[clue-tech] Create virtual partition from free disk space on multiple networked machines

[David L. Anselmi]

Keith Christian wrote:
> Suppose a user needs 1 gb of space.  At his disposal are several
> networked Linux and/or Unix machines with their own disks.  The user
> is familiar with NFS, but needs a way to combine free space scattered
> across these networked disks into one 1 gb contiguous virtual
> partition.

Do you really mean user?  I think you'll need root, at least on the 
user's machine.

You don't mean single partition, you mean single file system, don't you? 
  Do you really need a single file system?  I can understand why, just 
wondering whether you're sure.

So a file system gets created on a block device (which is just like a 
file).  The dm and md modules let you treat several block devices as 
one.  So I think what you want is possible.

I'd suggest keeping the lowest level protocols closest to the hardware. 
  So it would be better to access the remote disk space via ATA over 
Ethernet or iSCSI than NFS.  But that depends on root access to the 
remote machines, perhaps.

Dave