tobesv

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#2

I’m no expert but have you seen this? Beta release: Multipass and the github page has some more: https://github.com/canonical/multipass/blob/master/README.md

#3

Hi @tobesv there’s also https://multipass.run/, let us know if after reading those resources you still have questions :slight_smile:

#4

I found this page: https://multipass.run/docs/additional-networks

But the example of: multipass launch --network en0 --network id=bridge0,mode=manual
fails to execute and results in “Unknown options: network, network” I did copy+paste from page. I have installed latest multipass and stopped and restarted it, but no go.

There is no documented --network option for launch when looking att help text. I navigated to that page from https://multipass.run/, so docs does not seem to be up to date.

What I want is to be able to run a service in a multipass container on a machine, and still be able to access that service in that container from other machines on the network, not only the host it is running on. Docker allows for that. Yes, it is possible to do ssh tunnels, but that seems like a rather stupid solution, and not really acceptable. I cannot find any solution to do that with multipass.

It is this being completely stuck on host multipass runs on that made me ask what multipass is for. Current state makes it very limited in use IMHO.

#5

Hey @tobesv,

Right, additional networks is currently in development. That page indicates that this is feature will be available starting with version 1.6. As of right now, the feature is only implemented with the VirtualBox driver on Windows and macOS and the Hyper-V driver on Windows. Linux support is in development and will be available using the LXD driver.

Hope this helps,
Chris

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#6

@tobesv if you wanted to try on Windows or macOS, preview builds are available here:

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