Physical to container

A rough description of how to migrate existing physical server into a container.

Preparing to migrate

Stop most services on a machine to be migrated. “Most” means services such as web server, databases and the like — so you will not lose your data. Just leave the bare minimum (including ssh daemon).

To make things easier you may like to first follow the basic instructions elsewhere and create a dummy container based on the same Linux distribution you want to migrate. That way you can take that dummy as a template and then copy to your new migrated container and modify. You can later discard this dummy.

Prepare a new “empty” container

For OpenVZ this would mean the following (assume you chose CT ID of 123):

mkdir /vz/root/123 /vz/private/123
cat /etc/vz/conf/ve-vps.basic.conf-sample > /etc/vz/conf/123.conf

Hint: Now comes the dummy container handy mentioned above: Simply copy the xxx.conf file of the dummy to your new yyy.conf and modify it.

Copying the data

Copy all your data from the machine to an OpenVZ box. Say you'll be using container with ID of 123, then all the data should be placed to /vz/private/123/ directory (so there will be directories such as /vz/private/123/bin, etc, var and so on). This could be done in several ways:

rsync

rsync example (run from the new HN):

rsync -arvpz --numeric-ids --exclude=/dev --exclude=/proc --exclude=/tmp -e ssh root@a.b.c.d:/ /vz/private/123/

Advantage: Your system doesn't really go down.

Note: Do decrease the downtime, you can use double rsync approach. Run rsync for the first time before stopping most of the services, and then for the second time after stopping services. That way most of the data will be transferred while your server is fully working, and the second rsync will just "catch the latest changes" which is faster.

Live CD

Another way to do is using a live cd, booting up and use tar to dump the complete disk in a tar you save over the network or on a USB device.

Tar

Another approach is using tar and excluding some dirs, you could do it like this:

Create a file /tmp/excludes.excl with these contents:

.bash_history
/dev/*
/mnt/*
/tmp/*
/proc/*
/sys/*
/usr/src/*

Then create the tar. But remember, when the system is 'not' using udev, you have to look into /proc/ after creating your container because some devices might not exist. (/dev/ptmx or others)

# tar --numeric-owner -cjpf /tmp/mysystem.tar.bz2 / -X /tmp/excludes.excl

Naturally, you can only do this when the critical services (MySQL, apache, ..) are stopped and your /tmp filesystem is big enough to contain your tar.

Advantage: You don't need to boot from a live cd, so your system doesn't really go down.

Setting container parameters

OSTEMPLATE

You have to add OSTEMPLATE=xxx line to /etc/vz/conf/123.conf file, where xxx would be distribution name (like debian-3.0) for vzctl to be able to make changes specific for this distribution.

If you copied from the dummy container then this step is already accomplished.

IP address(es)

Also, you have to supply an IP for a new container:

vzctl set 123 --ipadd x.x.x.x --save

venet vs. veth

You may use veth interface instead of venet if you need just bring old server up for seamless migration of services. It may be nessessary if server you are migrating is badly configured and it is hard to find all hard-coded net interfaces settings and so on.

veth inteface may be included into bridge to allow seamless old installation access.

Making adjustments

Since container is a bit different to a real physical server, you have to edit some files inside your new container.

/etc/inittab

A container does not have real ttys, so you have to disable getty in /etc/inittab (i. e. /vz/private/123/etc/inittab).

sed -i -e '/getty/d' /vz/private/123/etc/inittab

/etc/mtab

Link /etc/mtab to /proc/mounts, for df to work properly:

rm -f /vz/private/123/etc/mtab
ln -s /proc/mounts /vz/private/123/etc/mtab

The problem here is container's root filesystem (/) is mounted not from the container itself, but rather from the host system. That leaves /etc/mtab in container without a record for / being mounted, thus df doesn't show it. By linking /etc/mtab → /proc/mounts we make sure /etc/mtab shows what is really mounted in a container. Sure this is not the only way to fix df; you can just manually add a line to /etc/mtab telling / is mounted, and make sure this line will be there after a reboot.

/etc/fstab

Since you do not have any real disk partitions in a container, /etc/fstab (or most part of it) is no longer needed. Empty it (excluding the lines for /dev/pts, /proc, /sys and such):

cp /vz/private/123/etc/fstab /vz/private/123/etc/fstab.old
egrep '/dev/pts|/dev/shm|/proc|/sys' /vz/private/123/etc/fstab.old > /vz/private/123/etc/fstab

You can also mount a devpts in a running (but not fully functional) container:

vzctl exec 123 mount -t devpts none /dev/pts

/dev

Introduction: static /dev

In order for container to work, some nodes should be present in container's /dev. For modern distributions, udev is taking care of it. For a variety of reasons udev doesn't make much sense in a container, so the best thing to do is to disable udev and create needed device nodes manually.

Note that in some distributions /dev is mounted on tmpfs — this will not work in case of static /dev. So what you need to do is find out where /dev is being mounted on tmpfs and remove this. This is highly distribution-dependent; please add info for your distro here.

For Suse 11.0, It is found in /etc/init.d/boot

After you made sure your /dev is static, populate it with needed device nodes.

Please pay attention to the access permissions of the device files being created: a default file mode for newly created files is affected by umask (w:umask). You can use --mode option for mknod to set the desired permissions.

Hint: Now comes the dummy container handy mentioned above: Simply copy the entire /dev directory of the dummy to your new migrated container - worked in my case at least with Debian Etch.

tty device nodes

In order for vzctl enter to work, a container needs to have some entries in /dev. This can either be /dev/ttyp* and /dev/ptyp*, or /dev/ptmx and mounted /dev/pts.

/dev/ptmx

Check that /dev/ptmx exists. If it does not, create with:

mknod --mode 666 /vz/private/123/dev/ptmx c 5 2

/dev/pts/

Check that /dev/pts exists. It's a directory, if it does not exist, create with:

mkdir /vz/private/123/dev/pts

/dev/ttyp* and /dev/ptyp*

Check that /dev/ttyp* and /dev/ptyp* files are there. If not, you have to create those, either by using /sbin/MAKEDEV, or by copying them from the host system.

To copy:

cp -a /dev/ttyp* /dev/ptyp* /vz/private/123/dev/

To recreate with MAKEDEV, either

/sbin/MAKEDEV -d /vz/private/123/dev ttyp ptyp

or

cd /vz/private/123/dev && /sbin/MAKEDEV ttyp

/dev/null

Make sure sure /dev/null is not a file or directory; if unsure remove and recreate. If this is not correct sshd will not start correctly.

rm -f /vz/private/123/dev/null
mknod --mode 666 /vz/private/123/dev/null c 1 3

/dev/urandom

Check that /dev/urandom exists. If it does not, create with:

mknod --mode 444 /vz/private/123/dev/urandom c 1 9

/proc

Make sure the /proc directory exists:

ls -la /vz/private/123/ | grep proc

If it doesn't, create it:

mkdir /vz/private/123/proc

/etc/init.d services

Some system services can (or in some cases should) be disabled. A few good candidates are:

• acpid, amd (not needed)
• checkfs, checkroot (no filesystem checking is required in container)
• clock (no clock setting is required/allowed in container)
• consolefont (container does not have a console)
• hdparm (container does not have real hard drives)
• klogd (unless you use iptables to LOG some packets)
• keymaps (container does not have a real keyboard)
• kudzu (container does not have real hardware)
• lm_sensors (container does not have access to hardware sensors)
• microcodectl (container can not update CPU microcode)
• netplugd (container does not have real Ethernet device)

To see which services are enabled:

• RedHat/Fedora/SUSE: /sbin/chkconfig --list
• Debian: Use 'rcconf' (ncurses) or update-rc.d

( See: http://www.debianadmin.com/manage-linux-init-or-startup-scripts.html )

• Gentoo: /sbin/rc-update show

To disable the service:

• RedHat/Fedora/SUSE: /sbin/chkconfig --del SERVICENAME
• Debian: ' update-rc.d -f hdparm remove '
• Gentoo: /sbin/rc-update del SERVICENAME

Disable old network interface

You should disable your old physical network interface from starting at boot time. This is distribution-dependant.

Fedora/CentOS/Red Hat

Edit /vz/private/{CTID}/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethx

Make the following look like this:

ONBOOT=no

If the files /vz/private/{CTID}/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-venet or /vz/private/{CTID}/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-venet exist, make sure they won't be used. These two files might exist if the physical server had OpenVZ installed. One way to do this is to rename them, like so:

mv ifdown-venet SKIP.ifdown-venet

Failing to do this will prevent networking from starting up correctly in the container.

Debian/Ubuntu

Edit /etc/network/interfaces

# /etc/network/interfaces -- configuration file for ifup(8),  ifdown(8)

# The loopback interface
# automatically added when upgrading
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp
       address 10.0.0.4
       netmask 255.0.0.0
       network 10.0.0.0
       broadcast 10.0.0.255

You can either comment out the eth* interface stanza(s), or take it out of the "auto" line(s).

Ubuntu server 8.x

Here what I have done for my Ubuntu server JEOS 8.04.2

rm /vz/private/123/etc/network/if-up.d/ntpdate
rm /vz/private/123/etc/event.d/tty{1,2,3,4,5,6} 
vzctl exec 123 update-rc.d -f klogd remove
vzctl exec 123 update-rc.d -f udev remove

openSUSE/SLES

Use Yast.

Disable udev if you create DEVNODES devices

If you are creating devices for the container with a DEVNODES statement in a veid.conf file then these devices may be overwritten/deleted by udev when the container starts. As udev cannot "see" the device from within the container it disables it. Therefore, if you have DEVNODES statements in veid.conf then disable udev.

In Fedora, Redhat, Centos, try commenting out any udev entries in /vz/private/{CTID}/etc/rc.sysinit Comment the line similar to this:

#[ -x /sbin/start_udev ] && /sbin/start_udev

Other adjustments

There might be other adjustments needed. Please add those here (just above this section) if you have more info.

Starting a new container

Try to start your new container:

vzctl start 123

Now check that everything works fine. If not, see #Troubleshooting below.

Troubleshooting

PHP not serving pages / random issues

Make sure that /tmp and /var/tmp are created if you rsynced over your data and that they have proper permissions

mkdir tmp
chmod 1777 tmp

Can't enter container

If you can not enter your container (using vzctl enter), you should be able to at least execute commands in it.

First, see the #tty device nodes section above.

Next, check if devpts is mounted:

vzctl exec 123 mount | grep pts

If it is not mounted, mount it:

vzctl exec 123 mount -t devpts none /dev/pts

Then, add the appropriate mount command to container's startup scripts. On some distros, you need to have the appropriate line in container's /etc/fstab.

In Fedora, try commenting out any udev entries in /vz/private/{CTID}/etc/rc.sysinit

vi /vz/private/{CTID}/etc/rc.sysinit

Locate the udev entry from within vim

/udev

Then comment the line similar to this:

#[ -x /sbin/start_udev ] && /sbin/start_udev

Other problems

If anything goes wrong, try to find out why and fix. If you have enough Linux experience, it can be handled. Also check out IRC and please report back on this page.

Success stories

Note: please add your line to the bottom of this list, and do not forget to sign it using --~~~~

• Debian 3.1 Sarge with MySQL, apache2, PowerDNS --stoffell 08:41, 8 February 2007 (EST)
• Red Hat 7.2 with MySQL 3.23, apache, Chilisoft --stoffell 13:26, 9 February 2007 (EST)
• Gentoo with Courier, Postfix, MySQL, Apache2 --bfrackie 19:00, 18 March 2007 (EST)
• AltLinux Master with qmail, MySQL, Apache, etc - to Debian/testing with OpenVZ --alexkuklin 16:16, 23 March 2007 (EST)
• Centos 4.4 with apache2, SVN, TRAC, etc. --bitherder 23:38, 26 February 2008 (EST)
• Centos 4.6 with apache2, Tomcat 5.0.x, postgresql, etc on CentOS 5.1 64bit Host --laslos 17:35, 10 March 2008 (EST)
• Debian Etch with apache2 etc... on CentOS 4.6 Host --laslos 19:46, 10 March 2008 (EST)
• Debian 1:3.3.5-13 with apache2, PHP, etc. --spawrks 23:36, 10 April 2008 (EST)
• Debian Etch with apache2, MySQL, etc. --zhafrance 16:29, 20 April 2008 (EST)
• Debian Etch i386 with apache2, MySQL, etc. --geejay 17:29, 26 May 2008 (GMT)
• Centos 4.6 with apache2, MySQL, Qmail etc. --Bharathchari 08:06, 13 June 2008 (EDT)
• Centos 4.6 with cPanel/WHM (Apache2, Mysql, Exim, etc) --Zccopwrx 08:16, 30 July 2008 (EDT)
• SlackWare 10.1 (Qmail) --defiancenl
• SlackWare 10.0 (Qmail) --defiancenl
• Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS JEOS (Apache2, Mysql) --bougui Fri Aug 28 10:40:41 EDT 2009
• CentOS 5.3 (Apache2, Mysql, Cacti) --kofl September 12 2009
• Scientific Linux 3.0.9 (Macrovision FLEXlm) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 137.226.90.94 (talk • contribs) 11:34, 4 November 2009.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (rhel4) --Bpuklich 17:20, 15 February 2010 (UTC)