Install vzpkg2 and pkg-cacher
Contents
Introduction
Robert Nelson has created a couple new utilities to make managing and updating templates and containers easier, vzpkg2 pkg-cacher. So far they will create and update a large range of containers, including both 32bit and 64bit of the following:
- Centos 4 and 5,
- Fedora 7, 8 and 9,
- Debian Sarge and Etch,
- Ubuntu Feisty, Gutsy and Hardy.
Pkg-cacher is a transparent caching proxy daemon optimized for Debian and RPM packages. In other terms, pkg-cacher is a service that runs on a machine that other machines and containers, or "clients", use to update themselves instead of each of them directly hitting the package repositories. Pkg-cacher only downloads a file once and then gives that to all its clients, instead of each of the clients downloading the file from the Internet at large. It is based on apt-cacher, available with Debian. This version has been modified to understand RedHat RPM repositories. It also adds support for the HTTP Range header and deals correctly with files which have the same name but different content on different distributions or in some cases different versions of the same distribution.
Robert has setup repositories for Fedora, CentOS and Debian.
Screencast
Scott Dowdle has recorded a good screencast overview of vzpkg2 and pkg-cacher at:
http://www.montanalinux.org/vzpkg2-screencast.html
Installation
Centos & Fedora installs:
Remove Old Packages
If this is an existing install, uninstall your vzpkg and vztmpl-* packages:
yum remove vzpkg vztmpl-*
and backup & remove your current template directory:
tar cjf /some/backup/location/old_templates.tbz /vz/template rm -r /vz/template
If this is a new install, you should probably review the OpenVZ User's Guide and the wiki's Quick installation page. The only way you would vary your installation setups is declining to install the default vzpkg package, and instead using vzpkg2 here.
Download the repository file for your OS
For CentOS:
wget http://repo.opensource-sw.net/centos/ossw.repo -P /etc/yum.repos.d
For Fedora:
wget http://repo.opensource-sw.net/fedora/ossw.repo -P /etc/yum.repos.d
You may wish to edit the repository file, perhaps to add a priorities setting.
Install vzpkg2 and pkg-cacher
Once the repository is added in /etc/yum.repos.d, you can now install the new vzpkg2 and pkg-cacher from it:
yum install vzpkg2 vztmpl2-centos vztmpl2-fedora vztmpl2-debian vztmpl2-ubuntu yum install pkg-cacher-sa debootstrap
Configure vzpkg2
Open /etc/vz/vzpkg.conf in an editor. Replace 'hostname' with the hostname or IP of the machine you are installing this on for VZPKG_CACHE_HOST, make sure not to use 'localhost', because this name is what OpenVZ Containers will use to access the pkg-cacher daemon:
VZPKG_CACHE_HOST=hostname:3142
While you are here, review this file to ensure it makes sense for your setup. In particular, you will probably have to update the VZPKG_DNS line with IP addresses of DNS servers you use.
VZPKG_DNS=192.168.1.2,192.168.1.3
Configure pkg-cacher
Edit /etc/pkg-cacher/pkg-cacher.conf. You should read the included documentation in the file to ensure it is appropriate for your setup. Mostly the defaults will work just fine. By default pkg-cacher will let any system use its cache. You will probably want to limit it to your own systems on the line:
allowed_hosts=*
Once you have checked and updated pkg-cacher.conf, simply restart it by running as root:
service pkg-cacher restart
Generate the new template cache
Now everything should be ready to go! Make sure both the 'vz' service and 'pkg-cacher' service are running.
To build an individual OS Template just run the 'vzpkgcache' command and pass it the name of the OS Template you want to build. For a list of OS Templates you can build, run the 'vzpkgls' command. Example:
vzpkgcache centos-5-i386-default
If you'd like to build all OS Templates available, just run the 'vzpkgcache' command without any parameters. Example:
vzpkgcache
vzpkg2 should get to work generating your initial caches. Now you can run 'vzctl create' and use them.
Debian Installs:
Remove Old Packages
If this is an existing install, uninstall your vzpkg and vztmpl-* packages:
apt-get erase vzpkg vzctl-ostmpl-*
and backup & remove your current template directory:
tar cjf /some/backup/location/old_templates.tbz /vz/template rm -r /vz/template
If this is a new install, you should probably review the OpenVZ User's Guide and the wiki's Installation on Debian page. The only way you would vary your installation setups is declining to install the default vzpkg package, and instead using vzpkg2 here.
Add the deb repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list:
Add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list:
Etch:
deb http://repo.opensource-sw.net/debian/ etch openvz deb-src http://repo.opensource-sw.net/debian/ etch openvz
Sarge:
deb http://repo.opensource-sw.net/debian/ sarge openvz deb-src http://repo.opensource-sw.net/debian/ sarge openvz
Then do:
apt-get update apt-get install pkg-cacher-sa vzpkg2
Adding New Templates:
Install the desired OS Template Metadata packages:
apt-get install vztmpl2-centos vztmpl2-fedora vztmpl2-ubuntu vztmpl2-debian
Configure vzpkg2
Open /etc/vz/vzpkg.conf in an editor. Replace 'hostname' with the hostname or IP of the machine you are installing this on for VZPKG_CACHE_HOST, make sure not to use 'localhost', because this name is what OpenVZ Containers will use to access the pkg-cacher daemon:
VZPKG_CACHE_HOST=hostname:3142
While you are here, review this file to ensure it makes sense for your setup. In particular, you will probably have to update the VZPKG_DNS line with IP addresses of DNS servers you use.
VZPKG_DNS=192.168.1.2,192.168.1.3
Configure pkg-cacher
Edit /etc/pkg-cacher/pkg-cacher.conf. You should read the included documentation in the file to ensure it is appropriate for your setup. Mostly the defaults will work just fine. By default pkg-cacher will let any system use its cache. You will probably want to limit it to your own systems on the line:
allowed_hosts=*
Once you have checked and updated pkg-cacher.conf, simply restart it.
Generate the new template cache
Now everything should be ready to go! Make sure both the 'vz' service and 'pkg-cacher' service are running
To get a list of what OS Templates you may now use, type the following:
vzpkgls
That will produce a list of available OS Templates. Use any name given in the list as a parameter to vzpkgcache to build that OS Template. Example:
vzpkgcache centos-5-i386-default
If you want to build all OS Templates you can simply run vzpkgcache without any paramters:
vzpkgcache
vzpkg2 should get to work generating your initial caches. Now you can run 'vzctl create' and use them.
Source
The source for the new vzpkg2 and templates is available on http://git.opensource-sw.net. In order to clone the updated source use the command:
git clone http://git.opensource-sw.net/git/vzpkg
The templates are available using:
git clone http://git.opensource-sw.net/git/vztmpl