5.5 <Passwd File>, <Shadow File> and <Group File>

In these sections, you must specify the password, shadow and group files that will be copied over. I suggest copying these file to a secure location on your main server first, and then editing them to delete the accounts you do not want on your virtual server. For example, you probably like to remove your normal users accounts. But please keep the root password, shadow and group entried unedited (you may change the password at a later time). So, for example, you may copy your main server's /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group files to a secure location, ie /root. Then edit the files to your preference. If your main server has the joe account, but your virtual servers should not contain this, remove the entries for the account from the passwd, shadow and group files. After the template directory is created, remove the temporary files!

If you copy over the main server's password, shadow and group files, all those accounts (except for home directories) will be copied over, so I have left this option up to you for which accounts should stay and which should be removed.

The Perl script virt_template.pl creates the template directory. The script is interactive and will create the template filesystem for you. Once it has been created you can make changes to the directory. Remember it is this directory structure that each virtual server will link to, and only server specific files will be copied over.