Basic operations in OpenVZ environment

This article assumes you have already installed OpenVZ and prepared the OS template cache(s). If not, follow the links to perform the steps needed.

To create and start a VE, run the following commands:

[host-node]# vzctl create VEID --ostemplate osname
[host-node]# vzctl set VEID --ipadd a.b.c.d --save
[host-node]# vzctl start VEID

Here VEID is the numeric ID for the VE; osname is the name of the OS template for the VE, and a.b.c.d is the IP address to be assigned to the VE.

Example:

[host-node]# vzctl create 101 --ostemplate fedora-core-5-minimal
[host-node]# vzctl set 101 --ipadd 10.1.2.3 --save
[host-node]# vzctl start 101

Your freshly-created VE should be up and running now; you can see its processes:

[host-node]# vzctl exec VEID ps ax

To enter VE give the following command:

[host-node]# vzctl enter VEID
entered into VPS VEID
[ve]#

To exit from VE, just type exit and press enter:

[ve]# exit
exited from VPS 886

[host-node]#

To stop VE:

[host-node]# vzctl stop VEID
Stopping VPS ...
VPS was stopped
VPS is unmounted

And to destroy VE:

[host-node]# vzctl destroy VEID
Destroying VPS private area: /vz/private/VEID
VPS private area was destroyed