nbdkit-service - Man Page
running nbdkit as a service, and systemd socket activation
Description
Most people start nbdkit from the command line or run it from another program (see nbdkit-captive(1). It is also possible to run nbdkit as a standalone service, which is what this page describes.
Socket Activation
nbdkit supports socket activation (sometimes called systemd socket activation). This is a simple protocol where instead of nbdkit itself opening the listening socket(s), the parent process (typically systemd or libnbd) passes in pre-opened file descriptors.
One use for socket activation is to serve infrequent NBD requests using a superserver without needing nbdkit to be running the whole time. Another use is to run nbdkit from a controlling libnbd process.
Socket activation is triggered when both the LISTEN_FDS
and LISTEN_PID
environment variables are set. In this mode using -i, -p, --run, -s or -U flags on the command line will cause an error. Also in this mode nbdkit does not fork into the background (ie. -f is implied).
Using socket activation with systemd
To use nbdkit with socket activation from systemd, create a unit file ending in .socket
(eg. /etc/systemd/system/nbdkit.socket) containing:
[Unit] Description=NBDKit Network Block Device server [Socket] ListenStream=10809 # Optional settings to detect dead clients: #KeepAlive=true #KeepAliveTimeSec=60 #KeepAliveIntervalSec=10 #KeepAliveProbes=5 [Install] WantedBy=sockets.target
There are various formats for the ListenStream
key. See systemd.socket(5) for more information.
Also create a service unit (eg. /etc/systemd/system/nbdkit.service) containing:
[Service] ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nbdkit file /path/to/serve # Optional settings to run as non-root: #User=nbd #Group=nbd
For more information on systemd and socket activation, see http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activation.html
Using socket activation with libnbd
libnbd(3) nbd_connect_systemd_socket_activation(3) lets you run nbdkit from a program using libnbd. An example is:
struct nbd_handle *nbd = nbd_create (); if (nbd == NULL) { fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ()); exit (EXIT_FAILURE); } char *argv[] = { "nbdkit", "--exit-with-parent", "memory", "1G", NULL }; if (nbd_connect_systemd_socket_activation (nbd, args) == -1) { fprintf (stderr, "%s\n", nbd_get_error ()); exit (EXIT_FAILURE); }
Inetd and Xinetd
You can run nbdkit from inetd(8) or xinetd(8). For inetd use:
nbd stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/nbdkit nbdkit -s file /tmp/disk.img
For xinetd create a file /etc/xinetd.d/nbdkit containing:
service nbd { socket_type = stream wait = no user = root server = /usr/sbin/nbdkit server_args = -s file /tmp/disk.img }
Logging
Error messages from nbdkit can be sent to standard error (--log=stderr), or to the system log (--log=syslog), or can be discarded completely (--log=null, not recommended for normal use).
The default, if --log is not specified on the command line, is to send error messages to stderr, unless nbdkit forks into the background in which case they are sent to syslog.
In detail:
- Messages go to standard error (stderr):
When running from the command line in the foreground.
When using systemd socket activation.
Using --log=stderr forces all messages to go to standard error.
- Messages go to the system log (syslog):
When running from the command line, forked into the background.
Using --log=syslog forces all messages to go to the system log.
Debug messages (-v/--verbose) always go to standard error and are never sent to the system log.
Af_vsock
On Linux nbdkit supports the AF_VSOCK
address family / protocol. This allows you to serve NBD devices into virtual machines without using a regular network connection.
Note that this is different from the usual case where you present NBD as a virtual block device to a guest (which the guest sees as something like a SATA or virtio-scsi disk). With AF_VSOCK
the virtual machine sees a raw NBD socket which it can connect to by opening an AF_VSOCK
connection. For more about this protocol, see https://wiki.qemu.org/Features/VirtioVsock
AF_VSOCK example
To set up an AF_VSOCK
server, use for example:
nbdkit --vsock [--port PORT] memory 1G
The optional -p/--port argument is used to change the AF_VSOCK
port number. These port numbers exist in a different namespace from TCP/IP port numbers. Also unlike TCP, the port numbers are 32 bit. The default port is 10809.
The guest that wishes to access nbdkit must be configured for virtio-vsock. On the qemu command line use:
qemu ... -device vhost-vsock-pci,id=vhost-vsock-pci0
For libvirt add this element to the <devices>
section:
<vsock/>
If you see the error unable to open vhost-vsock device
then you may have to unload the VMCI transport on the host:
modprobe -r vmw_vsock_vmci_transport
Once nbdkit and the guest are running, from inside the guest you can connect to nbdkit on the host using libnbd:
nbdsh -c 'h.connect_vsock(2, 10809)' -c 'print(h.get_size())'
Environment Variables
- LISTEN_FDS
- LISTEN_PID
If present in the environment when nbdkit starts up, these trigger "Socket Activation".
See Also
nbdkit(1), nbdkit-client(1), nbdkit-exitlast-filter(1), nbdkit-exitwhen-filter(1), nbdkit-ip-filter(1), nbdkit-limit-filter(1), systemd(1), systemd.socket(5), inetd(8), xinetd(8), syslog(3), rsyslogd(8), journalctl(1), libnbd(3), nbd_connect_systemd_socket_activation(3), nbdsh(1).
Authors
Eric Blake
Richard W.M. Jones
Pino Toscano
Copyright
Copyright Red Hat
License
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the name of Red Hat nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY RED HAT AND CONTRIBUTORS ''AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL RED HAT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Referenced By
nbdkit(1), nbdkit-client(1), nbdkit-exitlast-filter(1), nbdkit-exitwhen-filter(1), nbdkit-nbd-plugin(1), nbdkit-tmpdisk-plugin(1).