Re: Booting from NFSv4 file system?

[Cedric Blancher <cedric.blancher@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 14 Feb 2024 at 14:54, Ahmad Fatoum <a.fatoum@pengutronix.de> wrote:
>
> Hello Ced,
>
> On 13.02.24 08:51, Cedric Blancher wrote:
> > Good morning!
> >
> > Does Barebox support booting from a NFSv4 file system? Explicitly
> > neither NFSv2 or NFSv3 will work in our case, as both protocol
> > versions are no longer allowed by our IT department.
>
> It's a funny coincidence that the same question was asked just a few
> days earlier:
>
>  https://lore.barebox.org/barebox/CAAvCNcByUskEuqLMPmO6mbCOZHhYNx_OXZKYO+HKyz_=Cs2RCQ@mail.gmail.com/T/#t
>
> Do you and Dan both perhaps use the same Enterprise Linux that now ships without
> UDP support in the kernel NFS server?

No, it's a reaction to a EOL/EOS warning that in 18 months we will not
have NFS-over-UDP support, as UDP support in NFS is depreciated since
YEARS, and NFSv2 and NFSv3 are being phased out in favor of NFSv4.

That aside many enterprises now started banning UDP based applications
wherever they can, and NFS-over-UDP with its depreciation is high on
that list. I have several customers who cannot do that anymore, and
even in Institute Pasteur it will no longer be happening in 2025.

So we need a replacement, and we need it fast.

>
> To sum up the other thread: We don't have a TCP stack in barebox, but that's a
> hard requirement to do NFSv4. There's AFAIK no one currently working on this.

So basically in 18 months the NFS support in barebox will become useless, right?

>
> The immediate options are either using TFTP to download the kernel

But tftp requires UDP, right? There is no tftp-over-TCP, right?

> and then
> use NFS for mounting the rootfs within the kernel or to use a userspace NFS
> server.

But will it still be UDP?

> I am using NFS Ganesha at home for this.

I would prefer the JAVA NFS server from DESY, but even they no longer
support NFSv3 via UDP, only TCP.

Ced
--
Cedric Blancher <cedric.blancher@gmail.com>
[https://plus.google.com/u/0/+CedricBlancher/]
Institute Pasteur