From: Mark Sutton (mark_at_mailforme.co.uk)
Date: Thu 30 Jan 2003 - 13:26:24 GMT
Thanks guys. I've got it all figured out now :) I am interested in the
quota side as well but it is not vital to the setup at present. I am
creating logical volumes on a hardware RAID so I can easily control the disk
space allocated to each VServer. Quota within the VServer environment will
probably become a requirement in the future, so watch out Herbert ;) I might
need more help yet...
This setup - Athlon 1800 XP, 512MB DDR 2100, Promise Fasttrak with 2 x 60 GB
7200rpm Seagate HDDs, striped, running on native Linux ATARAID driver, OS
installed on dedicated HDD - is screaming fast running 20 VServers and has
been stable through all the testing I have thrown at it. The server is not
in production, but I'm talking to some UK ISPs who are interested in running
some VServers in the near future.
There are still some things I need to sort out, and it would be interesting
to hear if anyone else is trying the same things.
One major thing for me is to get LVM snapshots working properly with my EXT3
L.V.'s so that backups can be run without downtime. The LVM module in the
kernel is not that recent (v1.0.3), and it is possible to create, but not
mount EXT3 snapshots because (as far as I can tell) this old version cannot
handle the journal properly. This has been fixed in v1.0.5 but I also
notice that there is a v2 available. Has anyone else already got EXT3
snapshots working? Is it worth going to LVM2 or should I just stick with
v1.0.5? Rather [OT] I know, but it would be interesting to hear if anyone
else is doing backups this way.
I have also been stripping down Webmin to suit the VServer environment. It
is difficult to get it perfect without reworking some of the modules (which
I may attempt in time) but it does give a pretty good set of technical
features... I have also had PleskSA running happily on a VServer, but
didn't really like the interface that much. Is anyone else using/providing
a control panel with their VServers? If so what are/were your experiences?
Linuxconf?
I have hacked the newvserver script to allow a VServer to be built to any
specification. Basically, the script reads in a list of basesystem
configurations from a local repository, and presents these in a menu. Next,
the script reads in a list of plans from the local repository and presents
these in a menu. A plan is just a file containing a list of templates, and
a template is just a list of files (RPMs/TGZs) to be installed for a
particular application (eg Apache) plus a post-install script.
The system is nice because I can define plans containing any application
stored in the repository, and then automate the whole build from newvserver.
My most complex plan builds a
Qmail/LDAP/Spamassassin/Antivirus/Courier/Squirrelmail VServer with a nifty
LDAP directory front-end called GOsa (http://www.gonicus.de/eng/index.html).
I'll try to get it in a 'releaseable' state if anyone else is interested in
it.
Ciaw for now...
Mark.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Herbert Poetzl" <herbert_at_13thfloor.at>
To: <vserver_at_solucorp.qc.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 4:01 PM
Subject: Re: [vserver] What is the point of /dev/hdv1?
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 03:19:00PM -0000, Mark Sutton wrote:
> > I've just spent some time hacking the newvserver script to install
> > VServers from local build-lists and RPM repository. It's helped me
to
> > better understand how everything hangs together, but there's one
thing
> > I don't get... What is the purpose of setting up the following mount
> > point in /usr/lib/vserver/install-post.sh?
> >
> > if [ ! -f $VROOT/etc/fstab ] ; then
> > echo /dev/hdv1 / ext2 defaults
> > 1 1 >$VROOT/etc/fstab
> > echo /dev/hdv1 / ext2 rw 1 1
> > >$VROOT/etc/mtab
> >
> > It was my understanding that root in a VServer couldn't mount/umount
> > devices from within the VPS anyway, so what purpose does this serve?
> >
>
> several utilities (like df) use the mount entries (/etc/mtab)
> for locating their devices/gathering information ...
>
> for these utilities the fake entry is provided ...
>
> if you use per vserver quota, you will also need a
> special device to proxy the quota syscalls ...
>
> > Also, what is the best way to entirely remove a VServer? When I do
> > vserver XXX stop not everything is unmounted, so deleting all the
> > contents is obviously not possible. Do I have to unmount everything
> > manually and then delete or am I missing something here.
>
> depending on the release version of the vserver scripts,
> some or all automatic mounts are removed if possible
> (i.e. no other programms or mounts active)
>
> > Sorry for the newbie-ish questions but I'm nearly there with it all
> > now ;)
>
> no big deal ..
>
> > I'll be happy to share my work with VServer once it's all figured
out.
>
> wonderful ;)
>
> best,
> Herbert
>
> > Kind Regards,
> >
> >
> >
> > Mark.
>