User`s guide

ManualsBrandsParallels ManualsSoftwareServer 4 Bare Metal SE, ESD, w/PVA, MNT, 1Y, PltSup, ENG

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Advanced Tasks 186

Obtaining Server ID From Inside a

Container

The default Parallels Server Bare Metal installation does not allow users inside a Container to

obtain any information specific to the Parallels server the Container is running on. The reason is

that no Container shall have knowledge about the corresponding server. A Container can be

transparently migrated to another server, and if this Container runs any applications depending

on the particular server, these applications might fail after the migration.

In some situations, however, you need to provide a unique server ID to some applications. For

example, you might want to license your application per server. In this case, after the migration

your customer will need to re-apply the license for your application.

Parallels Server Bare Metal provides access to the unique server ID via the /proc/vz/hwid

file. The default Parallels Server Bare Metal installation makes this file accessible to Containers

from 1 to 100 (i.e. Containers with reserved IDs). It is possible to change this range in the global

configuration file (vz.conf). For example, this is the way to make the file visible in

Containers from 1 to 1000:

# vi /etc/vz/vz.conf

VZPRIVRANGE=”1 1000”

# pctl exec 101 cat /proc/vz/hwid

0C3A.14CB.391B.6B69.02C9.4022.3E2F.CAF6

The above example illustrates accessing the server ID from Container 101.

Enabling VPN for Container

Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a technology which allows you to establish a secure network

connection even over an insecure public network. Setting up a VPN for a separate Container is

possible via the TUN/TAP device. To allow a particular Container to use this device, the

following steps are required:

 Make sure the tun.o module is already loaded before Parallels Server Bare Metal is

started:

# lsmod

 Allow the Container to use the TUN/TAP device:

# pctl set 101 --devices c:10:200:rw --save

 Create the corresponding device inside the Container and set the proper permissions:

# pctl exec 101 mkdir -p /dev/net

# pctl exec 101 mknod /dev/net/tun c 10 200

# pctl exec 101 chmod 600 /dev/net/tun

Configuring the VPN proper is carried out as a common Linux administration task, which is out

of the scope of this guide. Some popular Linux software for setting up a VPN over the

TUN/TAP driver includes Virtual TUNnel <http://vtun.sourceforge.net/> and

OpenVPN <http://openvpn.sourceforge.net/>.