Setting Up Parallels Pro Control Panel to Use Multiple Partitions

To allow the server's root user to configure where Parallels Pro Control Panel temporary files are created, change the path name to the temporary files by editing the file /etc/virtualhosting/tmpdirs. Parallels Pro Control Panel essentially makes changes to files located under /etc and /home/virtual.

Important: You must not edit the file tmpdirs until you finish installing Parallels Pro. If you attempt to create the directories as detailed below prior to installing Parallels Pro, the installation will fail. This is because the installation checks for the existence of /etc/virtualhosting and /home/virtual directories.

Additionally, any changes made in the file tmpdirs are overwritten during the installation process.

When you change the path name to the temporary files, each line in the tmpdirs file should use the following format.
<path-prefix>:<directory>
where <path-prefix> matches the beginning of file path names whose associated temporary file locations you want to modify, and <directory> is the path to an existing directory that lies on the same partition as <path-prefix>.

For security purposes, <directory> should be root-owned, with no permissions for either group or other (for example, 0700), and all path components leading to this directory should not be editable by anyone other than root. If this file is empty, by default, all temporary files will be created in /var/cache.

Important: You have to restart Parallels Pro Control Panel to complete this configuration process. To restart Parallels Pro Control Panel, type the following command at the command prompt: /etc/rc.d/init.d/epld restart

Assume the disk partitioning of the server is as follows:

Since /etc, /var, /usr and /home are on different partitions, a temporary directory must be specified for each partition. By default, Parallels Pro Control Panel creates temporary directories on the /etc and /home partitions.

You can add an entry for the /usr partiton in /etc/virtualhosting/tmpdirs as follows: /usr:/usr/.tmp

To create the directory /usr/.tmp, type the following command.

mkdir /usr/.tmp; chown 700 /usr/.tmp

You can add an entry for the /var partition in /etc/virtualhosting/tmpdirs as follows: /var:/var/tmp

By default, Parallels Pro Control Panel uses /var/tmp as the temporary directory. If /var is mounted on a separate partition, you must make an entry for the temporary directory in the /etc/virtualhosting/tmpdirs file for the / partition. This is because Parallels Pro Control Panel uses hard links when files are transferred and hard links do not work across partitions. So, you must ensure that the corresponding temporary directory for a partition resides on the same partition.

For example, if the dir /tmp is on the / partition, you must edit the configuration file /etc/virtualhosting/tmpdirs to include the following entry: /:/tmp

Summating the above assumptions, the file /etc/virtualhosting/tmpdirs would include the following sequence of entries.

/etc:/etc/virtualhosting/tmp

/home:/home/virtual/FILESYSTEMTEMPLATE/.tmp

/usr:/usr/.tmp

/var:/var/tmp

/:/tmp

The sequence of entries in the file is important. During file operations, Parallels Pro Control Panel uses the first partition that is reported by the system to store the requisite directory or file. For example, placing the /:/tmp entry before the entry /var:/var/tmp, will cause any search for files in the /var directory to default to the / directory.

Note: For more details on Linux partitions, contact Parallels Pro Control Panel Support (http://www.parallels.com/en/support/ensimpro/).