Creating many virtual servers (jails) in Linux

Hi all,

I'm setting up a web server, and I'd like each user to have their own
virtual server so they can, as root, do whatever changes they want
without it effecting the server or other users as a whole. I've heard
this being called 'jails' on BSD, but I can't find the terminology for
this in Linux.

Can someone point me to a howto, faq, or something that'll help me
impliment this? I'm looking at running either Slackware 10, SuSE 9.1,
or Fedora Core 2 on the server.

Thanks,

- Ringo -

Ringo Langly wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm setting up a web server, and I'd like each user to have their own
> virtual server so they can, as root, do whatever changes they want
> without it effecting the server or other users as a whole.

This does not parse - either you are root, in which case there are no
restrictions, or you are not, in which case you are a normal user.

If you want to achieve this in apache I'd suggest you set up mass
virtual hosting and point the virtual document root to
/home/$WEBSITE/html or some such.
Then you can give them FTP access and confine them to their home dir.
This is relatively easy compared to what you suggest.

If you want to give users the opportunity to do administrative tasks -
sure, just make sure your groups and permissions are set up correctly.
No root access is needed for *any* of this.

Understand that this is *not* a chroot "jail", since apache will still
run as its own process, and not under the users' UID.


--
J

All your bits are belong to us - again.

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In comp.os.linux.networking Ringo Langly <(E-Mail Removed)> suggested:
> Hi all,

> I'm setting up a web server, and I'd like each user to have their own
> virtual server so they can, as root, do whatever changes they want
> without it effecting the server or other users as a whole. I've heard
> this being called 'jails' on BSD, but I can't find the terminology for
> this in Linux.

Sounds as if user mode Linux would be what you want:

http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/

Should have all you need.

[..]

--
Michael Heiming (GPG-Key ID: 0xEDD27B94)
mail: echo (E-Mail Removed) | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
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Jeroen Geilman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<bqbc02-(E-Mail Removed)>...
> Ringo Langly wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm setting up a web server, and I'd like each user to have their own
> > virtual server so they can, as root, do whatever changes they want
> > without it effecting the server or other users as a whole.
>
> This does not parse - either you are root, in which case there are no
> restrictions, or you are not, in which case you are a normal user.
>
> If you want to achieve this in apache I'd suggest you set up mass
> virtual hosting and point the virtual document root to
> /home/$WEBSITE/html or some such.
> Then you can give them FTP access and confine them to their home dir.
> This is relatively easy compared to what you suggest.
>
> If you want to give users the opportunity to do administrative tasks -
> sure, just make sure your groups and permissions are set up correctly.
> No root access is needed for *any* of this.
>
> Understand that this is *not* a chroot "jail", since apache will still
> run as its own process, and not under the users' UID.

Hi Jeroen,

I hadn't heard of doing this really, but some BSD folks told me it was
possible, so I thought I'd throw the question out there. I've heard
of Linux boxes being setup as 'virtual servers' (not hosts) where each
user could somehow have their own /etc and /home directories to
configure as they like without fubing the box or other user's 'virtual
servers'. It gives the user the appearance of having their own
dedicated server without actually doing that.

I've been told this is called 'jailing' on BSD, but since I've never
messed with this part of Linux and never really messed with BSD per
say, I thought I'd throw the question out there.

Thanks for the reply and take care,

- Ringo -

Ringo Langly wrote:

> I hadn't heard of doing this really, but some BSD folks told me it was
> possible, so I thought I'd throw the question out there. I've heard
> of Linux boxes being setup as 'virtual servers' (not hosts) where each
> user could somehow have their own /etc and /home directories to
> configure as they like without fubing the box or other user's 'virtual
> servers'. It gives the user the appearance of having their own
> dedicated server without actually doing that.

In that case, I suggest you follow one of the others' advice and dive
into UML - User Mode Linux.
This is a specially patched kernel that allows you to run any number of
kernels - as individual processes.

But that is not for the faint-of-heart, since while it is conceptually
equivalent to vmware and the like, it may take some serious settin-up.

(Dunno, never dunnit yet!)

> I've been told this is called 'jailing' on BSD, but since I've never
> messed with this part of Linux and never really messed with BSD per
> say, I thought I'd throw the question out there.

I'd call it a "virtual server" as well.

> Thanks for the reply and take care,

Thank You, sir!


--
J

All your bits are belong to us - again.