| OpenVZ on x86_64: vzyum, vzpkgcache and vzrpm still broken? [message #21902] |
Wed, 17 October 2007 18:45  |
Master One
Messages: 9
Registered: October 2007
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Junior Member |
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The appropriate wiki page says:| Quote: |
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.
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.
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I was just thinking of installing CentOS 5 x86_64 to try out OpenVZ, so is this info from the wiki still valid?
If the problem still exists, when will it be fixed?
OpenVZ surely makes most sense on a 64bit machine, and since I have a dual Xeon EM64T machine, I don't want to step back to a 32bit installation. With the vzyum workaround explained in that wiki article the missing common yum cache for all VE's is quite a downside.
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| Re: OpenVZ on x86_64: vzyum, vzpkgcache and vzrpm still broken? [message #21909 is a reply to message #21902] |
Wed, 17 October 2007 21:14  |
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dowdle
Messages: 261
Registered: December 2005
Location: Bozeman, Montana
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Senior Member |
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To the best of my knowledge the posting is still valid. The little comments you'll find in the wiki post about adapting it to work in CentOS 5 environment did not work for me.
I don't use vzyum from the host node. All of my VPSes have yum installed on them and work fine.
It is annoying that:
1) You can't use vzyum from the hardware node - work around, use yum inside your VPSes.
2) You can't build an OS template cache from os template metadata because vzyum is used - work around, build your OS template caches on i386 machines or use a pre-created OS template. If hard up, you can actually use rpm to install downloaded packages to install yum inside your VPS... although manually figuring out the deps (since you are using rpm and not yum) is not fun but I've done it.
3) Duplicated disk space - Not a problem unless you are low on diskspace... and it also takes up additional space on system backups if not excluded from backup - work around, empty out the caches when you aren't building a template. This isn't much of a problem if you maintain a LAN based repo system and pulling everything again is local.
So far as x86_64 vs. i386... if you have more than 4GB of RAM on the host node it makes a lot of sense to run an x86_64 flavor of a distro on the hardware node. For VPSes, I don't think it matters much because the single kernel on the system is x86_64 so you are going to get the memory management benefits... even though from the VPS context, an i386 VPS lies and says it is an i386 kernel.
I'm not aware of any benefits of running an x86_64 based VPSes. It is my understanding that many x86_64 distros install duplicate packages (both x86_64 and i386) so that takes up more disk space.
If you have some 64-bit specific application that would benefit from a 64-bit libraries in the VPS, then things might be different.
I have to admit that I don't have a lot of experience with x86_64 distros and advanced use of them... so some of my information is debatable I'm sure. If someone wants to point me to some benchmark or story someone has done that shows otherwise, I'd love to read it.
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TYL, Scott Dowdle
Belgrade, Montana, USA
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| Re: OpenVZ on x86_64: vzyum, vzpkgcache and vzrpm still broken? [message #21945 is a reply to message #21909] |
Thu, 18 October 2007 06:01 |
Master One
Messages: 9
Registered: October 2007
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Junior Member |
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That's bad, and difficult to tell, what to do. On one hand, that dual Xeon EM64T machine only has 3 GB RAM (and it was not intended to add more, especially because all memory slots are already in use), on the other hand what's the point to have a 64bit server, if only used with a 32bit host-OS & VE's.
Are you sure, that if the host runs on 64bit, it does not matter at all, if a VE is 32 or 64 bit?
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| Re: OpenVZ on x86_64: vzyum, vzpkgcache and vzrpm still broken? [message #22357 is a reply to message #21909] |
Fri, 26 October 2007 09:35 |
Bodysplit
Messages: 20
Registered: July 2007
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Junior Member |
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Hi there,
I cannot totally agree with dowdle. I am running a CentOS 5 x64_86 install and I can make use of vzyum. Problem is, you have to do some hackery with i386 libraries to get it working and it realy is no let-go thing.
As I am using vzyum, I have setup several templates by also hacking up i386-templates. So far all is working nicely!
But about the usage perspective. It took me several weeks to get it all done, to be truthfull I cannot even recall everything I did (but there are several forum postings one can search for). Anyhow I don't have problems with running i386 nodes on a x64 host, an dual opteron 240 btw. The system has 4 GB of RAM and some more slots open to grow, so that way I still have some perspective in upgrading the system without mess. In the moment I cannot see what happens when you give a i386-node more then 4 GB of RAM. I guess it isn't a big problem, as memory is being handled by the x64 kernel.
All in all, as I see it, x64 is still something special. I would prefer it on HN, as I think PAE and stuff is a bit of hack.
--
This doesn't look comfortable...
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| Re: OpenVZ on x86_64: vzyum, vzpkgcache and vzrpm still broken? [message #22370 is a reply to message #22357] |
Fri, 26 October 2007 15:03 |
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dowdle
Messages: 261
Registered: December 2005
Location: Bozeman, Montana
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Senior Member |
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Just to clarify, and depending on what kernel you use... but there are some OpenVZ kernels labeled "enterprise" and/or "PAE" which are i386 kernels and they handle more than 4GB of RAM just fine. I have one dual, quad-core machine with 16GB of RAM and all RAM is recognized with the i386 PAE kernel.
I'm not necessarily recommending one kernel over the other though... make your own decision on that.
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TYL, Scott Dowdle
Belgrade, Montana, USA
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