How to fix lxd 'Failed container creation: No storage pool found. Please create a new storage pool.'

Problem:

You want to launch some lxd container using lxc launch […] but instead you get the following error message:

Failed container creation: No storage pool found. Please create a new storage pool.

Solution

You need to initialize lxd before using it:

lxd init

When it asks you about the backend

Name of the storage backend to use (btrfs, dir, lvm) [default=btrfs]:

choosing the default option (btrfs) means that you’ll have to use a dedicated block device (or a dedicated preallocated file image) for storage. While this is more efficient if you run many containers at a time, I recommend to choose the dir backend for the default storage pool, because that option will be easiest to configure and will not occupy as much space on your hard drive.

See Storage management in lxd for more more details, including different options for storage pools in case you need a more advanced setup.