Re: [vserver] Path Weirdness With yum and tmpfs

From: Herbert Poetzl <herbert_at_13thfloor.at>
Date: Sat 25 Sep 2010 - 12:00:13 BST
Message-ID: <20100925110013.GD14499@MAIL.13thfloor.at>

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 11:25:51AM +0100, Gordan Bobic wrote:
> On 09/25/2010 11:08 AM, Herbert Poetzl wrote:
> >On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 02:00:54PM +0100, Gordan Bobic wrote:
> >>I'm trying to put:
> >>/vservers/.pkg/*/yum/cache
> >>/vservers/.pkg/*/yum/lib

> >>on tmpfs because my tiny vserver has a CF for a disk, so minimizing
> >>writes is pretty important. But something odd is happening. When I
> >>run yum update, the files end up in the underlying cache directory
> >>on disk, rather than in the tmpfs mounted on that path.

> >>I'm _guessing_ that might be due to the yum-hack.conf. Can anyone
> >>assess that guess and perhaps suggest a fix/workaround?

> >my guess would be that this happens because the
> >package management is done from a filesystem namespace
> >which probably doesn't know a thing about your tmpfs
> >(an thus the files end up in the 'original' filesystem)

> >doing the mount before the guest is started might
> >already fix this, but making sure that the mount
> >exists in the proper namespace should take care of
> >this issue ...

> >but as I said, I'm just guessing here as I do not really
> >use (v)yum on my servers ...

> I already tried mounting the tmpfs before starting the vserver, hence
> why I thought it was weird.

might have gotten cleaned up on guest startup

> The thing is, /vservers/.pkg doesn't exist in the vserver namespace
> - the package management is external to the vserver, so I cannot put
> it in the internal vserver namespace. Or am I wrong here? Is the
> /vservers/.pkg available inside the vserver context?

there are actually two filesystem namespaces nowadays,
one is for maintainance and the other is the one visible
inside the guest, so you want to adjust the former for
this to work ...

> The only other thing that comes to mind is internalizing the package
> management to the vserver, and have tmpfs mounted inside it, but
> that's a bit of a bodge, especially as I would like to keep the
> vserver package management external.

works too, but IMHO not necessary ...

best,
Herbert

> Gordan
Received on Sat Sep 25 12:05:33 2010

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