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Images and templates

Incus images are the starting point for containers and VMs. You can use public images, publish your own images, and copy images between hosts.

Official docs:

  • Images: https://linuxcontainers.org/incus/docs/main/explanation/images/
  • Image server: https://images.linuxcontainers.org/

List remote images

incus remote list
incus image list images: debian
incus image list images: ubuntu
incus image info images:debian/trixie/cloud

Common image names:

Use */cloud image variants when you need cloud-init. Plain images are fine for basic containers that you will configure manually.

images:debian/13
images:debian/trixie/cloud
images:ubuntu/24.04
images:ubuntu/24.04/cloud
images:alpine/3.20

Launch from an image

incus launch images:debian/13 debian-test
incus launch images:ubuntu/24.04/cloud ubuntu-vm --vm

Local image cache

incus image list local:
incus image info <fingerprint>
incus image delete <fingerprint>

Incus caches downloaded images. Clean unused images when storage gets tight.

Publish a golden image

Create and customize an instance:

incus launch images:debian/13 web-base
incus shell web-base

Install packages and configure the system, then stop it:

incus stop web-base

Publish it:

incus publish web-base --alias debian-web-base
incus image list local:

Launch from the local image:

incus launch debian-web-base web-01

Export and import an image

incus image export debian-web-base debian-web-base
incus image import debian-web-base.tar.gz --alias debian-web-base-restored

The exact exported filenames can include metadata and root filesystem archives depending on image type.

Copy images to another host

incus image copy debian-web-base other-host: --alias debian-web-base
incus image list other-host:

Image hygiene

  • Prefer official images: images for base systems.
  • Use aliases for images humans will reuse.
  • Keep golden images small.
  • Document what was installed in the image.
  • Rebuild golden images periodically rather than running ancient patched systems forever.
  • Delete old unused aliases and fingerprints.