Templates
Templates are OS images for installation into VPS. Template utilities are provided to aim in this installation.
An OS template is basically a set of packages from some Linux distribution used to populate a VPS. With OpenVZ, different distributions can co-exist on the same hardware box, so multiple OS templates are available.
An OS template cache is an OS template installed into a VPS and then packed into a gzipped tarball. Using such a cache, a new VPS can be created in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.
For information about templates and installation instructions, see this document.
Utilities
- Template utilities is a software aimed at template maintenance, such as creation and update of templates and VPSs. Currently these consists of vzpkg, vzyum and several versions of RPM utility repackaged for OpenVZ.
Metadata
- Template metadata is data needed to (re)create template cache. Metadata for a template contains the following information: list of packages that form this template; locations of package repositories; scripts needed to be executed on various stages of template installation; public GPG key(s) needed to check signatures of packages; additional OpenVZ-specific packages.
Precreated- An OS template cache is an OS template installed into a VPS and then packed into a gzipped tarball. Using such a cache, a new VPS can be created in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.