Instance sizes

lws lxc run --size <name> creates a container with the memory, CPU limit and root disk of a named size. Sizes are defined under instance_sizes in config.yaml; this page lists the ones that ship in config.yaml.example. Edit, remove or add sizes in your own config.yaml: --size accepts exactly the names defined there, and small is the default.

What each value sets

Each size has three keys, passed to pct create when the container is made:

The t2-*, m5-*, c5-*, r5-*, x1e-*, i3-* and p3-* names borrow the shape of cloud instance families. They only set the three values above: nothing about the CPU type, disk type or GPUs is configured.

Choosing and overriding a size

# 2 GB of RAM, a 2-CPU limit, a 16 GiB disk
lws lxc run --size mid --image-id local:vztmpl/debian-12-standard_12.7-1_amd64.tar.zst

# Change the resources of an existing container later
lws lxc scale 100 --memory 4096 --cpulimit 2

lxc run --storage-size replaces the disk of the chosen size with <default_storage>:<value>, where default_storage comes from config.yaml. Proxmox reads that value as a size in GiB, so give a plain number: --storage-size 24 for a 24 GiB disk.

lxc scale --memory and --cpulimit change a running container’s limits with pct set; they do not change its size name, which LWS does not record.

To add a size, add an entry under instance_sizes with the same three keys:

instance_sizes:
  ci-runner:
    memory: 6144
    cpulimit: 4
    storage: local-lvm:40

Sizes in config.yaml.example

The tables below are checked against config.yaml.example by the test suite, so they list exactly what the example file defines.

Generic sizes

Application sizes

General purpose (t2-*, m5-*)

More CPU (c5-*)

More memory (r5-*, x1e-*)

More disk (i3-*)

p3-* sizes

The examples in the application table come from comments in config.yaml.example. They are starting points, not tested requirements. Containers share the Linux kernel of the host, so FreeBSD-based software such as OPNsense or pfSense needs a virtual machine instead.