LXD, a modern system container manager developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has just released LXD 6.3, marking the third feature launch in the 6.x series.
One of the standout additions is the “pure” storage driver, providing integration with remote Pure Storage arrays. Pure Storage offers a scalable, software-defined storage system, and LXD now seamlessly supports connections through iSCSI or NVMe/TCP protocols.
Another major feature in this release is Ubuntu Pro’s auto-attachment to LXD instances. Once enabled on the LXD host, Ubuntu Pro can automatically configure itself inside newly launched containers or virtual machines. This feature, however, fully comes to life once you have the updated Ubuntu Pro client on both the host and the guest.
If you run LXD on Ubuntu Core 24, you’ll find that GPU pass-through for NVIDIA GPUs in containers is now officially supported. This functionality hinges on the latest versions of snapd, core24, and specific kernel snaps that include NVIDIA drivers.
LXD 6.3 also includes multiple improvements under the hood that bolster security and flexibility:
- Custom OIDC Scopes: An
oidc.scopesconfiguration key now allows LXD administrators to request additional scopes beyond the standardopenidandemail. This is handy if you rely on external group membership or more granular identity provider attributes. - Entitlements in Entity Listings: When users list entities (like projects or instances) in the LXD API, they can optionally see an
access_entitlementsfield detailing each entity’s permissions. This boosts clarity in collaborative environments. - Client Certificate Detection: LXD now returns a
client_certificatefield at the/1.0endpoint to confirm if a client connection includes a valid TLS certificate. This is particularly helpful for debugging or for UIs that need to guide users in certificate management.
It’s also worth mentioning that LXD now allows you to attach virtual machine volumes as disk devices to other instances. This functionality is perfect if you need to recover data or transfer storage between VMs.
Ownership inheritance from the host can now be enabled for UNIX hotplug devices. When set to true, devices inherit host-level UID/GID unless explicitly overridden. Furthermore, LXD introduces a subsystem property to identify and manage devices by subsystem, which can be used with productid and vendorid for granular device management.
Projects also see a range of upgrades. Administrators can now set uplink IP limits per network inside projects to avoid unintentionally consuming too many IP addresses. Additionally, when you list images, network zones, or profiles, you can now do so across all projects with the --all-projects flag.
Finally, there are also noteworthy improvements on the UI side. For instance, the network configuration page now presents a visual map of your network, complete with real-time updates and clickable elements that reveal dependencies.
Clustered environments get a consolidated configuration view, allowing you to configure member-specific attributes from a single screen. Meanwhile, limited-permission users see a more user-friendly experience: the UI dynamically disables restricted actions and offers helpful hover text indicating the permissions needed to perform them.
For more information about all LXD 6.3 container manager changes, visit the release announcement or check out the full changelog. It is available for download on Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms.
