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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001 Network Block Device (TCP version)
2
3 What is it: With this compiled in the kernel (or as a module), Linux
4 can use a remote server as one of its block devices. So every time
5 the client computer wants to read, e.g., /dev/nb0, it sends a
6 request over TCP to the server, which will reply with the data read.
Wouter Verhelst5e4b2692013-02-27 17:05:27 -08007 This can be used for stations with low disk space (or even diskless)
8 to borrow disk space from another computer.
9 Unlike NFS, it is possible to put any filesystem on it, etc.
10
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070011 For more information, or to download the nbd-client and nbd-server
12 tools, go to http://nbd.sf.net/.
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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070014 The nbd kernel module need only be installed on the client
15 system, as the nbd-server is completely in userspace. In fact,
16 the nbd-server has been successfully ported to other operating
17 systems, including Windows.