NAME
vzctl - utility to control an OpenVZ container.
SYNOPSIS
vzctl [flags] create CTID --ostemplate name] [--config name] [--private
path] [--root path] [--ipadd addr] [--hostname name]
vzctl [flags] set CTID [parameters] [--save]
vzctl [flags] destroy | mount | umount | start | stop | restart |
status | enter CTID
vzctl [flags] exec | exec2 CTID command [arg ...]
vzctl runscript CTID script
vzctl --help | --version
DESCRIPTION
Utility vzctl runs on the host system (otherwise known as Hardware
Node, or HN) and performs direct manipulations with containers (CTs).
Containers can be referred to by either numeric CTID or by name (see
--name option). Note that CT ID <= 100 are reserved for OpenVZ internal
purposes.
OPTIONS
Flags
These flags can be used with almost any option.
--quiet
Disables logging to log file and screen.
--verbose
Sets logging level to maximum value.
Setting container parameters
set CTID [parameters] [--save]
This command sets various container parameters. If a --save flag is
given, parameters are saved in container configuration file
vps.conf(5). If a container is currently running, vzctl applies
these parameters to the container.
The following options can be used with set command.
Miscellaneous parameters
--onboot yes|no
Sets whether this container will be started during system boot up.
The container will not be auto-started during system boot up unless
this parameter is set to yes.
--root path
Sets the path to root directory for this container. This is
essentially a mount point for container’s root directory. The value
must contain string $VEID, which will be substituted with the
numeric CT ID. Changing this parameter is not recommended, better
edit vz.conf(5) global configuration file.
--userpasswd user:password
Sets password for the given user in a container, creating the user
if it does not exists. Note that this option is not saved in
configuration file at all (so --save flag is useless), it is
applied to the container (by modifying its /etc/passwd and
/etc/shadow files).
In case container root filesystem is not mounted, it is
automatically mounted, then all the appropriate file changes are
applied, then it is unmounted.
Note that container files should be created before using this
option.
--disabled yes|no
Disable container start. To force the start of a disabled
container, use vzctl start with --force option.
--name name
Add a name for a container. The name can later be used in
subsequent calls to vzctl in place of CTID.
--description string
Add a textual description for a container.
--setmode restart|ignore
Whether to restart a container after applying any parameters
requiring that the container be restarted for those to take effect.
Network related parameters
--ipadd addr
Adds IP address to a given container. Note that this option is
incremental, so addr are added to already existing ones.
--ipdel addr | all
Removes IP address addr from a container. If you want to remove all
the addresses, use --ipdel all.
--hostname name
Sets container hostname. vzctl writes it to the appropriate file
inside a container (distribution-dependent).
--nameserver addr
Sets DNS server IP address for a container. If you want to set
several nameservers, you should do it at once, so use --nameserver
option multiple times in one call to vzctl, as all the name server
values set in previous calls to vzctl gets overwritten.
--searchdomain name
Sets DNS search domains for a container. If you want to set several
search domains, you should do it at once, so use --searchdomain
option multiple times in one call to vzctl, as all the search
domain values set in previous calls to vzctl gets overwritten.
--netif_add ifname[,mac,host_ifname,host_mac,bridge]
Adds a virtual ethernet device (veth) to a given container. Here
ifname is the ethernet device name in the container, mac is its MAC
address, host_ifname is the ethernet device name on the host, and
host_mac is its MAC address. MAC addresses should be in the format
like XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX. bridge is an optional parameter which can
be used in custom network start scripts to automatically add the
interface to a bridge. All parameters except ifname are optional
and are automatically generated if not specified.
--netif_del dev_name|all
Removes virtual ethernet device from a container. If you want to
remove all devices, use all.
Interface configuration
The following options can be used to reconfigure the already-
created virtual ethernet interface. To select the interface to
configure, use --ifname name option.
--mac XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
MAC address of interface inside a container.
--host_ifname name
interface name for virtual interface in the host system.
--host_mac XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
MAC address of interface in the host system.
--bridge name
Bridge name. Custom network start scripts can use this value to
automatically add the interface to a bridge.
--mac_filter on|off
Enables/disables MAC address filtering for the Container veth
device and the possibility of configuring the MAC address of this
device from inside the Container. If the filtering is turned on:
* the veth device accepts only those packets that have a MAC
address in their headers corresponding to that of this device
(excluding all broadcast and multicast packets);
* it is impossible to modify the veth MAC address from inside the
Container.
By default, this functionality is enabled for all veth devices
existing inside the Container.
Resource limits
The following options sets barrier and limit for various user
beancounters. Each option requires one or two arguments. In case
of one argument, vzctl sets barrier and limit to the same value. In
case of two colon-separated arguments, the first is a barrier, and
the second is a limit. Each argument is either a number, a number
with a suffix, or a special value unlimited.
Arguments are in items, pages or bytes. Note that page size is
architecture-specific, it is 4096 bytes on IA32 platform.
You can also specify different suffixes for set parameters (except
for the parameters which names start with num). For example, vzctl
set CTID --privvmpages 5M:6M should set privvmpages’ barrier to 5
megabytes and its limit to 6 megabytes.
Available suffixes are:
g, G -- gigabytes.
m, M -- megabytes.
k, K -- kilobytes.
p, P -- pages (page is 4096 bytes on x86 architecture, other
architectures may differ).
You can also specify the literal word unlimited in place of a
number. In that case the corresponding value will be set to
LONG_MAX, i. e. the maximum possible value.
--numproc items[:items]
Maximum number of processes and kernel-level threads. Setting the
barrier and the limit to different values does not make practical
sense.
--numtcpsock items[:items]
Maximum number of TCP sockets. This parameter limits the number of
TCP connections and, thus, the number of clients the server
application can handle in parallel. Setting the barrier and the
limit to different values does not make practical sense.
--numothersock items[:items]
Maximum number of non-TCP sockets (local sockets, UDP and other
types of sockets). Setting the barrier and the limit to different
values does not make practical sense.
--vmguarpages pages[:pages]
Memory allocation guarantee. This parameter controls how much
memory is available to a container. The barrier is the amount of
memory that container’s applications are guaranteed to be able to
allocate. The meaning of the limit is currently unspecified; it
should be set to unlimited.
--kmemsize bytes[:bytes]
Maximum amount of kernel memory used. This parameter is related to
--numproc. Each process consumes certain amount of kernel memory -
16 KB at leas, 30-50 KB typically. Very large processes may consume
a bit more. It is important to have a certain safety gap between
the barrier and the limit of this parameter: equal barrier and
limit may lead to the situation where the kernel will need to kill
container’s applications to keep the kmemsize usage under the
limit.
--tcpsndbuf bytes[:bytes]
Maximum size of TCP send buffers. Barrier should be not less than
64 KB, and difference between barrier and limit should be equal to
or more than value of numtcpsock multiplied by 2.5 KB.
--tcprcvbuf bytes[:bytes]
Maximum size of TCP receive buffers. Barrier should be not less
than 64 KB, and difference between barrier and limit should be
equal to or more than value of numtcpsock multiplied by 2.5 KB.
--othersockbuf bytes[:bytes]
Maximum size of other (non-TCP) socket send buffers. If container’s
processes needs to send very large datagrams, the barrier should be
set accordingly. Increased limit is necessary for high performance
of communications through local (UNIX-domain) sockets.
--dgramrcvbuf bytes[:bytes]
Maximum size of other (non-TCP) socket receive buffers. If
container’s processes needs to receive very large datagrams, the
barrier should be set accordingly. The difference between the
barrier and the limit is not needed.
--oomguarpages pages[:pages]
Guarantees against OOM kill. Under this beancounter the kernel
accounts the total amount of memory and swap space used by the
container’s processes. The barrier of this parameter is the out-
of-memory guarantee. If the oomguarpages usage is below the
barrier, processes of this container are guaranteed not to be
killed in out-of-memory situations. The meaning of limit is
currently unspecified; it should be set to unlimited.
--lockedpages pages[:pages]
Maximum number of pages acquired by mlock(2).
--privvmpages pages[:pages]
Allows controlling the amount of memory allocated by the
applications. For shared (mapped as MAP_SHARED) pages, each
container really using a memory page is charged for the fraction of
the page (depending on the number of others using it). For
"potentially private" pages (mapped as MAP_PRIVATE), container is
charged either for a fraction of the size or for the full size if
the allocated address space. In the latter case, the physical pages
associated with the allocated address space may be in memory, in
swap or not physically allocated yet.
The barrier and the limit of this parameter control the upper
boundary of the total size of allocated memory. Note that this
upper boundary does not guarantee that container will be able to
allocate that much memory. The primary mechanism to control memory
allocation is the --vmguarpages guarantee.
--shmpages pages[:pages]
Maximum IPC SHM segment size. Setting the barrier and the limit to
different values does not make practical sense.
--numfile items[:items]
Maximum number of open files. Setting the barrier and the limit to
different values does not make practical sense.
--numflock items[:items]
Maximum number of file locks. Safety gap should be between barrier
and limit.
--numpty items[:items]
Number of pseudo-terminals (PTY). Note that in OpenVZ each
container can have not more than 255 PTYs. Setting the barrier and
the limit to different values does not make practical sense.
--numsiginfo items[:items]
Number of siginfo structures. Setting the barrier and the limit to
different values does not make practical sense.
--dcachesize bytes[:bytes]
Maximum size of filesystem-related caches, such as directory entry
and inode caches. Exists as a separate parameter to impose a limit
causing file operations to sense memory shortage and return an
errno to applications, protecting from memory shortages during
critical operations that should not fail. Safety gap should be
between barrier and limit.
--numiptent num[:num]
Number of iptables (netfilter) entries. Setting the barrier and
the limit to different values does not make practical sense.
--physpages pages[:pages]
This is currently an accounting-only parameter. It shows the usage
of RAM by this container. Barrier should be set to 0, and limit
should be set to unlimited.
CPU fair scheduler parameters
These parameters control CPU usage by container.
--cpuunits num
CPU weight for a container. Argument is positive non-zero number,
passed to and used in the kernel fair scheduler. The larger the
number is, the more CPU time this container gets. Maximum value is
500000, minimal is 8. Number is relative to weights of all the
other running containers. If cpuunits are not specified, default
value of 1000 is used.
You can set CPU weight for CT0 (host system itself) as well (use
vzctl set 0 --cpuunits num). Usually, OpenVZ initscript
(/etc/init.d/vz) takes care of setting this.
--cpulimit num[%]
Limit of CPU usage for the container, in per cent. Note if the
computer has 2 CPUs, it has total of 200% CPU time. Default CPU
limit is 0 (no CPU limit).
--cpus num
sets number of CPUs available in the container.
Memory output parameters
This parameter control output of /proc/meminfo inside a container
--meminfo none
No /proc/meminfo virtualization (the same as on host system).
--meminfo mode:value
Configure total memory output in a container. Reported free memory
is evaluated accordingly to the mode being set.
You can use the following modes for mode:
pages:value - sets total memory in pages
privvmpages:value - sets total memory as privvmpages * value
Default is privvmpages:1.
Iptables control parameters
--iptables name
Restrict access to iptables modules inside a container (by
default all iptables modules that are loaded in the host
system are accessible inside a container).
You can use the following values for name: iptable_filter,
iptable_mangle, ipt_limit, ipt_multiport, ipt_tos, ipt_TOS,
ipt_REJECT, ipt_TCPMSS, ipt_tcpmss, ipt_ttl, ipt_LOG,
ipt_length, ip_conntrack, ip_conntrack_ftp,
ip_conntrack_irc, ipt_conntrack, ipt_state, ipt_helper,
iptable_nat, ip_nat_ftp, ip_nat_irc, ipt_REDIRECT, xt_mac,
ipt_owner.
Network devices control parameters
--netdev_add name
move network device from the host system to a specified
container
--netdev_del name
delete network device from a specified container
Disk quota parameters
--diskspace num[:num]
sets soft and hard disk quotas, in blocks. First parameter
is soft quota, second is hard quota. One block is currently
equal to 1Kb. Also suffixes G, M, K can be specified (see
Resource limits section for more info).
--diskinodes num[:num]
sets soft and hard disk quotas, in i-nodes. First parameter
is soft quota, second is hard quota.
--quotatime seconds
sets soft overusage time limit for disk quota (also known as
grace period).
--quotaugidlimit num
sets maximum number of user/group IDs in a container for
which disk quota inside the container will be accounted. If
this value is set to 0, user and group quotas inside the
container will not be accounted.
Note that if you have previously set value of this parameter
to 0, changing it while the container is running will not
take effect.
Mount option
--noatime yes|no
Sets noatime flag (do not update inode access times) on file
system.
Capability option
--capability capname:on|off
Sets a capability for a container. Note that setting
capability when the container is running does not take
immediate effect; restart the container in order for the
changes to take effect. Note a container has default set of
capabilities, thus any operation on capabilities is "logical
and" with the default capability mask.
You can use the following values for capname: chown,
dac_override, dac_read_search, fowner, fsetid, kill, setgid,
setuid, setpcap, linux_immutable, net_bind_service,
net_broadcast, net_admin, net_raw, ipc_lock, ipc_owner,
sys_module, sys_rawio, sys_chroot, sys_ptrace, sys_pacct,
sys_admin, sys_boot, sys_nice, sys_resource, sys_time,
sys_tty_config, mknod, lease, setveid, ve_admin.
WARNING: setting some of those capabilities may have far
reaching security implications, so do not do it unless you
know what you are doing. Also note that setting setpcap:on
for a container will most probably lead to inability to
start it.
Device access management
--devnodes device:r|w|rw|none
Give the container an access (r - read only, w - write only,
rw - read/write, none - no access) to a device designated by
the special file /dev/device. Device file is created in a
container by vzctl.
--devices b|c:major:minor|all:[r|w|rw|none]
Give the container an access to a block or character device
designated by its major and minor numbers. Device file have
to be created manually.
Features management
--features name:on|off
Enable or disable a specific container feature. Known
features are: sysfs, nfs, sit, ipip.
Apply config
--applyconfig name
Read container parameters from the container sample
configuration file /etc/vz/conf/ve-name.conf-sample, and
apply them, if --save option specified save to the container
config file. The following parameters are not changed:
HOSTNAME, IP_ADDRESS, OSTEMPLATE, VE_ROOT, and VE_PRIVATE.
--applyconfig_map group
Apply container config parameters selected by group. Now
only name argument is supported, to restore container name
based on NAME variable in container configuration file.
I/O priority management
--ioprio priority
Assigns I/O priority to container. Priority range is 0-7.
The greater priority is, the more time for I/O activity
container has. By default each container has priority of 4.
Checkpointing and restore
Checkpointing is a feature of OpenVZ kernel which allows to save
a complete state of a running container, and to restore it
later.
chkpnt CTID [--dumpfile name]
This command saves a complete state of a running container
to a dump file, and stops the container. If an option
--dumpfile is not set, default dump file name
/vz/dump/Dump.CTID is used.
restore CTID [--dumpfile name]
This command restores a container from the dump file created
by the chkpnt command.
Performing container actions
create CTID [--ostemplate name] [--config name] [--private path]
[--root path] [--ipadd addr] [--hostname name]
Creates a new container area. This operation should be done
once, before the first start of the container.
If the --config option is specified, values from example
configuration file /etc/vz/conf/ve-name.conf-sample are put
into the container configuration file. If this container
configuration file already exists, it will be removed.
You can use --root path option to sets the path to the mount
point for the container root directory (default is VE_ROOT
specified in vz.conf(5) file). Argument can contain string
$VEID, which will be substituted with numeric CT ID.
You can use --private path option to set the path to
directory in which all the files and directories specific to
this very container are stored (default is VE_PRIVATE
specified in vz.conf(5) file). Argument can contain string
$VEID, which will be substituted with the numeric CT ID.
You can use --ipadd addr option to assign an IP address to a
container. Note that this option can be used multiple times.
You can use --hostname name option to set a host name for a
container.
destroy
Removes a container private area by deleting all files,
directories and the configuration file of this container.
start [--wait] [--force]
Mounts (if necessary) and starts a container. Unless --wait
option is specified, vzctl will return immediately;
otherwise an attempt to wait till the default runlevel is
reached will be made by vzctl.
Specify --force if you want to start a container which is
disabled (see --disabled).
stop
Stops and unmounts a container.
restart
Restarts a container, i.e. stops it if it is running, and
starts again.
status
Shows a container status. This is a line with five words
separated by spaces. First word is literally CTID. Second
word is the numeric CT ID. Third word is showing whether
this container exists or not, it can be either exist or
deleted. Fourth word is showing the status of the container
filesystem, it can be either mounted or unmounted. Fifth
word shows if the container is running, it can be either
running or down.
This command can also be usable from scripts.
mount
Mounts container private area.
umount
Unmounts container private area. Note that stop does umount
automatically.
exec CTID command
Executes command in a container. Environment variables are
not set inside the container. Signal handlers may differ
from default settings. If command is -, commands are read
from stdin.
exec2 CTID command
The same as exec, but return code is that of command.
runscript
Run specified shell script in a container, if the container
is not running it will be started.
enter
Enters into a container. This option is a back-door for host
root only.
Other options
--help
Prints help message with a brief list of possible options.
--version
Prints vzctl version.
DIAGNOSTICS
Returns 0 upon success.
EXAMPLES
To create and start "basic" container with ID of 1000 using
fedora-core-5 OS template and IP address of 192.168.10.200:
vzctl create 1000 --ostemplate fedora-core-5 --config
vps.basic
vzctl set 1000 --ipadd 192.168.10.200 --save
vzctl start 1000
To set number of processes barrier/limit to 80/100, and PTY
barrier/limit to 16/20 PTYs:
vzctl set 1000 --numproc 80:100 -t 16:20 --save
To execute command ls -la in this container:
vzctl exec 1000 /bin/ls -la
To execute command pipe ls -l / | sort in this container:
vzctl exec 1000 ’ls -l / | sort’
To stop this container:
vzctl stop 1000
To permanently remove this container:
vzctl destroy 1000
FILES
/etc/vz/vz.conf
/etc/vz/conf/CTID.conf
/proc/vz/veinfo
/proc/vz/vzquota
/proc/user_beancounters
/proc/fairsched
SEE ALSO
vz.conf(5), vps.conf(5), vzquota(8),
LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2000-2008, Parallels, Inc. Licensed under GNU GPL.