In case you haven't heard there is a cool new deployment method that is supported by Ubuntu for WSL Ubuntu instances. Microsoft has a new tar-based WSL distribution format. This will allow you to have the ability to fully manage the deployment of WSL distributions. It will allow organizations and system admins to install WSL instances directly from tar files which means you will no longer have to install your Ubuntu instances from the Microsoft Storee
This will open up some really great new features and capabilities, including the following:
- Easier Deployment – You can now use just a simple tar file with the command
wsl --install --from-file ubuntu.tar.wsl - Enterprise management and better security – Organizations can fully manage and self-host their WSL instances to have full control over which WSL installations are run within the organization
- Customization – Images of Ubuntu can be customized before deployment. This will support the ability to have full cloud-init support for automation
How do you use this new way of installing?
First of all you will need to have the WSL version 2.4.8 or higher. Then, you can use the following as we have always done:
I'm looking forward to diving into this a bit more and see how we can create and manage our own WSL image.
Check out the blog post from Ubuntu here: Ubuntu available in Microsoft’s new WSL distribution format | Ubuntu