Incus

Incus at a glance

Incus is an open-source system-container and virtual-machine manager (a community fork of LXD, under the Linux Containers project), popular for lightweight virtualization. Incus ships regular releases plus security fixes; as a platform running containers and VMs, careful updates matter.

For admins Incus manages system containers and VMs with strong isolation options, but the version story includes both Incus and the guest images you run — keep images current so they include patches. Updates come from the distribution or the project; back up instance configuration and take snapshots before larger jumps. The management API belongs on a protected network with proper authentication (Incus uses certificates/OIDC) — never expose it carelessly, since it controls all instances. After updating, verify that instances start and networking works. Migration from LXD is supported. Track the version and its support window; patchletter surfaces new Incus releases so security fixes aren't missed.