[Buildroot] Use case: initrd + NFS
Rod Nussbaumer
bomr at triumf.ca
Thu Apr 29 14:20:12 UTC 2010
Hi all. First post here. Thanks for the great tool.
Someone mentioned use-cases, and I thought I would jump in with what I
was hoping to be able to build, but so far it looks like I will have to
work outside the the box. I'm wondering if anyone is working on or sees
a need for the configuration I would like to achieve.
I am targeting diskless, headless CPUs that boot entirely from a network
server using PXE.
In my world, it would be ideal to have a system that includes a minimal
initrd filesystem, plus a more substantial filesystem which would be
suitable for exporting via NFS. In this scenario, the target would boot,
and the init process would connect to the NFS server to mount the rest
of the filesystem which would contain applications and the majority of
the tools that the target host would use.
Using such a scheme would allow a lot of 'offline' upgrades to be added
without requiring the target to be rebooted; simply replace the content
of the filesystem on the NFS server to upgrade the target. Also, part of
my intent is to get a system that boots as quickly as possible, and the
minimal initrd seems to aid in accomplishing this.
I am still quite green with the use of buildroot, and not sure how much
effort is required to add this kind of capability. If someone can assure
me that it isn't a giant project, I may try to undertake it. Of course
any pointers about how to accomplish it would be gratefully accepted,
and the result of my effort would be available to roll back into the
buildroot tool, if it was wanted. Or, perhaps I've simply overlooked an
existing configuration option that would produce such a system.
Thanks for listening.
--- rod.
More information about the buildroot
mailing list