xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/xbd.4 (revision 6cb10275d08f045e872662c371fe2f2724f2f6e6)
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30.Dd January 8, 2011
31.Dt XBD 4 xen
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm xbd
35.Nd Xen frontend paravirtualized block device interface
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Cd "xbd* at xenbus?"
38.Sh DESCRIPTION
39The
40.Nm
41interface forms the frontend part of the paravirtualized drivers
42used by
43.Tn Xen
44guest domains to have a block device interface.
45.Pp
46From a guest point of view,
47.Nm
48is similar to a hard disk, and can be treated in the very same way
49regarding partitioning, file systems creation and usage, and mounting.
50By default, a
51.Nx
52guest domain will assume that
53.Dq xbd0a
54serves as the root file system.
55.Pp
56When the host is
57.Nx ,
58the
59.Nm
60interface is backed by a
61.Xr xbdback 4
62interface.
63In the XenStore,
64.Nm xbd
65and
66.Nm xbdback
67are identified by
68.Dq vbd
69(virtual block device)
70entries.
71.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
72.Bl -diag
73.It "xbd%d: using event channel %d"
74Specifies the event channel used by this
75.Nm
76interface.
77.It "xbd%d: %s MB, %d bytes/sect x %u sectors"
78Gives the total size of the
79.Nm
80block device, its sector size and total number of sectors.
81.It "xbd%d: WARNING: cache flush not supported by backend"
82The backend driver associated with this
83.Nm
84device does not support cache flushing operation.
85This can be problematic for file system operations that require
86cache sync to avoid data loss or corruption.
87.El
88.Sh SEE ALSO
89.Xr xbdback 4 ,
90.Xr xenbus 4 ,
91.Xr dkctl 8
92.Sh HISTORY
93The
94.Nm
95driver first appeared in
96.Nx 3.0 .
97.Sh AUTHORS
98.An -nosplit
99The
100.Nm
101driver was written by
102.An Manuel Bouyer Aq Mt bouyer@NetBSD.org .
103