Is there a way to make vzctl install into a directory that already exists?
For example if I setup my containers using lvm. I first have to create a device and mount it under /vz/private.

So if I'm create container id 1 I will already have a directory called
/vz/private/1 and vzctl refuses to install to it.

As a work around before I mount /vz/private/1, I have to install to a regular directory ,move it to a temp directory, mount /vz/private/1 and finally move files into
it, which is kind of a pain.

Any help would be appreciated.

actually that works without any problems here (using debian5 with 2.6.26-2-openvz-amd64 kernel). just recently moved an old server to an openvz-container for which i mounted a newly created lvm to /vz/private/#ID ...

# lvcreate -L8G -n 6 rootvg
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/rootvg/6
# mkdir /vz/private/6
# mount /dev/rootvg/6 /vz/private/6
# vzctl create 6 --ostemplate scientific-6-x86_64
Private area already exists in /vz/private/6
Creation of container private area failed

OR

# vzctl create 6 --ostemplate scientific-6-x86_64 --private /vz/private/6 --root /vz/private/6
Private area already exists in /vz/private/6
Creation of container private area failed