LXC

Linux Containers (LXC) provides containers similar BSD Jails, Linux VServer and Solaris Zones. It gives the impression of virtualization, but shares the kernel and resources with the "host".

Note: As of 1 March 2013, use LXC from the edge repository: apk add lxc@edge

Installation

Install the required packages:

apk add lxc bridge

Prepare network on host

Set up a bridge on the host. Example /etc/network/interfaces:

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
    bridge-ports eth0

Create a network configuration template for the guests, /etc/lxc/lxc.conf:

lxc.network.type = veth
lxc.network.link = br0
lxc.network.flags = up

Create a guest

lxc-create -n guest1 -f /etc/lxc/lxc.conf -t alpine

This will create a /var/lib/lxc/guest1 directory with a config file and a rootfs directory.

Starting/Stopping the guest

Create a symlink to the /etc/init.d/lxc script for your guest.

ln -s lxc /etc/init.d/lxc.guest1

You can start your guest with:

/etc/init.d/lxc.guest1 start

Stop it with:

/etc/init.d/lxc.guest1 stop

Make it autostart on boot up with:

rc-update add lxc.guest1

Connecting to the guest

By default sshd is not installed, so you will have to connect to a virtual console. This is done with:

lxc-console -n guest1

To disconnect from it, press Ctrl+a q

Deleting a guest

Make sure the guest is stopped and run:

lxc-destroy -n guest1

This will erase eerything, without asking any questions. It is equivalent to:

rm -r /var/lib/lxc/guest1