OpenVZ Virtuozzo Containers Wiki - User contributions [en]

Mounting filesystems

2008-07-30T14:25:36Z

Bsv999: /* Requirement */

== Mounting filesystems within a container ==

To mount filesystems inside a container, you have several choices:

* NFS (the container will be an NFS Client) - see [[NFS]]
* FUSE - see [[FUSE]]
* Bind mount from Hardware Node

=== Bind mount from Hardware Node ===

Recent Linux kernels support an operation called 'bind mounting' which makes part of a mounted filesystem visible at some other mount point. See 'man bind' for more information.

Bind mounts can be used to make directories on the hardware node visible to the container.

OpenVZ uses two directories. Assuming our container is numbered 777, these directories are:

$VZROOT/private/777
$VZROOT/root/777

{{Note|<code>$VZROOT</code> is usually <code>/vz</code>, on Debian systems however this is <code>/var/lib/vz</code>. In this document this is further referred to as <code>$VZROOT</code> -- substitute it with what you have.}}

The $VZROOT/private directory contains root directory contents. This directory or subdirectory may be symlinked onto a different file system, for example:

$VZROOT/private -> /mnt/openvz

Putting container root directories onto a separate file system (not the hardware node root file system) is good storage management practice. It protects the Hardware Node root file system from being filled up by a container; this could cause problems on the Hardware Node.

=== Requirement ===

'''On the HN we have a directory <code>/home</code> which we wish to make available (shared) to all containers.'''

You would think that you could bind mount this directory, as in: <code>mount --bind /home $VZROOT/private/777/home</code> but this does not work — the contents of <code>/home</code> cannot be seen within the container.

This is where the second directory listed above (<code>$VZROOT/root/777</code>) is used. If a container is not started, this directory is empty. But after starting a container, this directory contains what the container sees as its mounted file systems.

The correct command to issue on the HN is:

mount --bind /home $VZROOT/root/777/home

The container must be started and the destination directory must exist. The container will see this directory mounted like this:

# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
simfs 10485760 298728 10187032 3% /
tmpfs 484712 0 484712 0% /lib/init/rw
tmpfs 484712 0 484712 0% /dev/shm
ext3 117662052 104510764 7174408 94% /home

----
=== Attention ===

Partition with <b>reiserfs</b> file system don't mounted in container now (may be later). You can mount reiserfs on the HN added two rows in /etc/vz/cron:

# Mount disks after reboot.
*/5 * * * * root mount /dev/sda1 $VZROOT/root/777/mnt/sda1

Partition /dev/sda1 be mount after VE 777 is started.

[[Category:HOWTO]]

Mounting filesystems

2008-07-30T14:24:09Z

Bsv999: /* Requirement */

== Mounting filesystems within a container ==

To mount filesystems inside a container, you have several choices:

* NFS (the container will be an NFS Client) - see [[NFS]]
* FUSE - see [[FUSE]]
* Bind mount from Hardware Node

=== Bind mount from Hardware Node ===

Recent Linux kernels support an operation called 'bind mounting' which makes part of a mounted filesystem visible at some other mount point. See 'man bind' for more information.

Bind mounts can be used to make directories on the hardware node visible to the container.

OpenVZ uses two directories. Assuming our container is numbered 777, these directories are:

$VZROOT/private/777
$VZROOT/root/777

{{Note|<code>$VZROOT</code> is usually <code>/vz</code>, on Debian systems however this is <code>/var/lib/vz</code>. In this document this is further referred to as <code>$VZROOT</code> -- substitute it with what you have.}}

The $VZROOT/private directory contains root directory contents. This directory or subdirectory may be symlinked onto a different file system, for example:

$VZROOT/private -> /mnt/openvz

Putting container root directories onto a separate file system (not the hardware node root file system) is good storage management practice. It protects the Hardware Node root file system from being filled up by a container; this could cause problems on the Hardware Node.

=== Requirement ===

'''On the HN we have a directory <code>/home</code> which we wish to make available (shared) to all containers.'''

You would think that you could bind mount this directory, as in: <code>mount --bind /home $VZROOT/private/777/home</code> but this does not work — the contents of <code>/home</code> cannot be seen within the container.

This is where the second directory listed above (<code>$VZROOT/root/777</code>) is used. If a container is not started, this directory is empty. But after starting a container, this directory contains what the container sees as its mounted file systems.

The correct command to issue on the HN is:

mount --bind /home $VZROOT/root/777/home

The container must be started and the destination directory must exist. The container will see this directory mounted like this:

# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
simfs 10485760 298728 10187032 3% /
tmpfs 484712 0 484712 0% /lib/init/rw
tmpfs 484712 0 484712 0% /dev/shm
ext3 117662052 104510764 7174408 94% /home

----
Attention:
Partition with <b>reiserfs</b> file system don't mounted in container now (may be later). You can mount reiserfs on the HN added two rows in /etc/vz/cron:

# Mount disks after reboot.
*/5 * * * * root mount /dev/sda1 $VZROOT/root/777/mnt/sda1

Partition /dev/sda1 be mount after VE 777 is started.

[[Category:HOWTO]]