LXC/LXD Help

I have been going through this for a week now and things are a mess. I have blown away the server numerous times. I need help

Trying to get some containers w/ static IP setup on ubuntu 16.04

I have bridge-utils and zfsutils-linux installed
I configure br0 for bridge no problem.

run sudo lxd init
assign zfs pool to /dev/sda8
configre networking to use br0

I edited /etc/default/lxd-bridge to add a lxd_dnsmasq.conf file to assign static ip. dhcp-host=container_name,ipv4 address
I sent use_lxd_bridge to "true"
and confirm it is using "br0" as the bridge.

I run -> sudo service lxd-bridge stop && sudo service lxd-bridge start

ssh connection to my server dies, cant start new ssh tunnel. Have to physically restart machine

I reboot and all looks good.

I run sudo lxc init ubuntu: newcontainer
It pulls down an image and sets it up.

I check to see if any static ip information has been assinged -> nope

I run sudo lxc info --show-log container and my ssh dies. I have to reboot server.

And I still cannot get the container to grab the static I assigned in dnsmasq.config file.

can someone please assist?