blkmapd: Add complex block layout discovery and mapping daemon

[nfs-utils.git] / utils / blkmapd / blkmapd.man

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+.\"
+.\" Copyright 2011, Jim Rees.
+.\"
+.\" You may distribute under the terms of the GNU General Public
+.\" License as specified in the file COPYING that comes with the
+.\" nfs-utils distribution.
+.\"
+.TH blkmapd 8 "11 August 2011"
+.SH NAME
+blkmapd \- pNFS block layout mapping daemon
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B "blkmapd [-d] [-f]"
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+The
+.B blkmapd
+daemon performs device discovery and mapping for the parallel NFS (pNFS) block layout
+client [RFC5663].
+.PP
+The pNFS block layout protocol builds a complex storage hierarchy from a set
+of
+.I simple volumes.
+These simple volumes are addressed by content, using a signature on the
+volume to uniquely name each one.
+The daemon locates a volume by examining each block device in the system for
+the given signature.
+.PP
+The topology typically consists of a hierarchy of volumes built by striping,
+slicing, and concatenating the simple volumes.
+The
+.B blkmapd
+daemon uses the device-mapper driver to construct logical devices that
+reflect the server topology, and passes these devices to the kernel for use
+by the pNFS block layout client.
+.SH OPTIONS
+.TP
+.B -d
+Performs device discovery only then exits.
+.TP
+.B -f
+Runs
+.B blkmapd
+in the foreground and sends output to stderr (as opposed to syslogd)
+.SH SEE ALSO
+.BR nfs (5),
+.BR dmsetup (8)
+.sp
+RFC 5661 for the NFS version 4.1 specification.
+.br
+RFC 5663 for the pNFS block layout specification.
+.SH AUTHORS
+.br
+Haiying Tang <Tang_Haiying@emc.com>
+.br
+Jim Rees <rees@umich.edu>