2.7. Running Commands in Virtual Machines and Containers

OpenVZ allows you to execute arbitrary commands inside virtual machines and containers by running them on the physical server, i.e. without the need to log in to the respective virtual machine or container. For example, this can be useful in these cases:

  • If you do not know the virtual machine or container login information, but need to run some diagnosis commands to verify that it is operational.
  • If the virtual machine or container has no network access.

In both cases, you can use the prlctl exec command to run a command inside the respective virtual machine or container. By default, running prlctl exec <command> is equivalent to executing bash -c <command> in a Linux VM or container or cmd /c <command> in a Windows VM. Adding the --without-shell option allows running commands directly without the shell.

The session below illustrates the situation when you run the stopped SSH daemon inside a Linux virtual machine with the name of My_Linux:

# prlctl exec My_Linux /etc/init.d/sshd status
openssh-daemon is stopped
# prlctl exec My_Linux /etc/init.d/sshd start
Starting sshd: [  OK  ]
# prlctl exec My_Linux /etc/init.d/sshd status
openssh-daemon (pid 26187) is running...

Note

Notes:

  1. You can use the prlctl exec command only inside virtual machines that have OpenVZ guest tools installed.
  2. The prlctl exec command is executed inside a virtual machine or container from the / directory rather than from /root.
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