1e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab================================== 2e7751617SMauro Carvalho ChehabNetwork Block Device (TCP version) 3e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab================================== 4e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab 5e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab1) Overview 6e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab----------- 7e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab 8e7751617SMauro Carvalho ChehabWhat is it: With this compiled in the kernel (or as a module), Linux 9e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehabcan use a remote server as one of its block devices. So every time 10e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehabthe client computer wants to read, e.g., /dev/nb0, it sends a 11e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehabrequest over TCP to the server, which will reply with the data read. 12e7751617SMauro Carvalho ChehabThis can be used for stations with low disk space (or even diskless) 13e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehabto borrow disk space from another computer. 14e7751617SMauro Carvalho ChehabUnlike NFS, it is possible to put any filesystem on it, etc. 15e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab 16e7751617SMauro Carvalho ChehabFor more information, or to download the nbd-client and nbd-server 17*952aa344SEric Blaketools, go to https://github.com/NetworkBlockDevice/nbd. 18e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab 19e7751617SMauro Carvalho ChehabThe nbd kernel module need only be installed on the client 20e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehabsystem, as the nbd-server is completely in userspace. In fact, 21e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehabthe nbd-server has been successfully ported to other operating 22e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehabsystems, including Windows. 23e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab 24e7751617SMauro Carvalho ChehabA) NBD parameters 25e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab----------------- 26e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab 27e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehabmax_part 28e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab Number of partitions per device (default: 0). 29e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab 30e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehabnbds_max 31e7751617SMauro Carvalho Chehab Number of block devices that should be initialized (default: 16). 32