Virtuozzo Linux 8 Quick Start Guide

About Virtuozzo Linux

Virtuozzo Linux 8 is a 1:1 clone of Redhat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8. It is free to download, use, and distribute.

The purpose of Virtuozzo Linux is to assist organizations and their clients with an easy path to upgrade or move the existing estate from CentOS, which has been announced to have a reduced lifecycle.

NOTE: Compared to CentOS 8, Virtuozzo Linux 8 uses iptables instead of nftables by default, even though both sets of tools are provided.

Installing Virtuozzo Linux

This chapter lists the system requirements of Virtuozzo Linux 8 and explains how to install it in various modes.

System Requirements

Virtuozzo Linux has the following hardware requirements:

• RAM: 1.5 GiB minimum, 1.5 GiB per logical CPU recommended, 4 GiB recommended for installation via PXE
• Disk: 10 GiB minimum, 20 GiB recommended

For more information, consult Red Hat Enterprise Linux technology capabilities and limits.

Obtaining the Distribution

You can download Virtuozzo Linux distribution ISO images from http://repo.virtuozzo.com/vzlinux/8/iso/.

The package repository is at http://repo.virtuozzo.com/vzlinux/8/x86_64/os/.

Starting Installation

Virtuozzo Linux can be installed from:

• USB drives
• PXE servers
• IPMI virtual drives
• DVD discs

To start the installation:

1. Prepare the installation source, e.g., mount a distribution ISO or plug in a bootable USB drive.
2. Configure the server to boot from the installation source.
3. Boot the server and wait for the welcome screen.

Choosing the Installation Type

You can install Virtuozzo Linux in one of the following modes:

• Graphics (default, recommended), see Installing in the Graphics Mode.
• Basic graphics (in case of issues with video card drivers), see Installing in the Basic Graphics Mode.
• Graphics via VNC, see Installing via VNC.
• Text, see Installing in the Text Mode.

Installation steps differ depending on the chosen mode. They are described in the corresponding sections of this guide.

Installing in the Graphics Mode

To install Virtuozzo Linux in the graphics mode, choose Install Virtuozzo Linux on the welcome screen. After the installation program loads, choose the language to use during the installation and click Continue. You will be taken to the Installation Summary screen. On it, you specify the parameters required to install Virtuozzo Linux.

In the LOCALIZATION section:

• In Keyboard, optionally add keyboard layouts and choose a key combination to switch between them.
• In Language Support, optionally add more languages to install support for.
• In Time & Date, optionally adjust time, date and time zone, add NTP servers, and enable network time.

In the SOFTWARE section:

• In Installation Source, choose a source to install Virtuozzo Linux from.

  If the machine is connected to the Internet, you can choose to install from the official repository that provides all available base environments and additional software (see Obtaining the Distribution).

  You may need to configure network in SYSTEM > Network & Host Name first.

• In Software Selection, select the desired base environment and additional software for it.

In the SYSTEM section:

• In Installation Destination, select the disk(s) to install Virtuozzo Linux to. Choose Automatic in Storage Configuration to have the installer partition the disk(s). Otherwise, choose Custom in Storage Configuration to partition the disk(s) manually. In this case, it is recommended to have these partitions at least:

  • /boot for OS kernel and bootstrap files, 1 GiB or more

  • / (root), the top level of the directory structure, 10 GiB or more

  • /home, for user data, 1 GiB or more

  • swap, 1 GiB or more, depending on the system RAM:

    RAM	Recommended swap size	Recommended swap size for hibernation
    Less than 2 GiB	2 times the RAM size	3 times the RAM size
    2 to 8 GiB	Same as RAM size	2 times the RAM size
    8 to 64 GiB	4 GiB to 0.5 times the RAM size	1.5 times the RAM size
    Over 64 GiB	4 GiB or more, depends on workload	Hibernation not recommended

  • /boot/efi, 200 to 600 MiB

• In KDUMP, optionally toggle kernel crash dumping.
• In Network & Host Name, configure the network and optionally edit the domain name.

When done, click Begin Installation. While the OS is being installed, set a password for the root user and create more users. After the installation is complete, click Reboot to boot to Virtuozzo Linux. Make sure that the machine boots from the destination disk with the /boot partition.

Installing in the Basic Graphics Mode

If the installer cannot load the correct driver for your video card, you can try to install Virtuozzo Linux in the basic graphics mode.

To select this mode, on the welcome screen, choose Troubleshooting-->, then Install in the basic graphics mode.

The installation process itself is the same as that in the default graphics mode (see Installing in the Graphics Mode).

Installing in the Text Mode

To install Virtuozzo Linux in the text mode, boot to the welcome screen and do the following:

1. Select the required installation option and press E to start editing it.

2. Add text at the end of the line starting with linux /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz. For example:

   linux /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=<vzlinux_ISO> quiet ip=dhcp text
   

3. Press Ctrl-X to start booting the chosen installation option.

4. When presented with a choice of starting VNC or proceeding to the text mode, press 2 for text mode.

5. In the installation menu, at least edit settings marked [!].

6. Press b to begin installation.

7. When installation ends, press Enter to reboot.

Installing via VNC

To install Virtuozzo Linux via VNC, boot to the welcome screen and do the following:

1. Select the required installation option and press E to start editing it.

2. Add text at the end of the line starting with linux /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz. For example:

   linux /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=<vzlinux_ISO> quiet ip=dhcp text
   

3. Press Ctrl-X to start booting the chosen installation option.

4. When presented with a choice of starting VNC or proceeding to the text mode, choose 1 for VNC.

5. When offered, enter a VNC password.

6. In the output that follows look up the hostname or IP address and VNC port to connect to, e.g., 192.168.0.10:1.

7. Connect to said address in a VNC client. You will see the usual Installation Summary screen.

The installation process itself is the same as that in the default graphics mode (see Installing in the Graphics Mode).

Booting into Rescue Mode

If you experience problems with your system, you can boot into the rescue mode to troubleshoot these problems.

To enter the rescue mode, do the following:

1. Boot your system from the chosen media.
2. On the welcome screen, click Troubleshooting-->, then Rescue system.
3. Once Virtuozzo Linux boots into the emergency mode, press Ctrl+D to load the rescue environment.
4. In the rescue environment, choose one of the following options:
   • Continue (press 1): mount the Virtuozzo Linux installation in read and write mode under /mnt/sysimage.
   • Read-only mount (press 2): mount the Virtuozzo Linux installation in read-only mode under /mnt/sysimage.
   • Skip to shell (press 3): load shell, if your file system cannot be mounted; for example, when it is corrupted.
   • Quit (Reboot) (press 4): reboot the server.
5. Unless you press 4, a shell prompt will appear. In it, run chroot /mnt/sysimage to make the Virtuozzo Linux installation the root environment. Now you can run commands and try to fix the problems you are experiencing.
6. After you fix the problem, run exit to exit the chroot environment, then reboot to restart the system.

Updating Virtuozzo Linux

Virtuozzo Linux allows quick and easy updates with the yum utility standard for RPM-compatible Linux operating systems.

The components you may need to update are utilities and libraries as well as the kernel.

Checking for Updates

Before updating any packages, you may want to see the list of available updates. To do this, run

# yum check-update

Updating Everything

The easiest way to update all components of Virtuozzo Linux is to run

# yum update

When executed, this command instructs the yum utility to do the following:

1. Access the remote Virtuozzo repositories.
2. Check for available updates for the Virtuozzo Linux kernel, utilities, libraries.
3. Install the available updates to your system.

To update one or more specific packages, run

# yum update <package1> ... <packageN>

Updating the Kernel

To update just the kernel of Virtuozzo Linux, run

# yum update vzkernel vzkernel-devel

After updating, reboot the server and switch to the new kernel.

Masking Virtuozzo Linux as CentOS or Redhat Enterprise Linux

As certain software requires specific Linux distributions to run, you can mask Virtuozzo Linux as CentOS or Redhat Enterprise Linux to meet those requirements.

Use the vz-chameleon-distro script shipped by default. For example, to mask Virtuozzo Linux as CentOS, run

# vz-chameleon-distro --enable centos
CentOS chameleon mode is enabled

The release information will change accordingly:

# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="CentOS Linux"
VERSION="8"
ID="centos"
ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"
VERSION_ID="8"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
PRETTY_NAME="CentOS Linux 8"
ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:centos:centos:8"
HOME_URL="https://centos.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.centos.org/"
CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT="CentOS-8"
CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT_VERSION="8"

To mask Virtuozzo Linux as Redhat Enterprise Linux, run

# vz-chameleon-distro --enable rhel
RHEL chameleon mode is enabled

The release information will change accordingly:

# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux"
VERSION="8.3 (Ootpa)"
ID="rhel"
ID_LIKE="fedora"
VERSION_ID="8.3"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
PRETTY_NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3 (Ootpa)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.3:GA"
HOME_URL="https://www.redhat.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=8.3
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="8.3"

To stop masking, run

# vz-chameleon-distro --disable
Chameleon mode is disabled

The release information will be reverted:

# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Virtuozzo Linux"
VERSION="8"
ID="virtuozzo"
ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"
VERSION_ID="8"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
PRETTY_NAME="Virtuozzo Linux"
ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:virtuozzoproject:vzlinux:8"
HOME_URL="https://www.vzlinux.org"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.openvz.org"