1
2In addition to using normal file images for the emulated storage
3devices, QEMU can also use networked resources such as iSCSI devices.
4These are specified using a special URL syntax.
5
6``iSCSI``
7   iSCSI support allows QEMU to access iSCSI resources directly and use
8   as images for the guest storage. Both disk and cdrom images are
9   supported.
10
11   Syntax for specifying iSCSI LUNs is
12   "iscsi://<target-ip>[:<port>]/<target-iqn>/<lun>"
13
14   By default qemu will use the iSCSI initiator-name
15   'iqn.2008-11.org.linux-kvm[:<name>]' but this can also be set from
16   the command line or a configuration file.
17
18   Since version Qemu 2.4 it is possible to specify a iSCSI request
19   timeout to detect stalled requests and force a reestablishment of the
20   session. The timeout is specified in seconds. The default is 0 which
21   means no timeout. Libiscsi 1.15.0 or greater is required for this
22   feature.
23
24   Example (without authentication):
25
26   .. parsed-literal::
27
28      |qemu_system| -iscsi initiator-name=iqn.2001-04.com.example:my-initiator \
29                       -cdrom iscsi://192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/2 \
30                       -drive file=iscsi://192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/1
31
32   Example (CHAP username/password via URL):
33
34   .. parsed-literal::
35
36      |qemu_system| -drive file=iscsi://user%password@192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/1
37
38   Example (CHAP username/password via environment variables):
39
40   .. parsed-literal::
41
42      LIBISCSI_CHAP_USERNAME="user" \
43      LIBISCSI_CHAP_PASSWORD="password" \
44      |qemu_system| -drive file=iscsi://192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/1
45
46``NBD``
47   QEMU supports NBD (Network Block Devices) both using TCP protocol as
48   well as Unix Domain Sockets. With TCP, the default port is 10809.
49
50   Syntax for specifying a NBD device using TCP, in preferred URI form:
51   "nbd://<server-ip>[:<port>]/[<export>]"
52
53   Syntax for specifying a NBD device using Unix Domain Sockets;
54   remember that '?' is a shell glob character and may need quoting:
55   "nbd+unix:///[<export>]?socket=<domain-socket>"
56
57   Older syntax that is also recognized:
58   "nbd:<server-ip>:<port>[:exportname=<export>]"
59
60   Syntax for specifying a NBD device using Unix Domain Sockets
61   "nbd:unix:<domain-socket>[:exportname=<export>]"
62
63   Example for TCP
64
65   .. parsed-literal::
66
67      |qemu_system| --drive file=nbd:192.0.2.1:30000
68
69   Example for Unix Domain Sockets
70
71   .. parsed-literal::
72
73      |qemu_system| --drive file=nbd:unix:/tmp/nbd-socket
74
75``SSH``
76   QEMU supports SSH (Secure Shell) access to remote disks.
77
78   Examples:
79
80   .. parsed-literal::
81
82      |qemu_system| -drive file=ssh://user@host/path/to/disk.img
83      |qemu_system| -drive file.driver=ssh,file.user=user,file.host=host,file.port=22,file.path=/path/to/disk.img
84
85   Currently authentication must be done using ssh-agent. Other
86   authentication methods may be supported in future.
87
88``Sheepdog``
89   Sheepdog is a distributed storage system for QEMU. QEMU supports
90   using either local sheepdog devices or remote networked devices.
91
92   Syntax for specifying a sheepdog device
93
94   ::
95
96      sheepdog[+tcp|+unix]://[host:port]/vdiname[?socket=path][#snapid|#tag]
97
98   Example
99
100   .. parsed-literal::
101
102      |qemu_system| --drive file=sheepdog://192.0.2.1:30000/MyVirtualMachine
103
104   See also https://sheepdog.github.io/sheepdog/.
105
106``GlusterFS``
107   GlusterFS is a user space distributed file system. QEMU supports the
108   use of GlusterFS volumes for hosting VM disk images using TCP, Unix
109   Domain Sockets and RDMA transport protocols.
110
111   Syntax for specifying a VM disk image on GlusterFS volume is
112
113   .. parsed-literal::
114
115      URI:
116      gluster[+type]://[host[:port]]/volume/path[?socket=...][,debug=N][,logfile=...]
117
118      JSON:
119      'json:{"driver":"qcow2","file":{"driver":"gluster","volume":"testvol","path":"a.img","debug":N,"logfile":"...",
120                                       "server":[{"type":"tcp","host":"...","port":"..."},
121                                                 {"type":"unix","socket":"..."}]}}'
122
123   Example
124
125   .. parsed-literal::
126
127      URI:
128      |qemu_system| --drive file=gluster://192.0.2.1/testvol/a.img,
129                                     file.debug=9,file.logfile=/var/log/qemu-gluster.log
130
131      JSON:
132      |qemu_system| 'json:{"driver":"qcow2",
133                                "file":{"driver":"gluster",
134                                         "volume":"testvol","path":"a.img",
135                                         "debug":9,"logfile":"/var/log/qemu-gluster.log",
136                                         "server":[{"type":"tcp","host":"1.2.3.4","port":24007},
137                                                   {"type":"unix","socket":"/var/run/glusterd.socket"}]}}'
138      |qemu_system| -drive driver=qcow2,file.driver=gluster,file.volume=testvol,file.path=/path/a.img,
139                                            file.debug=9,file.logfile=/var/log/qemu-gluster.log,
140                                            file.server.0.type=tcp,file.server.0.host=1.2.3.4,file.server.0.port=24007,
141                                            file.server.1.type=unix,file.server.1.socket=/var/run/glusterd.socket
142
143   See also http://www.gluster.org.
144
145``HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/FTPS``
146   QEMU supports read-only access to files accessed over http(s) and
147   ftp(s).
148
149   Syntax using a single filename:
150
151   ::
152
153      <protocol>://[<username>[:<password>]@]<host>/<path>
154
155   where:
156
157   ``protocol``
158      'http', 'https', 'ftp', or 'ftps'.
159
160   ``username``
161      Optional username for authentication to the remote server.
162
163   ``password``
164      Optional password for authentication to the remote server.
165
166   ``host``
167      Address of the remote server.
168
169   ``path``
170      Path on the remote server, including any query string.
171
172   The following options are also supported:
173
174   ``url``
175      The full URL when passing options to the driver explicitly.
176
177   ``readahead``
178      The amount of data to read ahead with each range request to the
179      remote server. This value may optionally have the suffix 'T', 'G',
180      'M', 'K', 'k' or 'b'. If it does not have a suffix, it will be
181      assumed to be in bytes. The value must be a multiple of 512 bytes.
182      It defaults to 256k.
183
184   ``sslverify``
185      Whether to verify the remote server's certificate when connecting
186      over SSL. It can have the value 'on' or 'off'. It defaults to
187      'on'.
188
189   ``cookie``
190      Send this cookie (it can also be a list of cookies separated by
191      ';') with each outgoing request. Only supported when using
192      protocols such as HTTP which support cookies, otherwise ignored.
193
194   ``timeout``
195      Set the timeout in seconds of the CURL connection. This timeout is
196      the time that CURL waits for a response from the remote server to
197      get the size of the image to be downloaded. If not set, the
198      default timeout of 5 seconds is used.
199
200   Note that when passing options to qemu explicitly, ``driver`` is the
201   value of <protocol>.
202
203   Example: boot from a remote Fedora 20 live ISO image
204
205   .. parsed-literal::
206
207      |qemu_system_x86| --drive media=cdrom,file=https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/releases/20/Live/x86_64/Fedora-Live-Desktop-x86_64-20-1.iso,readonly
208
209      |qemu_system_x86| --drive media=cdrom,file.driver=http,file.url=http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/20/Live/x86_64/Fedora-Live-Desktop-x86_64-20-1.iso,readonly
210
211   Example: boot from a remote Fedora 20 cloud image using a local
212   overlay for writes, copy-on-read, and a readahead of 64k
213
214   .. parsed-literal::
215
216      qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file='json:{"file.driver":"http",, "file.url":"http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/releases/20/Images/x86_64/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2",, "file.readahead":"64k"}' /tmp/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2
217
218      |qemu_system_x86| -drive file=/tmp/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2,copy-on-read=on
219
220   Example: boot from an image stored on a VMware vSphere server with a
221   self-signed certificate using a local overlay for writes, a readahead
222   of 64k and a timeout of 10 seconds.
223
224   .. parsed-literal::
225
226      qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file='json:{"file.driver":"https",, "file.url":"https://user:password@vsphere.example.com/folder/test/test-flat.vmdk?dcPath=Datacenter&dsName=datastore1",, "file.sslverify":"off",, "file.readahead":"64k",, "file.timeout":10}' /tmp/test.qcow2
227
228      |qemu_system_x86| -drive file=/tmp/test.qcow2
229