Introduction

oneSIS is a system for enabling a single root filesystem (ie: '/' on your Linux machine) to be shared by many (even functionally different) machines. It is comprised of a collection of tools to install, configure, and maintain a cluster of diskless machines. It allows read-only NFS (Network File System) root clusters to be deployed and maintained with ease, and enables variations between nodes while still using a single root filesystem.

The root image (or any subset of it) can be deployed to disk, if desired, so that any cluster node can boot from the local disk. Using oneSIS, it is possible to have nodes that use almost any combination of NFS, RAM-based, and local disk for files/directories in the root image.

This document describes some of the techniques oneSIS employs and details all of the configuration directives and helper applications that make up the system. It is written to serve as reference material for the configuration directives and utilities, not as a detailed usage guide. A useful resource detailing specific configuration examples can be found online at oneSIS HOWTO at http://onesis.org/oneSIS-HOWTO.php.