[Users] x86 32bit VEs on x86-64 OpenVZ

[Solar Designer]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 07:24:44AM +0200, Zeeshan Ali Shah wrote:
> Linux 2.6.26-2-openvz-amd64 #1 SMP Thu Feb 11 01:40:09 UTC 2010 i686
> GNU/Linux
> 
> actually the program i want to install has dependency with 32 bit OS  which
> is why i created the new VM but it seems that this guest is still  showing
> the 64bit kernel .

No, it does not.  It clearly shows "i686" above.

In fact, you could achieve a similar effect by running your program
through the "setarch" program, like:

$ setarch i386 uname -m
i686

This would not require OpenVZ at all, but instead it'd require that you
have 32-bit libraries installed on your system (you probably do) as
these will likely be needed for your program (what the kernel says is
likely of less importance).

Anyway, you can indeed do this with OpenVZ as well, and you get better
isolation in this way.

Alexander