[vserver] RedHat HOW-TOs

Mon, 09 Dec 2002 17:48:55 -0800

Hi All,
 
Don't know if this helps, but I've documented my experience with VServer so far in the form of a how-to...  If it helps anyone I've pasted it in below...  I should have these on my site within the next day or so, and there will be more VServer-RedHat how-to docs to come.
 
Hope it helps someone - especially the VServer newbies out there ;)
 
Mark.
 
 
============================================================
VServer HOWTO Part 1 - "Set up a bare bones VServer from scratch on a RedHat 7.x System" (V.0.1)
============================================================
 
Preamble:
 
VServer is useful for many purposes, but I use it to create Virtual Private Servers (aka VServers, Virtual Dedicated Servers, Virtual Servers yada yada) for web hosting.  To this end, I have attempted to create a VServer environment starting with the absolute bare bones.  This may not be the best way to get VServer up and running on RedHat 7.x, but it seems to have worked well for me so far.
 
Please note that this installation is based on the precompiled CTX kernel and RPM.
 
Your mileage might vary, so if you have anything to add to this then please send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED].
 
OK, now that's over lets get started.
 
1) Install 7.x Redhat System as normal - suggest 'Minimal Server Install' - ie no Apache etc etc. If you can do without them it will make your life easier.  What?!? You're installing this on a production server with live customers?  You crazy SoB!
 
Sorry no more help with the RedHat install here - if you can't get this far then you probably shouldn't be playing with VServer at all ;)
 
2) Make a few adjustments to your system so VServers can function properly and bind to necessary ports/IPs.  Basically you will need to modify any application that binds to '0.0.0.0' (ie every bound IP) so that it only binds to the main IP of the server.  The following example is for SSHd, and is the bare minimum:
 
Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config, uncomment the 'ListenAddress' directive and insert the main server IP, for example 'ListenAddress 192.168.1.2'
 
Restart SSHd:
# service sshd restart
 
Do the same for any other services binding to '0.0.0.0'.
 
3) Download/Install VServer Kernel and Userland Tools
 
Download the kernel and userland tools
 
 
Next, as root, install the kernel:
# cd /
# tar zxvf kernel-2.4.19ctx-15.tar.gz
# mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.19ctx-15.img 2.4.19ctx-15
 
Next, add something like the following to /etc/grub.conf
 
 title Red Hat Linux (2.4.19ctx-15)
         root (hd0,0)
         kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.19ctx-15 ro root=/dev/sda5
         initrd /initrd-2.4.19ctx-15.img
 
...And reboot into the new kernel...  If all goes well you should get something like the following from 'uname -a':
 
 Linux host.domain.com 2.4.19ctx-15 #40 Sat Dec 7 01:25:53 EST 2002 i686 unknown
 
Finally, install the userland tools:
 
# rpm -ivh vserver-0.21-1.i386.rpm
 
Now you should be ready to create your first VServer.
 
4) Get ready to install your first VServer
 
NOTE: OK, make sure you read this before going any further...  The main VServer documentation suggests to get started by creating a VServer based on the main server installation (ie newvserver).  Whilst this might work it is probably not the best way to go since 1GB+ per VServer is not exactly elegant, and X is rarely of any use for webhosting ;)  My way is to gather the bare bones RPMs for the VServer...  For this you will need to gather the following RPMs in a directory on your system (I put them in /home/software/vserver, but you can put them anywhere you have enough space).  After this point you can use the newvserver script to create new VServers in a more elegant way ;)
 
NOTE 2:  These packages are taken from the RedHat 7.3 ISO's, so don't include any errata/updates supplied by RedHat.  Therefore VSERVERS CREATED FROM THIS PACKAGE LIST MAY NOT BE VERY SECURE (did I say that loud enough?).  You have been warned.  As a further note, it is possible to run the RedHat up2date service within a VServer, so there is an easy way to bring everything up to the latest versions - the subject of another HOW-TO...
 
=== Package list for a basic VServer ===
 
audiofile-0.2.3-1.i386.rpm
basesystem-7.0-2.noarch.rpm
bash-2.05a-13.i386.rpm
bdflush-1.5-17.i386.rpm
bind-utils-9.2.0-8.i386.rpm
binutils-2.11.93.0.2-11.i386.rpm
bzip2-1.0.2-2.i386.rpm
bzip2-devel-1.0.2-2.i386.rpm
bzip2-libs-1.0.2-2.i386.rpm
chkconfig-1.3.5-3.i386.rpm
chkfontpath-1.9.5-2.i386.rpm
console-tools-19990829-40.i386.rpm
cracklib-2.7-15.i386.rpm
cracklib-dicts-2.7-15.i386.rpm
crontabs-1.10-1.noarch.rpm
curl-7.9.5-2.i386.rpm
cyrus-sasl-1.5.24-25.i386.rpm
cyrus-sasl-md5-1.5.24-25.i386.rpm
cyrus-sasl-plain-1.5.24-25.i386.rpm
dateconfig-0.7.5-5.i386.rpm
db1-1.85-8.i386.rpm
db1-devel-1.85-8.i386.rpm
db2-2.4.14-10.i386.rpm
db2-devel-2.4.14-10.i386.rpm
db3-3.3.11-6.i386.rpm
db3-devel-3.3.11-6.i386.rpm
db3-utils-3.3.11-6.i386.rpm
dev-3.3-4.i386.rpm
diffutils-2.7.2-5.i386.rpm
e2fsprogs-1.27-3.i386.rpm
elinks-0.3.0-1.i386.rpm
esound-0.2.24-1.i386.rpm
expat-1.95.2-2.i386.rpm
file-3.37-5.i386.rpm
filesystem-2.1.6-2.noarch.rpm
fileutils-4.1-10.i386.rpm
findutils-4.1.7-4.i386.rpm
freetype-2.0.9-2.i386.rpm
gawk-3.1.0-4.i386.rpm
gd-1.8.4-4.i386.rpm
gdbm-1.8.0-14.i386.rpm
gdbm-devel-1.8.0-14.i386.rpm
gdk-pixbuf-0.14.0-8.i386.rpm
glib-1.2.10-5.i386.rpm
glib2-2.0.1-2.i386.rpm
glibc-2.2.5-34.i386.rpm
glibc-common-2.2.5-34.i386.rpm
gmp-4.0.1-3.i386.rpm
gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-14.i386.rpm
gnupg-1.0.6-5.i386.rpm
gpm-1.19.3-21.i386.rpm
grep-2.5.1-1.i386.rpm
groff-1.17.2-12.i386.rpm
gtk+-1.2.10-15.i386.rpm
gzip-1.3.3-1.i386.rpm
imlib-1.9.13-3.7.x.i386.rpm
info-4.1-1.i386.rpm
initscripts-6.67-1.i386.rpm
iproute-2.4.7-1.i386.rpm
iputils-20020124-3.i386.rpm
krb5-devel-1.2.4-1.i386.rpm
krb5-libs-1.2.4-1.i386.rpm
less-358-24.i386.rpm
libcap-1.10-8.i386.rpm
libjpeg6a-6a-8.i386.rpm
libjpeg-6b-19.i386.rpm
libpng-1.0.12-2.i386.rpm
libstdc++-2.96-110.i386.rpm
libtermcap-2.0.8-28.i386.rpm
libtermcap-devel-2.0.8-28.i386.rpm
libtiff-3.5.7-2.i386.rpm
libtool-libs-1.4.2-7.i386.rpm
libungif-4.1.0-10.i386.rpm
libuser-0.50.2-1.i386.rpm
libxml10-1.0.0-8.i386.rpm
libxml-1.8.17-3.i386.rpm
libxml2-2.4.19-4.i386.rpm
libxml2-python-2.4.19-4.i386.rpm
logrotate-3.6.4-1.i386.rpm
losetup-2.11n-12.i386.rpm
m4-1.4.1-7.i386.rpm
mailcap-2.1.9-2.noarch.rpm
man-1.5j-6.i386.rpm
mingetty-1.00-1.i386.rpm
mkinitrd-3.3.10-1.i386.rpm
mktemp-1.5-14.i386.rpm
mm-1.1.3-4.i386.rpm
modutils-2.4.14-3.i386.rpm
mount-2.11n-12.i386.rpm
ncurses-5.2-26.i386.rpm
net-tools-1.60-4.i386.rpm
newt-0.50.35-1.i386.rpm
ntp-4.1.1-1.i386.rpm
openldap-2.0.23-4.i386.rpm
openssh-3.1p1-3.i386.rpm
openssh-askpass-3.1p1-3.i386.rpm
openssh-askpass-gnome-3.1p1-3.i386.rpm
openssh-clients-3.1p1-3.i386.rpm
openssh-server-3.1p1-3.i386.rpm
openssl095a-0.9.5a-11.i386.rpm
openssl096-0.9.6-6.i386.rpm
openssl-0.9.6b-18.i386.rpm
openssl-devel-0.9.6b-18.i386.rpm
openssl-perl-0.9.6b-18.i386.rpm
ORBit-0.5.13-3.i386.rpm
pam-0.75-32.i386.rpm
passwd-0.67-1.i386.rpm
pcre-3.9-2.i386.rpm
pcre-devel-3.9-2.i386.rpm
perl-5.6.1-34.99.6.i386.rpm
perl-Archive-Tar-0.22-15.noarch.rpm
perl-Bit-Vector-6.1-12.i386.rpm
perl-BSD-Resource-1.14-11.i386.rpm
perl-CGI-2.752-34.99.6.i386.rpm
perl-CPAN-1.59_54-34.99.6.i386.rpm
perl-Crypt-SSLeay-0.35-15.i386.rpm
perl-Date-Calc-5.0-15.i386.rpm
perl-DateManip-5.40-15.i386.rpm
perl-DB_File-1.75-34.99.6.i386.rpm
perl-DBI-1.21-1.i386.rpm
perl-Devel-Symdump-2.01-15.i386.rpm
perl-Digest-MD5-2.16-15.i386.rpm
perl-File-MMagic-1.13-14.i386.rpm
perl-Frontier-RPC-0.06-14.i386.rpm
perl-HTML-Parser-3.26-2.i386.rpm
perl-HTML-Tagset-3.03-14.i386.rpm
perl-libnet-1.0901-17.i386.rpm
perl-libwww-perl-5.63-9.i386.rpm
perl-libxml-enno-1.02-15.i386.rpm
perl-libxml-perl-0.07-14.noarch.rpm
perl-MIME-Base64-2.12-14.i386.rpm
perl-NDBM_File-1.75-34.99.6.i386.rpm
perl-NKF-1.71-2.i386.rpm
perl-Parse-Yapp-1.05-15.i386.rpm
perl-Storable-1.0.14-15.i386.rpm
perl-suidperl-5.6.1-34.99.6.i386.rpm
perl-TermReadKey-2.17-14.i386.rpm
perl-TimeDate-1.10-14.i386.rpm
perl-Time-HiRes-1.20-14.i386.rpm
perl-URI-1.17-16.i386.rpm
perl-XML-Dumper-0.4-12.noarch.rpm
perl-XML-Encoding-1.01-9.noarch.rpm
perl-XML-Grove-0.46alpha-11.noarch.rpm
perl-XML-Parser-2.30-15.i386.rpm
perl-XML-Twig-2.02-9.noarch.rpm
popt-1.6.4-7x.18.i386.rpm
procinfo-18-2.i386.rpm
procps-2.0.7-12.i386.rpm
psmisc-20.2-2.i386.rpm
pspell-0.12.2-8.i386.rpm
pwdb-0.61.2-2.i386.rpm
pygnome-1.4.2-3.i386.rpm
pygtk-0.6.9-3.i386.rpm
python-1.5.2-38.i386.rpm
python-clap-1.0.0-3.noarch.rpm
python-popt-0.8.8-7.x.2.i386.rpm
python-xmlrpc-1.5.1-7.x.3.i386.rpm
readline-4.2a-4.i386.rpm
redhat-release-7.3-1.noarch.rpm
rpm-4.0.4-7x.18.i386.rpm
rpm-python-4.0.4-7x.18.i386.rpm
sed-3.02-11.i386.rpm
setup-2.5.12-1.noarch.rpm
shadow-utils-20000902-7.i386.rpm
sh-utils-2.0.11-14.i386.rpm
slang-1.4.5-2.i386.rpm
sysklogd-1.4.1-8.i386.rpm
SysVinit-2.84-2.i386.rpm
tar-1.13.25-4.i386.rpm
tcl-8.3.3-67.i386.rpm
termcap-11.0.1-10.noarch.rpm
textutils-2.0.21-1.i386.rpm
ttfonts-1.0-9.noarch.rpm
unixODBC-2.2.0-5.i386.rpm
unzip-5.50-2.i386.rpm
usermode-1.53-2.i386.rpm
utempter-0.5.2-6.i386.rpm
util-linux-2.11n-12.i386.rpm
VFlib2-2.25.6-4.i386.rpm
vim-common-6.1-2.i386.rpm
vim-minimal-6.1-2.i386.rpm
vixie-cron-3.0.1-64.i386.rpm
which-2.13-3.i386.rpm
words-2-18.noarch.rpm
XFree86-font-utils-4.2.0-8.i386.rpm
XFree86-libs-4.2.0-8.i386.rpm
XFree86-xfs-4.2.0-8.i386.rpm
zip-2.3-12.i386.rpm
zlib-1.1.3-25.7.i386.rpm
 

5) OK, let's go build a VServer:
 
Create /etc/vservers/<vservername>.conf with something like the following contents:
 
 IPROOTDEV="eth0"
 IPROOT="192.168.1.100"
 ONBOOT="no"
 S_DOMAINNAME="none"
 S_HOSTNAME="host.domain.com"
 S_FLAGS=fakeinit
 
Next, create a directory to hold your VServers:
 
# mkdir /vservers
# mkdir /vservers/<vservername>
 
Now you are ready to build your VServer:
 
NOTE:  For the VServer build to work you need to put an empty RPM database into the VServer environment so that everything drops nicely into place.  You only need to make this empty RPM database once, then you can use it again and again...  You can create an empty RPM database as follows:
 
# mkdir /root/rpmdb
# cd /root/rpmdb
# cp -a /var/lib/rpm .
 
Then create a shellscript called mkemptyrpmdb.sh with the following contents:
 
 #!/bin/bash
 RPMS=`rpm -qa --root=/root/rpmdb`
 for rpms in $RPMS; do
 rpm -e --justdb --root=/root/rpmdb $rpms
 done
 
...And execute the shell script...
 
# chmod 755 mkemptyrpmdb.sh
# ./mkemptyrpmdb.sh
 
Next, create a var/tmp directory as well (this helps when you come to build the VServer):
 
# cd /root/rpmdb # Just to be sure ;)
# mkdir var/tmp
 
Next, tar up a copy of the var directory for subsequent use...
 
# tar cvfz rpmdb.tar.gz var/*
 
...And on with the VServer build...
 
# cd /vservers/<vservername>
# tar zxvf rpmdb.tar.gz
 
Now you can go for it and build the VServer environment:
 
# rpm -ivh --root=/vservers/<vservername> /home/software/vserver/*.rpm
 
Now that the VServer has been built you need to do a few more tasks to make everything work properly:
 
# echo none /proc proc defaults 0 0 > /vservers/<vservername>/etc/fstab
# echo <IP> <host.domain.com> localhost.localdomain > /vservers/<vservername>/etc/hosts
 
Next, create an /etc/sysconfig/network file in the <vservername> directory and add the following to it:
 
 NETWORKING=yes
 HOSTNAME=<host.domain.com>
 
Next, give the VServer some nameserver addresses to resolve DNS - add the following to /vservers/<vservername>/etc/resolv.conf:
 
 nameserver www.xxx.yyy.zzz
 nameserver www.xxx.yyy.zzz
 
Next you'll need to turn off the network service in the VServer and move the rc.sysinit file out of the way so everything boots up nicely:
 
# vserver <vservername> enter
# chkconfig --levels 2345 network off
# mv /etc/rc.sysinit /etc/rc.sysinit.backup
# exit
 
And there it is, you should have a working VServer ready to boot!
 
6) Fire up your VServer:
 
# vserver <vservername> start
 
Afterword:
 
As I said at the beginning, this is a bare bones VServer and is only useful for the exercise...
 
In my next HOW-TO I will turn this bare bones VServer into a pretty functional system with Apache/Sendmail/Perl/PHP/MySQL etc.
 

=============================================================
VServer HOWTO Part 2 - "Moving From a Bare Bones VServer to a Fully Functional VServer for Web Hosting" (V.0.1)
=============================================================
 
Preamble:
 
So you've got a bare bones VServer up and running, and now you want to make it useful.  You should have followed Part 1 of this guide to have all the prerequisite software in place before going any further.
 
1) Gather all the software you need
 
To make your life easier, create the following directories containing the listed rpms:
 
sendmail
 procmail-3.22-5.i386.rpm
 sendmail-8.11.6-15.i386.rpm
 sendmail-cf-8.11.6-15.i386.rpm
 sendmail-devel-8.11.6-15.i386.rpm
 sendmail-doc-8.11.6-15.i386.rpm
 
apachephp
 apache-1.3.23-11.i386.rpm
 php-4.1.2-7.i386.rpm
 php-devel-4.1.2-7.i386.rpm
 php-imap-4.1.2-7.i386.rpm
 php-ldap-4.1.2-7.i386.rpm
 php-odbc-4.1.2-7.i386.rpm
 
mysql
 mysql-3.23.49-3.i386.rpm
 mysqlclient9-3.23.22-6.i386.rpm
 mysql-devel-3.23.49-3.i386.rpm
 mysql-server-3.23.49-3.i386.rpm
 perl-DBD-MySQL-1.2219-6.i386.rpm
 php-mysql-4.1.2-7.i386.rpm
 
postgresql
 perl-DBD-Pg-1.01-8.i386.rpm
 php-pgsql-4.1.2-7.i386.rpm
 postgresql-7.2.1-5.i386.rpm
 postgresql-devel-7.2.1-5.i386.rpm
 postgresql-libs-7.2.1-5.i386.rpm
 postgresql-server-7.2.1-5.i386.rpm
 
gcc
 cpp-2.96-110.i386.rpm
 gcc-2.96-110.i386.rpm
 gcc-c++-2.96-110.i386.rpm
 gcc-chill-2.96-110.i386.rpm
 gcc-g77-2.96-110.i386.rpm
 gcc-java-2.96-110.i386.rpm
 gcc-objc-2.9cd ../6-110.i386.rpm
 glibc-devel-2.2.5-34.i386.rpm
 glibc-kernheaders-2.4-7.14.i386.rpm
 libgcj-2.96-29.i386.rpm
 libgcj-devel-2.96-29.i386.rpm
 libstdc++-devel-2.96-110.i386.rpm
 make-3.79.1-8.i386.rpm
 
up2date
 rhn_register-2.7.21-7.x.3.i386.rpm
 up2date-2.7.86-7.x.3.i386.rpm
 
2) Install the software you need
 
Change into each directory respectively (note that it is usually unnecessary to install MySQL and PostgreSQL in the same VServer) and issue the following command:
 
# rpm -ivh --root=/vserver/<vservername> *.rpm
 
And that's it!  How easy is that?
 
3) Do some post-install stuff within the VServer
 
# vserver <vservername> enter
 
If you installed the apachephp RPMs you'll need to enable the httpd service using chkconfig and start the service manually:
 
# chkconfig --levels 345 httpd on
# service httpd start
 
If you installed the mysql RPMs you'll need to initialise the database and start MySQL:
 
# mysql_install_db
# chkconfig --levels 345 mysqld on
# service mysqld start
 
If you installed the postgresql RPMs you'll need to initialise the database and start PostgreSQL:
 
# initialise postgreSQL
# do chkconfig
# start postgreSQL
 
If you installed the up2date RPMs you'll need to register your VServer with RedHat Network and fire off up2date:
 
# rhn_register
# up2date -u
 
And that's it...
 
Afterword:
 
You can use this method to modularise the installation of pretty much any software within the VServer environment.  All you need to do is work out which packages are required, put them in a directory of their own and run the rpm command as above.
 
Some applications might need some post-install configuration before they work fully, but this has nothing at all to do with VServer.
 
In my next HOW-TO I will detail how you can run a centralised up2date system that automatically updates all of your VServers on a cron job.  Keep your eyes peeled ;)

Reply via email to