As a few days ago i was writing about installing OpenVZ and the operation commands i was thinking that this would go nice under it as a follow-up .

Installing a template is pretty easy :

[root@test ~]#yum -y vztmpl-centos-5-2.0-2 //install the template for Centos 5

[root@test ~]#vzpkgcache //create the cache, a lot of packages will be installed

[root@test ~]#vzpkgls //check the templates installed

The output for the last command will be similar to:
centos-5-i386-default
centos-5-i386-minimal

Now that we installed the templates for Centos 5 we can go ahead and create out first VPS:

[root@test ~]#vzctl create 101 --ostemplate centos-5-i386-default --config vps.basic //This will create a VPS with the ID 101 using the Centos 5 template(also 0-100 for the VPS ID is not possible to use)

Running the create command will send you this output so you know it is created:
Creating VE private area (centos-5-i386-default)
Performing postcreate actions
VE private area was created

Now a few things will have to set for the VPS like to be started at boot server time, set the IP, hostname, password and such.

[root@test ~]#vzctl set 101 --onboot yes --save
Saved parameters for VE 101

[root@test ~]#vzctl set 101 --ipadd 192.168.0.3 --save
Saved parameters for VE 101

[root@test ~]#vzctl set 101 --hostname server.server-hostname.com --save
Saved parameters for VE 101

[root@test ~]#vzctl set 101 --nameserver 192.168.0.2 --save
Saved parameters for VE 101

[root@test ~]#vzctl set 101 --userpasswd root:password //This last command will set the password for user root on the VPS

Now we are ready to start the VPS:

[root@test ~]#vzctl start 101
Starting VE ...
VE is mounted
Adding IP address(es): 192.168.0.3
Setting CPU units: 1000
Set hostname: server.server-hostname.com
File resolv.conf was modified
VE start in progress...

Let’s start the ssh on the VPS from the node server using exec

[root@test ~]#vzctl exec 101 service sshd start
Starting sshd: [ OK ]

Check the VPS if it is running:

[root@test ~]#vzlist
VEID NPROC STATUS   IP_ADDR     HOSTNAME
101  16    running  192.168.0.3 server.server-hostname.com

A last thing to do so that the VPS will be ready for direct use/access is to install yum on the VPS:

[root@test ~]#vzyum 101 install yum

If all this run with no problems you have the first VPS up running Centos 5.