Using vzpkg and vzyum on x86 64

This document describes a way to install OpenVZ in a x86_64 computer, so that it can create cache templates, use vzyum and vzrpm. This is intended to work in a Centos-4 or a Fedora Core distribution.

THE PROBLEM

There is a known problem with vzpkg-2.7.0 and vzyum-2.4.0 in x86_64 computers: Vzyum, vzpkgcache and vzrpm are broken in 64 bit systems, so we are unable to create new cache templates in a x86_64 computer or update each VE using vzyum or vzrpm. This text describes a work around and a few hacks to get it work flawless.

Note: The basic idea is to change the code in such a way that vzyum and vzrpm use the real yum and rpm to do the job, and also create new x86_64 paths required by the system.

REQUIREMENTS

• - A x86_64 computer
• - Centos-4 or Fedora Core 3, 4 or 5 linux distribution.
• - Yum package installed.

SIDE EFFECTS

Until now there is only one side effect detected in this solution:

• The yum cache is not common to all VE's. Instead, each VE has it's own yum cache in the directory /var/cache/yum-cache.

This is a consequence from using the modified vzyum.

INSTALL Openvz

There are two ways to install it:

• A - AUTOMATIC INSTALL (FASTEST)
• B - MANUAL INSTALL - STEP BY STEP

A - AUTOMATIC INSTALL (FASTEST)

General considerations

• This is a fastest way to install openvz utilities, and template utilities, ready to use in a x86_64 system.
• You can only use the automatic install IF YOU HAVE YUM AND RPM PACKAGES INSTALLED IN YOUR SYSTEM, and if you want to install a Centos-4, or Fedora Core (3,4,5) cache template.
• This process uses a bash script that automatizes all the hard work made by hand in the manual install.
• If something goes wrong, or if you want to install a diferent cache template, it's better to do the manual install, and try to adapt it to your needs.

Procedure

• Read carefully the Quick installation page and install the openvz kernel, configure the bootloader, change sysctl.conf, and finally reboot your system the way it is described there.
• Download the file setx86_64 and then untar and run the script:

tar xzvf setx86_64.tar.gz
./setx86_64

When you run the script, it asks first which OS Template do you want to install: Fedora or Centos. Answer the question and enter the letter corresponding to you wish. Let the script to do all the job for you.

When it finishes with the message "END INSTALL", you can go on reading this document jumping to the undermentioned STEP 10.

B - MANUAL INSTALL -STEP BY STEP

If for any reason you prefer manual installation, you may start your install process the same way as described in Quick installation. In x86_64, the packages vzpkg, vzyum and vztmpl-* are broken. So, let's install them this way, to avoid problems:

yum install vzrpm*

We can't "yum install vzyum" because it breaks with an error: Error: Missing Dependency: cElementTree.so is needed by package vzyum

So we must download it first and then install it.

wget -c http://download.openvz.org/template/utils/vzyum/2.4.0-11/vzyum-2.4.0-11.noarch.rpm
rpm --nodeps -Uvh vzyum*.rpm
yum install vztmpl-centos-4 vzpkg*

TWEAKING THE CODE

Now let's tweak the code doing it step by step. You can do a copy-paste from the next command lines to your system. The example is using Centos-4 distribution, but Fedore Core or other distribution with yum and rpm installed, can be used, if you change the reference name and version in STEPS 1 to 4.

STEP 1

If you didn't instal yet "vztmpl-centos-4", do it now:

yum install vztmpl-centos-4

STEP 2

The template installed is a i386 template. So, we need to create a x86_64 template from the i386.

cd /vz/template/centos/4/
mkdir x86_64
cp -a /vz/template/centos/4/i386/* /vz/template/centos/4/x86_64
cd /vz/template/centos/4/x86_64/config
sed -i.tmp 's/i386/x86_64/g' yum.conf
rm -f yum.conf.tmp

Now we have a x86_64 centos template installed.

STEP 3

Edit the file /vz/template/centos/4/x86_64/config/yum.conf with your editor. Change the line:

cachedir=/vz/template/centos/4/x86_64/yum-cache

to

cachedir=/var/cache/yum-cache

Note: With this changes, vzyum is not going to be able to use a common cache directory to all VE's as it was used to do. Each VE will have it's own cache directory. To avoid to have a directory named /vz/template/centos/4/x86_64/yum-cache in each VE, it is preferable to use the correct cache directory /var/cache/yum-cache.

STEP 4

If you list the directory vz-addons like this:

ls -l /vz/template/centos/4/x86_64/vz-addons

probably you will see the file MAKEDEV-3.3.13-1.3.swsoft.i386.rpm. This "ls" allows us to confirm which MAKEDEV version we need to use in this step.

Edit the files minimal.list and default.list in /vz/template/centos/4/x86_64/config directory, and change the line:

MAKEDEV

to

MAKEDEV-3.3.13 (or the version you saw in the "ls")

STEP 5

Verify if you have rpm-python installed in your system, because it has 64 bit module needed:

rpm -q rpm-python
rpm-python-4.3.3-18_nonptl

Install it if you didn't do it already:

yum install rpm-python

Substitute 32 bit module "rpmmodule.so" from vzrpm43-python to the 64 bit module that rpm-python-x86_64 provides, using this method:

cd /usr/share/vzpkgtools/vzrpm43/lib/python2.3/site-packages/
cp /usr/lib64/python2.3/site-packages/rpmmodule.so .
cp: overwrite `./rpmmodule.so'? y
cd /usr/share/vzpkgtools/vzrpm43/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rpmdb
cp /usr/lib64/python2.3/site-packages/rpmdb/_rpmdb.so .
cp: overwrite `./_rpmdb.so'? y

Now we must edit and change these 3 files described in the next steps:

/usr/share/vzpkg/cache-os

/usr/share/vzpkg/functions

/usr/bin/vzyum

STEP 6

Edit the file /usr/share/vzpkg/cache-os Change the next lines:

-Line 136:

change: --vps=$VEID check-update
to: check-update

-Line 185:

change: YUM_CMD="--installroot=$VE_ROOT --vps=$VEID $YUM_CONF_FILE -y $YUM_CMD"
to: YUM_CMD="--installroot=$VE_ROOT $YUM_CONF_FILE -y $YUM_CMD"

STEP 7

Edit the file /usr/share/vzpkg/functions Change the next lines:

-Line 21:

change: YUM=/usr/share/vzyum/bin/yum
to: YUM=`which yum`

-Line 22:

change: ARCHES="x86 i386 x86_64 ia64"
to: ARCHES="i386 x86_64 ia64 x86"

-Line 111:

change: export RPM=`get_rpm $tdir`
to: export RPM=`which rpm`

-Line 450:

change: rpm=`get_rpm $tdir`
to: rpm=`which rpm`

STEP 8

Edit the file /usr/bin/vzyum Change the next line:

-Line 51:

change: YUM_ARGS="$YUM_ARGS --installroot $VE_ROOT --vps=$VEID"
to: YUM_ARGS="$YUM_ARGS --installroot $VE_ROOT"

STEP 9

Edit file /usr/bin/vzrpm Change the next line:

-Line 40:

change: RPM_ARGS="--root $VE_ROOT --veid $VEID"
to: RPM_ARGS="--root $VE_ROOT"

-Line 52:

change: RPM=`get_rpm $TDIR`
to: RPM=`which rpm`

STEP 10

If you want your VE's to have other country locales edit /vz/template/centos/4/x86_64/config/.rpmmacros and change the line %_install_langs C to the language you want, for example:

%_install_langs C:pt_PT:pt_PT.UTF-8:en_US:en_US.UTF-8

TESTING THE NEW CODE

Now you can create your own cache your own cache templates Let's test it!

Make my first two cache templates:

vzpkgcache -f centos-4-x86_64-default
vzpkgcache -f centos-4-x86_64-minimal

They finish with complaints about cron.daily, but don't worry about it. Now minimal and default cache are created. Confirm if they are created:

vzpkgls -c

If you see the cache list, then you can create your first VE:

vzctl create 200 --ostemplate centos-4-x86_64-minimal

To change the locales, copy /etc/sysconfig/i18n to /vz/private/200/etc/sysconfig, if you wish to use another language and have done STEP 10 previously.

Now start VE 20 previously created:

vzctl start 200

Then test also "vzyum" and see if it works. Try to install "nano editor":

vzyum 200 install nano

Try to use vzrpm, to list all rpm's installed in VE200:

vzrpm 200 -qa

If you didn't have any errors, the changes are fine.

If something went wrong, probably you made a mistake in those previous steps. Carefully verify if you did it well, step by step.