Vserver Debian sarge as host and guest system

Starting with starting with installing some packages from backports.org:

# aptitude install -t sarge-backports util-vserver \
linux-image-2.6-vserver-<arch>

This may be a good moment to reboot your host system. :)

Following the setup process of the virtual server will guide you to a running guest system.

The next step is to configure your base system with:

# vserver <vserver name> start
# vserver <vserver name> exec base-config

But I would recommand you to escape the dialog after configurating apt and installing packages.
Next step would be to install ssh with:

# vserver <vserver name> exec aptitude install ssh

There are some corners you have to solve:

For running bind9 you have to disable ‘OPTIONS=”-u bind”‘ in /etc/default/bind9, cause there are some problems with its capabilities. You also need to force rndc to use your vserver ip in /etc/rndc.conf:

options {
default-server <vserver ip>;
};

For running postfix you need to bind it to your vserver ip in /etc/postfix/main.cf:

inet_interfaces = <vserver ip>

Mysql needs also bind to vserver ip in /etc/mysql/my.cnf, but keep in mind that with the shiped config you are only allowed to connect from localhost, so you need to get managed permissions:

bind-address = <vserver ip>

So if you have trouble starting any daemon, try to bind it to your local ip. Openssh didnt make any trouble for me.
You may also find usefull:

# vserver <vserver name> enter

Updates to other daemons or issues may follow.

Possibly this article about LVM and quota with vserver will be interesting.

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