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tmpfs NFSroot - use one computer's RAM as an SSD for another computer

Posted 09-22-2016 at 04:48 PM by IsaacKuo
Updated 09-23-2016 at 08:44 PM by IsaacKuo

Tags diskless, netboot, nfsroot, pxe, ramboot

In a previous blog post, I described how to share one computer's SSD to host another computer's OS. With a gigabit ethernet connection, the result is almost as good as a local SSD in real life desktop performance.

But what if you don't have any SSD? You can still do it, if one of your computers has at least 2GB of RAM! The nfs server in this case creates a tmpfs ramdisk and copies the OS from a hard drive copy to the ramdisk. We then use rsync when we want to sync back changes to...

IsaacKuo

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RAMboot How-To for Debian 8 Jessie

Posted 09-19-2016 at 01:58 PM by IsaacKuo
Updated 10-17-2016 at 12:48 AM by IsaacKuo

Tags ramboot, ssd, tmpfs

I have refined and updated my RAMboot how-to for Debian 8. Honestly, my previous how-to's still work fine for Debian 8, regardless of the switch to systemd. I have, however, tightened things up.

The basic concept is to boot from a local hard drive or USB drive, using a modified initrd to unpack ramboot/image.tar.gz to a tmpfs ramdisk. From then on, the system runs entirely from ram - uncompressed. This is like running off an extremely fast SSD, but with some important differences:...

IsaacKuo

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HOW-TO: Simple GRUB2 NFSroot (Debian 8 Jessie)

Posted 08-23-2016 at 03:18 PM by IsaacKuo
Updated 10-20-2016 at 10:41 AM by IsaacKuo

Tags diskless, grub, netboot, nfsroot, pxe

Sometimes you just want to boot with GRUB2 and /boot on a local drive (hard drive or USB drive), but with root on an nfs share. Other tutorials will show you how to set this up with full blown PXE network booting. This How-To shows you how to set this up with just an nfs server. Compared to a full blown PXE netboot setup:

1) Server setup is simpler. Grub nfsroot only requires an nfs server. You do NOT need a tftp server, nor do you need a customized DHCP server.

2)...

IsaacKuo

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Views 11913 Comments 4 IsaacKuo is offline

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