Choosing a Container ID

Every Container has a numeric ID, also known as Container ID, associated with it. The ID is a 32-bit integer number beginning with zero and unique for a given Parallels server. When choosing an ID for your Container, please follow the simple guidelines below:

• ID 0 is used for the Parallels server itself. You cannot and should not try to create a Container with ID 0.
• Parallels Server Bare Metal reserves the IDs ranging from 0 to 100. Please do not create Containers with IDs below 101.

The only strict requirement for a Container ID is to be unique for a particular Parallels server. However, if you are going to have several computers running Parallels Server Bare Metal, we recommend assigning different Container ID ranges to them. For example, on server 1 you create Containers within the range of IDs from 101 to 1000; on server 2 you use the range from 1001 to 2000, and so on. This approach makes it easier to remember on which server a Container has been created, and eliminates the possibility of Container ID conflicts when a Container migrates from one Parallels server to another.

Another approach to assigning Container IDs is to follow some pattern of Container IP addresses. Thus, for example, if you have a subnet with the 10.0.x.x address range, you may want to assign the 17015 ID to the Container with the 10.0.17.15 IP address, the 39108 ID to the Container with the 10.0.39.108 IP address, and so on. This makes it much easier to run a number of Parallels utilities eliminating the necessity to check up the Container IP address by its ID and similar tasks. You can also think of your own patterns for assigning Container IDs depending on the configuration of your network and your specific needs.

Before you decide on a new Container ID, you may want to make sure that no Container with this ID has yet been created on the server. The easiest way to check this is to run the following command:

# vzlist -a 101

Container not found

This output shows that Container 101 does not exist on the server; otherwise it would be present in the list.

WARNING! When deciding on a Container ID, do not use IDs that were once assigned to Containers unless you are sure that no data belonging to the old Containers remains on the server. Otherwise, the administrator of the newly-created Container may get access to this data—that is, to the backups of the old Container, its logs, statistics, and so on.