Jails creation

[Vincent Hoffman]

Tonix (Antonio Nati) wrote:
> Hi Vincent,
>
> I'm trying as much as possible to not install sources.
> I'm designing a general architecture with very small machines,
> smallest  as possible, as I'd love to avoid sources (both locals and
> remote).
>
As i said, i'm not a regular user of jails so i may be missing
something, but I rather thought that was my point. Using the ezjails
framework, I didnt need the sources installed. ezjail is a shell script
so it doesnt install anything else (no dependancies.) It installed the
base jail using the binary install packages from a remote FTP server. It
minimises your disk usage afterwards by using nullfs for the base system
in each jail, and it lets you update the base jail using freebsd-update.
I now have 2 jails (basic, just the freebsd base system) using a total
of 140M, each additional jail will start off taking just 1.8M.  Since on
my host system my freebsd-update database alone is 665M I can see this
system as a big win for diskspace not to mention the nice centralized
update for all the jails.

Back to your original question, you dont have to install a jail from
source, I see no reason you couldnt just copy the base system into a
directory and use it as a jail if you wanted.

In fact a very quick test shows that taring up an existing system then
untaring and editing rc.conf and fstab comes up as a working jail.
(working as in network works and i can enter it by running jexec $jailid
sh )



Vince



> Thanks,
> Tonino
>
> Vincent Hoffman ha scritto:
>> Vincent Hoffman wrote:
>>  
>>> Tonix (Antonio Nati) wrote:
>>>      
>>>> Is there any architectural reason for which jails must be created only
>>>> starting from sources?
>>>> Would not it be simpler to create a jail cloning the host environment
>>>> binaries (and then using the normal freebsd-update to keep it
>>>> updated)?
>>>> Would it be possible to suggest a funded project with this goal?
>>>>
>>>>           
>>> I dont tend to use jails but my understanding is that you can use the
>>> standard install to create a jail (based on info from
>>> http://pbraun.nethence.com/doc/sysutils_bsd/dragonfly-freebsd-jail.html)
>>>
>>>
>>> mkdir -p /var/jails/base
>>> sysinstall
>>> then,
>>> sysinstall > Custom > Options > Install Root > /var/jails/base
>>> sysinstall > Custom > Distributions > Minimal
>>> sysinstall > Custom > Media > File System > /cdrom    (I just used ftp
>>> myself, this meant i had to change the release from 7.2-RELEASE-p4 to
>>> 7.2-RELEASE in options)
>>> sysinstall > Custom > Commit
>>> [Visit the general configuration menu ?] > No
>>> Note. don't do the post-install, it would modify the host, not the
>>> guest.
>>>
>>> A quick
>>> jail /var/jails/base footest 10.0.0.2 /bin/sh
>>> gives me a shell in the jail so it seems to have worked, Time to add
>>> devfs etc i guess.
>>>
>>> >From here i'm going to have a look at sysutils/ezjail as that keeps
>>> coming up as a good way of managing jails, but I seem to have an
>>> working
>>> base system in /var/jails/base without compiling anything. I might have
>>> a play now and get updates etc working.
>>>       
>>
>> Ok now I have played with sysutils/ezjail, forget the first part ;)
>> just "ezjail-admin install" will do a binary install for a base jail
>> from an ftp server.
>> you can use "ezjail-admin update -u" to update the base jail using
>> freebsd-update for some reason this isnt in the manpage.
>> Not exactly what you have asked for but close enough if you dont like
>> installing from source.
>>
>>
>> Vince
>>
>>  
>>> regards,
>>> Vince
>>>      
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Tonino
>>>>
>>>>           
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>>>       
>>
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>
>