Backend or server-side developers often configure virtual environments to test server environments. I mainly use virtual machines such as VMware and Virtual Box, and recently I use Docker.
In the case of Docker, unlike virtual machines, it has the characteristic of being light, but it has the disadvantage that it is not suitable for the purpose of configuring a test environment and it is a little difficult for beginners to use.
For this reason, virtual machines have been frequently used mainly for pre-configuration of deployment environments and configuration of test environments.
However, on my M1 MacBook, no stable solution except Parallels has been provided yet, and in the case of VMware, there was a problem that the GUI could not be used due to a Wayland bug.
In this situation, a friend told me about Multipass developed in Ubuntu, and I still use it often for testing various deployments.
What is Multipass?
According to the official website, Multipass is Ubuntu VMs on demand for any workstation.
In other words, it can be seen as a virtual machine solution that configures the Ubuntu virtual environment in any environment.
It helps to set up a virtual environment on the system like WSL and to manage it easily.
How to install
After visiting the website(https://multipass.run/), you can install it through the guidelines provided.
In Mac and Windows OS, anyone can easily install it using the installer.
How to use
CLI commands for power users as well as GUI are provided.
This makes it simple to manage multiple virtual machines.
However, it seems that CLI commands are required to create a new virtual environment.
Detailed instructions can be found on the homepage.
Test simple webserver
Since it is the same version as the Ubuntu server os, the installation progress is not different.
sudo apt update -y;
sudo apt install -y apache2;
sudo systemctl status apache2;Testing screenshot
Review
There was a limitation that only the Ubuntu operating system could be used, but I think it was a good virtual machine to use lightly.
Since Amazon Linux is not provided for virtual machine use, I often use Ubuntu for server testing.
I haven’t used it in conjunction with an IDE like Docker, but it seems to be the best tool for occasional deployment practice.
