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+===================
+ Ceph Block Device
+===================
+
+.. index:: Ceph Block Device; introduction
+
+A block is a sequence of bytes (for example, a 512-byte block of data).
+Block-based storage interfaces are the most common way to store data with
+rotating media such as hard disks, CDs, floppy disks, and even traditional
+9-track tape. The ubiquity of block device interfaces makes a virtual block
+device an ideal candidate to interact with a mass data storage system like Ceph.
+
+Ceph block devices are thin-provisioned, resizable and store data striped over
+multiple OSDs in a Ceph cluster.  Ceph block devices leverage
+:abbr:`RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store)` capabilities
+such as snapshotting, replication and consistency. Ceph's
+:abbr:`RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store)` Block Devices (RBD)
+interact with OSDs using kernel modules or the ``librbd`` library.
+
+.. ditaa::
+
+            +------------------------+ +------------------------+
+            |     Kernel Module      | |        librbd          |
+            +------------------------+-+------------------------+
+            |                   RADOS Protocol                  |
+            +------------------------+-+------------------------+
+            |          OSDs          | |        Monitors        |
+            +------------------------+ +------------------------+
+
+.. note:: Kernel modules can use Linux page caching. For ``librbd``-based
+   applications, Ceph supports `RBD Caching`_.
+
+Ceph's block devices deliver high performance with infinite scalability to
+`kernel modules`_, or to :abbr:`KVMs (kernel virtual machines)` such as `QEMU`_, and
+cloud-based computing systems like `OpenStack`_ and `CloudStack`_ that rely on
+libvirt and QEMU to integrate with Ceph block devices. You can use the same cluster
+to operate the :ref:`Ceph RADOS Gateway <object-gateway>`, the
+:ref:`CephFS filesystem <ceph-filesystem>`, and Ceph block devices simultaneously.
+
+.. important:: To use Ceph Block Devices, you must have access to a running
+   Ceph cluster.
+
+.. toctree::
+	:maxdepth: 1
+
+	Commands <rados-rbd-cmds>
+	Kernel Modules <rbd-ko>
+	Snapshots<rbd-snapshot>
+	Mirroring <rbd-mirroring>
+        Live-Migration <rbd-live-migration>
+	LIO iSCSI Gateway <iscsi-overview>
+	QEMU <qemu-rbd>
+	libvirt <libvirt>
+	librbd Settings <rbd-config-ref/>
+	OpenStack <rbd-openstack>
+	CloudStack <rbd-cloudstack>
+	RBD Replay <rbd-replay>
+
+.. toctree::
+	:maxdepth: 2
+
+	Manpages <man/index>
+
+.. toctree::
+	:maxdepth: 2
+
+	APIs <api/index>
+
+.. _RBD Caching: ./rbd-config-ref/
+.. _kernel modules: ./rbd-ko/
+.. _QEMU: ./qemu-rbd/
+.. _OpenStack: ./rbd-openstack
+.. _CloudStack: ./rbd-cloudstack