Subject: Re: [vserver] Mix and match guest distributions
From: "Daniel Hokka Zakrisson" <daniel@hozac.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:34:09 +0200 (CEST)

Roderick A. Anderson wrote:
> Making another pass at some questions I've had over the years. I'm
> (re)looking at what distributions are used for the host and how to get
> other distributions in as guests.
>
> Excellent information on the web site but I haven't been able to find a
> few things.
>
> 1. Is it possible to build a non-Gentoo based guest template?
>
>     Say I have a CentOS or Ubuntu guest on one system and want _VERY_
> similar bunches of guests on other systems.  Can I build a template of a
> guest to put somewhere (CD/DVD, USB thumb, network) and use as needed?

Sure. -m template is not at all Gentoo specific.

> 2. If so, how do I create the template?
>
>     Is it as simple as building a tarball of a (non-running) guest?

I'd use cpio as it does hardlinks correctly, but yes.

> 3. And if I'm heading down a good path what would you say is the most
> stripped down distribution that could be used for the host?
>
>     Yes disk space is cheap and I can and do turn off all the
> non-essential services but every time I check for updates there is a
> bunch of stuff I have to download because of the coarse granularity of
> the dependencies of so many packages. (Would that be a mouth full if I
> had to say it out loud?)

I run several CentOS systems with root filesystems <2GB, but to each
their own.

-- 
Daniel Hokka Zakrisson