Re: (E)NBD as root file system

we are using the root-over-nbd-solution successfully with xen. The 
initrd is based on the nbd_root project:

http://borderworlds.dk/projects/#nr

After slight modifcations (switched 'ext2' to 'ext3' in that linuxrc 
init program and a newer version of nbd-client) everything works fine; 
the virtual machines 'inside' xen boot, have their kernel with built-in 
nbd support and use the nbd-client to mount their root fs.
We are using debian and the only thing we had to change was one of the 
shutdownscripts (/etc/init.d/sendsigs). We're now using a patched 
version of killall5 which accepts pid's to exclude as parameters. 
Otherwise your nbd-client gets killed before all the shutdown scripts 
have been processed and the filesystem gets unmounted - which obviously 
leads to some nasty errors.

regards, rudi

[email protected] wrote:

>I have read (elsewhere) that NBD as root file system is possible through 
>custom modifications to initrd. I presume this approach requires the 
>creation of a ramdisk from which to run the NBD client. Once the NBD 
>client is running and attached to the remote NBD server, there must be 
>some mechanism by which this remote file system can be made the root file 
>system.
>
>Does anyone have a recipe to make the above happen for a Linux 2.6 kernel?
>
>... Dave
>_______________________________________________
>ENBD mailing list
>[email protected]
>http://lists.community.tummy.com/mailman/listinfo/enbd
>
>
>  
>


-- 
Mit freundlichen Gruessen / with kind regards
 Rudolph Bott

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