[PDF] Parallels Server 5 Bare Metal

Customizing Container Reinstallation
Managing Virtual Machines and Containers
The default reinstallation, as performed by the pctl reinstall command, creates a new private
area for the broken Container as if it were created by the pctl create command and copies the
private area of the broken Container to the /old directory in the new private area so that no file is
lost. There is also a possibility of deleting the old private area altogether without copying or
mounting it inside the new private area, which is done by means of the --skipbackup option.
This way of reinstalling corrupted Containers might in certain cases not correspond exactly to your
particular needs. It happens when you are accustomed to creating new Containers in some other
way than just using the pctl create command. For example, you may install additional software
licenses into new Containers, or anything else. In this case you would naturally like to perform
reinstallation in such a way so that the broken Container is reverted to its original state as
determined by you, and not by the default behavior of the pctl create command.
To customize reinstallation, you should write your own scripts determining what should be done
with the Container when it is being reinstalled, and what should be configured inside the Container
after it has been reinstalled. These scripts should be named vps.reinstall and
vps.configure, respectively, and should be located in the /etc/vz/conf directory on the
server. To facilitate your task of creating customized scripts, the Containers software is shipped
with sample scripts that you may use as the basis of your own scripts.
When the pctl reinstall command is called, it searches for the vps.reinstall
and vps.configure scripts and launches them consecutively. When the vps.reinstall
script is launched, the following parameters are passed to it:
--veid The ID of the Container.
--ve_private_tmp The path to the Container temporary private area. This path designates where
a new private area is temporarily created for the Container. If the script runs
successfully, this private area is mounted to the path of the original private area
after the script has finished.
--ve_private The path to the Container original private area.
You may use these parameters within your vps.reinstall script.
If the vps.reinstall script finishes successfully, the Container is started, and the
vps.configure script is called. At this moment the old private area is mounted to the /old
directory inside the new one irrespective of the --skipbackup option. This is done in order to let
you use the necessary files from the old private area in your script, which is to be run inside the
running Container. For example, you might want to copy some files from there to regular Container
directories.
After the vps.configure script finishes, the old private area is either dismounted and deleted or
remains mounted depending on whether the --skipbackup option was provided.
If you do not want to run these reinstallation scripts and want to stick to the default pctl
reinstall behavior, you may do either of the following:
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