Scribd
Upload
10 views5 pages

Gentoo Linux-VServer Howto

The document provides a comprehensive guide on setting up and managing Linux-VServer, which allows the creation of Virtual Private Servers (VPS) on a host system. It covers installation of the VServer kernel, configuration of the host environment, creation of guest servers, and maintenance tasks such as starting guests on boot and keeping packages in sync. Additionally, it includes code listings and notes for various configurations and commands necessary for effective management of virtual servers.

Uploaded by

zelalem426046
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
10 views5 pages

Gentoo Linux-VServer Howto

The document provides a comprehensive guide on setting up and managing Linux-VServer, which allows the creation of Virtual Private Servers (VPS) on a host system. It covers installation of the VServer kernel, configuration of the host environment, creation of guest servers, and maintenance tasks such as starting guests on boot and keeping packages in sync. Additionally, it includes code listings and notes for various configurations and commands necessary for effective management of virtual servers.

Uploaded by

zelalem426046
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

1.

Introduction
The Linux-VServer Concept
The basic concept of the Linux-VServer solution is to separate the user-space environment into
distinct units (sometimes called Virtual Private Servers) in such a way that each VPS looks and
feels like a real server to the processes contained within.
Terms used in this Howto

Term Description
Linux-VServer is the official name of the project and used in this
Linux-VServer, VServer
Howto the same way
virtual server, vserver, guest All these are interchangable and refer to one instance of a server
system (i.e. one virtual server)
The physical machine running your Gentoo Linux will host all
host system, host
virtual servers
The util-vserver package contains all programs necessary for
util-vserver
maintaining your virtual servers
2. Host configuration
Install a VServer kernel

Code Listing 2.1: Install vserver-sources

# emerge vserver-sources

After the vserver-sources are installed it's time to configure them using make menuconfig.. Below is
a common configuration for 2.1.1 and above. If you are using 2.0.x some configuration options may
not be present.

Code Listing 2.2: Configure vserver-sources

# cd /usr/src/linux-<KERNELVERSION>-vserver-<VSERVERVERSION>
# make menuconfig

Linux VServer --->


(Do not enable the legacy options)
[ ] Enable Legacy Kernel API
[ ] Enable Legacy Networking Kernel API
(Read help text)
[ ] Remap Source IP Address
[*] Enable COW Immutable Link Breaking
[ ] Enable Virtualized Guest Time
[*] Enable Proc Security
[*] Enable Hard CPU Limits
[*] Avoid idle CPUs by skipping Time
[*] Limit the IDLE task
Persistent Inode Tagging (UID24/GID24) --->
[ ] Tag NFSD User Auth and Files
[*] Enable Inode Tag Propagation
[*] Honor Privacy Aspects of Guests
[ ] VServer Debugging Code

Note: If you are using reiserfs as filesystem on the partition where guest images are stored, you will
need to enable extended attributes for reiserfs in your kernel config and additionally add the attrs
option in /etc/fstab.

Code Listing 2.3: Configure reiserfs options

File systems --->


<*> Reiserfs support
[*] ReiserFS extended attributes

Code Listing 2.4: Example fstab with extended attributes

/dev/hdb1 /vservers reiserfs noatime,attrs 0 0

After you've built and installed the kernel, update your boot loader and finally reboot to see if the
kernel boots correctly.

Code Listing 2.5: Install the kernel

(Building the kernel)


# make
(Installing)
# make modules_install
# cp arch/<arch>/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-<KERNELVERSION>-vserver-<VSERVERVERSION>
(Edit bootloader config file as required and)
# reboot

Setup host environment


To maintain your virtual servers you need the util-vserver package which contains all necessary
programs and many useful features.

Code Listing 2.6: Install util-vserver

# emerge >=sys-cluster/util-vserver-0.30.212

You have to run the vprocunhide command after every reboot in order to setup /proc permissions
correctly for vserver guests. Two init scripts have been installed by util-vserver which run the
vprocunhide command for you and take care of virtual servers during shutdown of the host.

Code Listing 2.7: util-vserver init scripts

# rc-update add vprocunhide default


# /etc/init.d/vprocunhide start
# rc-update add util-vserver default
# /etc/init.d/util-vserver start

3. Guest creation
Download a precompiled stage3
Since many hardware related commands are not available inside a virtual server, there has been a
patched version of baselayout known as baselayout-vserver. However, since baselayout-2/openrc,
all required changes have been integrated, eliminating the need for seperate vserver stages, profiles
and baselayout. Stage tarballs can be downloaded from our mirrors.
Since a stage3 contains a complete root filesystem you can use the template build method of util-
vserver. However, this method only works reliable since util-vserver-0.30.213_rc5, so make sure
you have the right version installed.
You have to choose a context ID for your vserver (dynamic context IDs are discouraged) as well as
the necessary network device information (In this example eth0 is configured with
192.168.1.253/24 and the context ID is equivalent to the last two parts of the virtual servers IP).
Note: The context ID should be 1 < ID < 49152.

Using the template build method


For a long time now, plain init style was the only init style available for gentoo, i.e. a normal init
process will be started inside the guest, just like on any common Unix system. However this
approach has some drawbacks:
• No possibility to see output of init/rc scripts
• Wasted resources for idle init processes in each guest
• Annoying conflicts for /etc/inittab
Therefore, many users have requested to reimplement the gentoo init style, which has been
abandonned since it was a very hacky implementation and more or less worked by accident due to
other modifications done to baselayout back then. However, as of util-vserver-0.30.212 the gentoo
init style has been reimplemented in a concise manner and will become the default in the future.
Note: If there is not a good reason for using an extra init process for each guest or if you don't know
what to do here, you should stick with gentoo init style.

Code Listing 3.1: Start stage3 installation

# vserver myguest build \


--context 1253 \
--hostname gentoo \
--interface eth0:192.168.1.253/24 \
--initstyle gentoo \ (replace if needed)
-m template -- \
-d gentoo \
-t /path/to/stage3-<arch>-<version>.tar.bz2

Note: To reflect your network settings you should change /etc/conf.d/hostname,


/etc/conf.d/domainname and /etc/hosts inside the guest to your needs. See chapter 8.b.1 and chapter
8.b.4. The rest of your virtual servers network setup will be done on the host.

You should now be able to start and enter the vserver by using the commands below.

Code Listing 3.2: Test the virtual server

# vserver myguest start

OpenRC 0.4.3 is starting up Gentoo Linux (x86_64) [VSERVER]

Press I to enter interactive boot mode

* /proc is already mounted, skipping


* Setting hostname to myguest... [ ok ]
* Creating user login records... [ ok ]
* Cleaning /var/run... [ ok ]
* Wiping /tmp directory... [ ok ]
* Updating /etc/mtab... [ ok ]
* Initializing random number generator... [ ok ]
* Starting syslog-ng... [ ok ]
* Starting fcron... [ ok ]
* Starting Name Service Cache Daemon... [ ok ]
* Starting local... [ ok ]
# vserver-stat
CTX PROC VSZ RSS userTIME sysTIME UPTIME NAME
0 90 1.4G 153.4K 14m00s11 6m45s17 2h59m59 root server
1252 2 3M 286 0m00s45 0m00s42 0m02s91 myguest
# vserver myguest enter
# ps ax
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
1 ? Ss 0:04 init [3]
27637 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
27656 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/fcron -c /etc/fcron/fcron.conf
27676 ? Ssl 0:00 /usr/sbin/nscd
27713 ? S+ 0:00 login
27737 pts/15 Ss 0:00 /bin/bash
27832 pts/15 R+ 0:00 ps ax
# logout

4. Maintenance made easy


Start guests on boot
You can start certain guests during boot. Each guest can be assigned a MARK. Now everything you
have to do is configure these MARKs in the guests configuration and add the approriate init scripts
to the default runlevel.

Code Listing 4.1: Configure MARKs for each guest

(Do this for every guest you want to start)


# mkdir -p /etc/vservers/myguest/apps/init
# echo "default" > /etc/vservers/myguest/apps/init/mark

Code Listing 4.2: Add init script to the default runlevel

# rc-update add vservers.default default

Keep portage in sync


The script vesync will help you to keep the metadata cache and overlays in sync. vemerge is a
simple wrapper for emerge in guests.

Code Listing 4.3: Examples

(Sync metadata for 'myguest')


# vesync myguest
(Sync metadata for all guests)
# vesync --all
(Sync 'myoverlay' for all guests)
# vesync --all \
--overlay /usr/local/overlays/myoverlay \
--overlay-host rsync://rsync.myhost.com/myoverlay \
--overlay-only
(emerge app-editors/vim in 'myguest')
# vemerge myguest -- app-editors/vim -va

Update guests
Gentoo guests can share packages to save compilation time. In order to use shared packages, you
have to create a central directory for packages on the host. We will use /var/cache/vpackages on the
host and mount it to /usr/portage/packages in every guest.

Code Listing 4.4: Add bind mount to guest configuration

# mkdir -p /var/cache/vpackages
# $EDITOR /etc/vservers/myguest/fstab
(Add this line at the end)
/var/cache/vpackages /usr/portage/packages none bind,rw 0 0

Now you can use vupdateworld to update every guest. The command is equivalent to something
like emerge --deep --update --newuse world depending on command line options.

Code Listing 4.5: vupdateworld examples

(Pretend update for 'myguest')


# vupdateworld myguest -- -vp
(Update 'myguest' using binary packages)
# vupdateworld myguest -- -k
(Update all guests using binary packages)
# vupdateworld --all -- -k

Note: In order to get binary packages you can either use PORTAGE_BINHOST (see man
make.conf) or set FEATURES="buildpkg" in one or more guests.

After a successful update you can easily update all configuration files with vdispatch-conf. It is a
simple wrapper for dispatch-conf and behaves exactly the same.

Code Listing 4.6: vdispatch-conf examples

(Update configuration files for 'myguest')


# vdispatch-conf myguest
(Update configuration files for all guests)
# vdispatch-conf --all

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy