5

I have a bunch of LXC containers running on a machine. All of them have their rootfs in the default location /var/lib/lxc/*/rootfs. This directory lives on a rather small partition on the host. I have a much, much bigger partition mounted on /home.

Is there an option to move the backing storage to /home? Preferably per container.

I know I could have done that before I had a couple of running containers (lxc-create -P PATH). But now they're up and I don't want to lose them.

harm
  • 174
  • 2
  • 7

4 Answers4

4

rootfs is the configuration option. If the container is stopped, you can move the backing directory wherever you want and specify that in the config file:

lxc.rootfs = /home/utsname

This is probably better than using a symlink.

LXC also allows backing files. You can use block devices and raw images.

Source: https://linuxcontainers.org/lxc/manpages/man5/lxc.container.conf.5.html

Devon
  • 383
  • 1
  • 10
3

I, personally prefer a different approach. Given that the OS part of the containers is relatively small (max. 2GB a debian jessie server with plenty of services running, about 3Gb a working ubuntu image with remote desktop), I leave the OS reside in /var/lib/lxc and use a separate partition for the container's data.

This is simply accomplished modifing the /var/lib/lxc/container/fstab file:

/mnt/data/container-data/ /var/lib/lxc/container/rootfs/home/        none    bind    0       0

Create the folders (both source and target) on the main host, stop your container, move your data and restart the container!

In the case above, both direcories reside on a /mnt/data partition on the lxc host, in my case a large disk.

There are many advantages associated with this method: splitting the OS and the data allows you to rapidly copy and start test containers when you have to accomplish hazardous tasks (ex: "aptitude -f dist-upgrade"):

  • stop the container (the partitions in fstab will detach from the /var/lib/lxc/container/rootfs/ directory):

    lxc-stop -n container

  • copy the container:

    mkdir /var/lib/lxc/containertest
rsync -Pavv /var/lib/lxc/container/ /var/lib/lxc/containertest/

Remember to modify accordingly /var/lib/lxc/containertest/config and /var/lib/lxc/containertest/fstab

  • start the new containertest, work with it and see the results!

    lxc-start -n containertest

Also, answering to your concerns, you should not worry about not haveing done this before: one of the great advanages of lxc is it's versatility!

Archemar
  • 31,554
matteo
  • 31
3

Call me lazy - but why mess around with the config files if you could (bind) mount your large directory at /var/lib/lxc?

Simply shutdown your containers, move things over to /home/lxc/whatever and bind-mount them back in - done!

Lester Cheung
  • 451
1

Better to change path for all new containers by default:

# vim /etc/lxc/lxc.conf
lxc.lxcpath=/media/other/programs/OS/containers/

All containers will be in /media/other/programs/OS/containers/ directory

All old containers move via mv and edit configs for them as this guy https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/191620/53139

Community
  • 1
ipeacocks
  • 261