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.