Customizing the Parallels Pro Control Panel Virtual Private File System

Parallels Pro Control Panel creates a Virtual Private File System (VPFS) for each site created. When a site is created, the file system for that site is populated with a default set of services from a template. This is done using hard links.

Earlier versions of Parallels Pro Control Panel contained a pre-built VPFS template that contained a copy of every service possible. This template could only be changed through an upgrade to the Parallels Pro Control Panel version released by Parallels Pro Control Panel. In Parallels Pro Control Panel, the template mechanism has been enhanced. It no longer contains a copy (that is, binaries) of the service. Instead the template contains a filter to select services from the root file system. This template is used during site creation and modification to dynamically generate the VPFS for any site. You can now modify the template without requiring a software upgrade from Parallels Pro Control Panel.

• The following are the benefits of this change:
• The size of the template (virtualhosting-fst-<service>.rpm) is much smaller.
• Using this mechanism, service updates (such as security fixes) can be quickly installed at the root level and then applied to all existing sites.
• You can modify the template to deploy additional services to each site.

Procedure to update RPMs

In order to synchronize updated services (RPMs) into all site file systems, you need to take Parallels Pro through its "maintenance mode" state which causes it to update the sites. Run the following steps:

1. Upgrade, or reinstall, any RPM.
2. Run the following command as root:
   • synchronizeFST -S

Advanced usage: If you want to add a new RPM to any service, edit the appropriate .sh file for that service in /etc/virtualhosting/filelists/<servicename>.sh. Follow the instructions included in that file. Ensure that you know exactly what you are doing when manipulating these files. After editing the file, make Parallels Pro Control Panel go through maintenance mode (See Step 2 above).