sheepfs(8)

1SHEEPDOG(8)                 System Manager's Manual                SHEEPDOG(8)
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NAME

6       sheepfs  -  A pseudo file system exports both Sheepdog's internal state
7       as well as Sheepdog's storage
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SYNOPSIS

10       sheepfs [OPTION]... MOUNTPOINT
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DESCRIPTION

13       sheepfs - Sheepdog is a distributed storage system for  QEMU.  It  pro‐
14       vides highly available block level storage volumes to virtual machines.
15       Sheepdog supports advanced volume management features such as snapshot,
16       cloning,  and  thin provisioning. The architecture of Sheepdog is fully
17       symmetric; there is no central node such as a meta-data server.
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19       The server daemon is called sheep(8).  A command line utility is avail‐
20       able via dog(8). A pseudo file system is available via sheepfs(8). QEMU
21       virtual machines use the sheep daemon via a block driver  available  in
22       qemu(1).
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24       Sheepfs  is  a FUSE-based pseudo file system in userland to access both
25       Sheepdog's internal state (for e.g, cluster info, vdi list) as well  as
26       Sheepdog's high reliable storage.
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28       The idea here is that its sometimes useful that we can envision our in‐
29       teraction with an Sheepdog's object in terms of a  directory  structure
30       and filesystem operations.
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32       People  might  be  mostly  interested  into sheepfs's volume directory,
33       which export VM's volume as a pseudo block file in your local file sys‐
34       tem hierarchy, which can be used as
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36       1. a big file abstraction, which is actually backed by Sheepdog's stor‐
37       age, distributed in the cluster.
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39       2. a loop device file, which you can mount wherever you want to use  it
40       as a file system backed up by Sheepdog.
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42       3. a loop device file for some VM's image, which you want to access(RW)
43       its internal data.
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45       4. storage media for other hypervisor, such as XEN
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47       This file abstraction integrates well into kernel's pagecache.
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OPTIONS

50       -a, --address
51              specify the sheep address (default: 127.0.0.1)
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53       -d, --debug
54              enable debug output (implies -f)
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56       -f, --foreground
57              sheepfs run in the foreground
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59       -k, --pagecache
60              use local kernel's page cache to access volume
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62       -o, --objectcache
63              enable object cache of the connected sheep daemon
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65       -p, --port
66              specify the sheep port (default: 7000)
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68       -h, --help
69              display this help and exit
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DEPENDENCIES

73       Sheepdog requires QEMU 0.13.z or later and Corosync 1.y.z.
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FILES

77       none
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AUTHORS

85       This software is developed by  the  Sheepdog  community  which  may  be
86       reached via mailing list at <sheepdog@lists.wpkg.org>.
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88                                  2023-07-22                       SHEEPDOG(8)