GEOM supports the remote use of devices, such as disks, CD-ROMs, and files through the use of the gate utilities. This is similar to NFS.
To begin, an exports file must be created. This file specifies who is permitted to access the exported resources and what level of access they are offered. For example, to export the fourth slice on the first SCSI disk, the following /etc/gg.exports is more than adequate:
192.168.1.0/24 RW /dev/da0s4d
This allows all hosts inside the specified private network access to the file system on the da0s4d partition.
To export this device, ensure it is not currently mounted, and start the ggated(8) server daemon:
# ggated
To mount the device on the client machine, issue the following commands:
# ggatec create -o rw 192.168.1.1 /dev/da0s4d ggate0 # mount /dev/ggate0 /mnt
The device may now be accessed through the /mnt mount point.
Note: However, this will fail if the device is currently mounted on either the server machine or any other machine on the network.
When the device is no longer needed, unmount it with umount(8), similar to any other disk device.