Archipelago » qemu

* disk_images_nbd::           NBD access

@node disk_images_nbd

@subsection NBD access

QEMU can access directly to block device exported using the Network Block Device

protocol.

@example

qemu linux.img -hdb nbd:my_nbd_server.mydomain.org:1024

@end example

If the NBD server is located on the same host, you can use an unix socket instead

of an inet socket:

@example

qemu linux.img -hdb nbd:unix:/tmp/my_socket

@end example

In this case, the block device must be exported using qemu-nbd:

@example

qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket my_disk.qcow2

@end example

The use of qemu-nbd allows to share a disk between several guests:

@example

qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket --share=2 my_disk.qcow2

@end example

and then you can use it with two guests:

@example

qemu linux1.img -hdb nbd:unix:/tmp/my_socket

qemu linux2.img -hdb nbd:unix:/tmp/my_socket

@end example