Incus Container Manager in 2026: Modern LXD Alternative for Homelabs

If you’ve been running LXD for your homelab and wondering about its future, you’re not alone. Canonical’s 2023 shakeup—with the AGPLv3 relicensing and Snap-first approach—left many homelabbers looking for alternatives. Enter Incus: a community-driven fork by the original LXD creators that keeps the spirit of system container management alive and thriving.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through setting up Incus, managing containers and VMs, and why it might be the right choice for your homelab in 2026.

Why Incus Over LXD?

The fork wasn’t just about licensing drama. Incus represents a philosophical shift:

• Apache 2.0 License: Truly open source, no AGPLv3 restrictions
• Community Governance: Run by Linux Containers, not a single corporate entity
• Native Packages: No forced Snap installation—install via apt on Debian and Ubuntu
• Linux Containers Image Server: Full access to community images (blocked for LXD since May 2024)

For homelabbers who value control and transparency, Incus offers the same powerful container and VM management without Canonical’s ecosystem lock-in.

Incus vs Docker: A Quick Distinction

Feature	Incus	Docker
Container Type	System containers (full OS)	Application containers
VMs	Yes (with --vm flag)	No
Use Case	Homelab servers, persistent services	Microservices, development
Networking	Built-in bridge, routed, macvlan	Bridge only
Storage	ZFS, Btrfs, LVM, dir, Ceph	OverlayFS, volumes

Think of Incus as your homelab’s virtualization layer—where Docker is the application layer inside.

Installing Incus

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Later

# Install Incus and required components
sudo apt update
sudo apt install incus qemu-system incus-tools

# Add your user to the admin group
sudo adduser $USER incus-admin
newgrp incus-admin

Debian 12 (Bookworm)

Add the Zabbly repository for the latest stable release:

sudo apt install wget
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://pkgs.zabbly.com/key.asc -o /etc/apt/keyrings/zabbly.asc

echo "Enabled: yes
Types: deb
URIs: https://pkgs.zabbly.com/incus/stable
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo ${VERSION_CODENAME})
Components: main
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/zabbly.asc" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zabbly-incus-stable.sources

sudo apt update
sudo apt install incus

Initial Setup

Run the interactive initialization:

incus admin init

For a quick non-interactive setup:

incus admin init --minimal

You’ll configure:

• Storage pool (Btrfs recommended for snapshots)
• Network bridge (incusbr0 by default)
• Image server access

Managing Containers and VMs

Incus is image-based. Pull from the community server:

# List available images
incus image list images:

# Launch a Debian 12 container
incus launch images:debian/12 mycontainer

# Launch a VM instead
incus launch images:debian/12 myvm --vm

# List all instances
incus list

# Get a shell inside
incus exec mycontainer -- bash

# Check instance details
incus info mycontainer

Resource Limits

# Set memory limit to 2GB
incus config set mycontainer limits.memory=2GiB

# Limit to 2 CPU cores
incus config set mycontainer limits.cpu=2

# Override VM disk size
incus config device override myvm root size=50GiB

Storage Pools

Incus supports multiple storage backends:

Driver	Best For	Features
Btrfs	Most homelabs	Snapshots, compression, easy
ZFS	Advanced users	Deduplication, RAID-Z, integrity
dir	Testing only	Simple, no snapshots
LVM	Legacy systems	Logical volumes
Ceph	Distributed storage	Clustering

# List storage pools
incus storage list

# Create a Btrfs pool on a dedicated disk
incus storage create mypool btrfs source=/dev/sdb

# Show pool details
incus storage show default

Networking

The default bridge (incusbr0) handles DHCP and NAT for your instances. For more control:

# List networks
incus network list

# Create a bridged network on your LAN
incus network create my-bridge nic type=bridged parent=eth0

# Configure IP range
incus network set incusbr0 ipv4.address=10.10.0.1/24

For homelab use, macvlan lets containers appear directly on your network:

incus network create macvlan-net nic type=macvlan parent=eth0

Profiles: Reusable Configurations

Profiles define common settings that apply to multiple instances:

# Create a web server profile
incus profile create webserver

# Set CPU and memory limits
incus profile set webserver limits.cpu=2 limits.memory=2GiB

# Attach a network
incus profile device add webserver eth0 nic network=incusbr0

# Launch with the profile
incus launch images:ubuntu/22.04 mysite --profile default --profile webserver

The Web UI

While Incus focuses on CLI management, you can add a web interface:

# Enable HTTPS listener
sudo incus config set core.https_address :8443

# Install the canonical UI (community-maintained port of LXD UI)
sudo apt install incus-ui-canonical

Access at https://<your-server>:8443. You’ll need to import a client certificate for authentication.

For managing multiple Incus servers, consider LXConsole—a Docker-based web UI that connects to Incus APIs remotely.

GPU Passthrough for AI Workloads

Running AI models? Incus can pass GPUs to containers or VMs:

Containers (Shared GPU)

# Enable NVIDIA runtime
incus config set mycontainer nvidia.runtime=true

# Add the GPU device
incus config device add mycontainer gpu0 gpu

VMs (Dedicated GPU)

# Full passthrough for VMs
incus config device add myvm gpu0 gpu gputype=physical

Requirements:

• NVIDIA drivers installed on host
• IOMMU enabled in BIOS for VM passthrough
• VFIO kernel modules loaded

Security Best Practices

Incus defaults to unprivileged containers—root inside maps to an unprivileged user on the host. This is your first line of defense.

Additional hardening:

# Isolated ID mapping for nested containers (Docker-in-Incus)
incus config set mycontainer security.idmap.isolated=true

# Enable nesting if running Docker inside
incus config set mycontainer security.nesting=true

Key practices:

• Limit access: Only trusted users in incus-admin group
• Keep updated: Use LTS releases for production
• Resource limits: Prevent runaway containers from starving your host
• Network isolation: Use firewall rules to restrict port 8443

Homelab Use Cases

Pi-hole Network Ad Blocker

incus launch images:debian/12 pihole
incus exec pihole -- bash -c "curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash"
# Configure your router to use Pi-hole DNS

Home Assistant

# VM recommended for isolation
incus launch images:debian/12 homeassistant --vm
incus config device override homeassistant root size=50GiB
# Install Home Assistant inside the VM

Media Server (Plex/Jellyfin)

incus launch images:ubuntu/22.04 plex
incus config device add plex media disk path=/media source=/mnt/media
# Install Plex or Jellyfin inside

Snapshots and Backups

Quick Snapshots

# Create snapshot
incus snapshot create mycontainer snap1

# Restore if needed
incus snapshot restore mycontainer snap1

# Delete snapshot
incus snapshot delete mycontainer snap1

Full Backups

# Export instance
incus export mycontainer backup.tar.gz

# Restore from backup
incus import backup.tar.gz mycontainer-restored

Migrating from LXD

If you’re coming from LXD, the migration is straightforward:

# Install Incus (don't init)
sudo apt install incus

# Install migration tool
sudo apt install incus-tools

# Run migration (destroys LXD config)
lxd-to-incus

The tool handles everything—storage, networks, profiles, and instances transfer intact.

Incus vs Proxmox: Which for Your Homelab?

Aspect	Incus	Proxmox
Overhead	Lower (containers-first)	Higher (VM-first)
UI	Optional CLI-centric	Full web GUI
Clustering	Limited	Built-in
ZFS Integration	Manual	Native
Learning Curve	Moderate	Steeper
Best For	Multi-container workloads	Mixed VM/container farms

Run Incus standalone for a lean container host. Use Proxmox if you need a full hypervisor with clustering and GUI management.

Conclusion

Incus gives you the best of both worlds: container efficiency with VM isolation when you need it, all under a community-driven governance model. For homelabbers seeking a modern LXD alternative without Canonical’s baggage, Incus is ready for production.

Start with a simple container, add some profiles, and scale up as needed. Your homelab just got an upgrade.

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Have questions? The Linux Containers community forums are active and helpful. Happy containerizing!