Here is what we do in OpenVPS. This is Fedora biased.
I think the utils strategy is copy-everything-then-unify, whereas we stuck to hardlink-as-you-copy-then-leave-it-alone. Either strategy is fine, it probably more depends on what you're doing. In our case the vserver is intended to passed to a client/customer/etc, so it's best not to touch those files once they're released, which why we've been avoiding vuinify.
We pretty much follow these steps:
1. Build a reference server like any other server (there is more than one way to do it, we just use rpm and then manually adjust little things, the vserver utils use the magic of apt to do it).
2. There is a "fixflags" script. It walks the tree and sets certain things immutable (iunlink to be exact). The strategy is similar to what vunify does - we rely on RPM package information, if a file is marked as "config" it is not flagged with iunlink.
3. To make a vserver you have a "clone" script. The clone script makes hard links to files that are iunlink, and copies most everything else. Some files are not copied, but just created (touched). The specific "clone rules" we use look like this (these rules make an assumption that the reference server is in a pristine state, otherwise you'd need a more elaborate set of rules):
CLONE_RULES = {
'copy' : ['/etc', '/var', '/root', '^/dev'],
'touch' : ['/var/log', '/var/run', '\.bash_history'],
'skip' : ['ssh_host_', '.pem$', '/proc/', '/var/tmp/',
'/var/cache/.*/.+']
}(this is in python, btw)
This means /etc is always copied, everything in /var/log is always "touched", .pem files are skipped, etc.
4. If you update the reference server, just go ahead and do it, and remember to run the fixflags afterwards, or the clone step will not hardlink the new files because they're not iunlink.
Haven't tried vserver-copy, it probably does something similar.
Grisha
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004, Tor Rune Skoglund wrote:
Hi List,
when trying to make a good template server, one obviously has to start and enter the virtual server and test the installation of it, add some programs, make config changes in it and so on.
But when using it as a template, some files must be removed or altered before it is made "production ready". AFAICS at least these have to be changed/deleted:
* ssh keys * shell history file * root password setting * any standard users password settings
I am sure there are more, so if any of you experts out there has additions to the list, please mail me or the list. I'll make a summary on the wiki afterwards.
Also, I do not know how well vserver-copy or other copy tools handle such files, as the documentation seems to be a bit sparse on the tools. Any enlightment on these matters will be highly appreciated.
Best regards Tor Rune Skoglund [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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