2000-11-15 16:37:28

by Andreas Osterburg

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Swapping over NFS in Linux 2.4?

Hi,

Because I set up a diskless Linux-workstation, I want to swap over NFS.
For this purpose I found only patches for "older" Linux-versions (2.0, 2.1,
2.2?).
Does anyone know wheter there are patches for 2.4 or does anyone know
another solution for this problem?
Because of special hardware I can only use the latest Linux 2.3 (2.3.99*) and
Linux 2.4

Thank you,

Andreas Osterburg


2000-11-15 16:52:00

by Martin Hoeller

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Swapping over NFS in Linux 2.4?

Hi!

> Because I set up a diskless Linux-workstation, I want to swap over NFS.
> For this purpose I found only patches for "older" Linux-versions (2.0, 2.1,
> 2.2?).
> Does anyone know wheter there are patches for 2.4 or does anyone know
> another solution for this problem?

maybe you want to use the network block device.

have a look at
http://www.xss.co.at/linux/NBD
and ftp://ftp.xss.co.at/pub/Linux/NBD

hth,
- martin

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2000-11-15 16:54:00

by Rik van Riel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Swapping over NFS in Linux 2.4?

On Wed, 15 Nov 2000, Andreas Osterburg wrote:

> Because I set up a diskless Linux-workstation, I want to swap
> over NFS. For this purpose I found only patches for "older"
> Linux-versions (2.0, 2.1, 2.2?).

> Does anyone know wheter there are patches for 2.4 or does anyone
> know another solution for this problem?

1. you can swap over NBD
2. if you point me to the swap-over-nfs patches you
have found, I can try to make them work on 2.4 ;)

[I have some interest in making swap-over-nfs work and
most of the other VM things in 2.4 are already pretty
stable ... at the moment stability is more important
than extra performance tricks to me]

regards,


Rik
--
"What you're running that piece of shit Gnome?!?!"
-- Miguel de Icaza, UKUUG 2000

http://www.conectiva.com/ http://www.surriel.com/

2000-11-15 17:16:13

by Nicolas Pitre

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Swapping over NFS in Linux 2.4?



On Wed, 15 Nov 2000, Rik van Riel wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Nov 2000, Andreas Osterburg wrote:
>
> > Because I set up a diskless Linux-workstation, I want to swap
> > over NFS. For this purpose I found only patches for "older"
> > Linux-versions (2.0, 2.1, 2.2?).
>
> > Does anyone know wheter there are patches for 2.4 or does anyone
> > know another solution for this problem?
>
> 1. you can swap over NBD
> 2. if you point me to the swap-over-nfs patches you
> have found, I can try to make them work on 2.4 ;)

Swap on the loop block device attached to a file over NFS seemed to work
too.


Nicolas

2000-11-15 21:30:53

by Juri Haberland

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Swapping over NFS in Linux 2.4?

Rik van Riel wrote:
>
> On Wed, 15 Nov 2000, Andreas Osterburg wrote:
>
> > Because I set up a diskless Linux-workstation, I want to swap
> > over NFS. For this purpose I found only patches for "older"
> > Linux-versions (2.0, 2.1, 2.2?).
>
> > Does anyone know wheter there are patches for 2.4 or does anyone
> > know another solution for this problem?
>
> 1. you can swap over NBD
> 2. if you point me to the swap-over-nfs patches you
> have found, I can try to make them work on 2.4 ;)
>
> [I have some interest in making swap-over-nfs work and
> most of the other VM things in 2.4 are already pretty
> stable ... at the moment stability is more important
> than extra performance tricks to me]

There was a patch recently posted on the nfs mailing list by Tom Dyas
from VAlinux. It is against 2.2.17 with the nfs patches by Trond
Myklebust and Dave Higgen. The post (including the patch) can be found
here: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-nfs&m=97157102825580&w=2

Juri

2000-11-16 17:00:42

by Eric W. Biederman

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Swapping over NFS in Linux 2.4?

Rik van Riel <[email protected]> writes:

> On Wed, 15 Nov 2000, Andreas Osterburg wrote:
>
> > Because I set up a diskless Linux-workstation, I want to swap
> > over NFS. For this purpose I found only patches for "older"
> > Linux-versions (2.0, 2.1, 2.2?).
>
> > Does anyone know wheter there are patches for 2.4 or does anyone
> > know another solution for this problem?
>
> 1. you can swap over NBD
> 2. if you point me to the swap-over-nfs patches you
> have found, I can try to make them work on 2.4 ;)

Rik all we need to do now is convert the swapout code to address space
methods just like the block device was.

This has a number of interesting effects. One of which is that
brw_page should no longer have any users. Simplifying fs/buffer.c

Further this is equivalent to mounting a nfs file loop back which
the address space methods now allow, but it is more direct.

Which means that if this reveals any bugs in nfs/lock ups in nfs they
were already there.

This has been on my want to do list for a while but I'm busy
reinventing booting so I haven't gotten to it.

Eric

2000-11-16 21:07:16

by Pavel Machek

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Swapping over NFS in Linux 2.4?

Hi!

> > Because I set up a diskless Linux-workstation, I want to swap
> > over NFS. For this purpose I found only patches for "older"
> > Linux-versions (2.0, 2.1, 2.2?).
>
> > Does anyone know wheter there are patches for 2.4 or does anyone
> > know another solution for this problem?
>
> 1. you can swap over NBD

Are you sure, Rik? So we no longer have low-memory deadlocks in nbd?
Wow, there used to be plenty of them in past.

Do you promise it is possible to swap over NBD?


> 2. if you point me to the swap-over-nfs patches you
> have found, I can try to make them work on 2.4 ;)

Pavel
--
I'm [email protected]. "In my country we have almost anarchy and I don't care."
Panos Katsaloulis describing me w.r.t. patents at [email protected]

2000-11-16 21:28:55

by Rik van Riel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Swapping over NFS in Linux 2.4?

On Thu, 16 Nov 2000, Pavel Machek wrote:

> > > Because I set up a diskless Linux-workstation, I want to swap
> > > over NFS. For this purpose I found only patches for "older"
> > > Linux-versions (2.0, 2.1, 2.2?).
> >
> > > Does anyone know wheter there are patches for 2.4 or does anyone
> > > know another solution for this problem?
> >
> > 1. you can swap over NBD
>
> Are you sure, Rik? So we no longer have low-memory deadlocks in nbd?
> Wow, there used to be plenty of them in past.
>
> Do you promise it is possible to swap over NBD?

David Miller will have to promise he removed the allocation
bugs from tcp.c ;) [which seem to be the low-memory deadlocks
you observed as well]

regards,

Rik
--
"What you're running that piece of shit Gnome?!?!"
-- Miguel de Icaza, UKUUG 2000

http://www.conectiva.com/ http://www.surriel.com/