Linux: Common Filesystems
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So day to day, what filesystems would a normal Linux Admin expect to encounter realistically?
XFS, EXT4, BtrFS and EXT3. In that order.
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I think one thing to note is that with EXT4 you can shrink your file system, but cannot with XFS.
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@johnhooks said:
I think one thing to note is that with EXT4 you can shrink your file system, but cannot with XFS.
Yep. That's the only major difference between the two that I remember anyway.
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@travisdh1 said:
@johnhooks said:
I think one thing to note is that with EXT4 you can shrink your file system, but cannot with XFS.
Yep. That's the only major difference between the two that I remember anyway.
I think XFS also handles large files better, but I could be wrong.
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@johnhooks Maybe. I forget the details, but I know they had options to make XFS fast for both lots of small files and fewer very large files scenarios.
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XFS cannot be shrunk in place, that is correct.
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EXT4 vs XFS
Filename Length Max File Size Max Filesystem ext4 255 bytes 16 GiB to 16 TiB 1 EiB XFS 255 bytes 8 EiB 8 EiB -
What is the diference between ext3 and ext4?
Whether ext4 is preferable than ext3?Why? -
@Lakshmana said:
Whether ext4 is preferable than ext3?
Yes, EXT4 is specifically the next generation of EXT3. EXT3 has been legacy since EXT4 releases. Think of Windows 2012 R2 versus Windows 2008 - it's the same team and design but with another seven years of engineering, developments and improvements.
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Just changing the version name to re-introducing the same filesystem with slight changes.Right
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@Lakshmana said:
What is the diference between ext3 and ext4?
EXT3: Largest File Size is 2TB (too small for today!) and largest filesystem size is 32TB.
EXT4: Largest File Size is 16TB and largest filesystem is 1EB.EXT4 improved on EXT3 additionally in several ways:
- Moved to extents which improved performance.
- Preallocation is now supported improving media and database performance.
- Delayed allocation improving performance and reducing fragmentation.
- Removes the 32K subdirectory limitation of EXT3
- File system checking is much faster
- Moved to a multiblock allocator which improves on disk placement decision making for lower fragmentation and higher performance.
- Nanosecond filesystem timestamps instead of second ones.
- Transparent encryption added in EXT4.1
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@Lakshmana said:
Just changing the version name to re-introducing the same filesystem with slight changes.Right
It is not considered the same filesystem. It is very similar, but ext3 and ext4 are not identical on disk, making them different filesystems. But they are based on the same concepts.
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@scottalanmiller said:
EXT4 vs XFS
Filename Length Max File Size Max Filesystem ext4 255 bytes 16 GiB to 16 TiB 1 EiB XFS 255 bytes 8 EiB 8 EiBThat's a pretty big file.
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@johnhooks said:
@scottalanmiller said:
EXT4 vs XFS
Filename Length Max File Size Max Filesystem ext4 255 bytes 16 GiB to 16 TiB 1 EiB XFS 255 bytes 8 EiB 8 EiBThat's a pretty big file.
On XFS that's one crazy large file. On EXT4, it's not really. If you wanted to virtualized a moderately sized file server today (smaller than several of NTG's systems) then EXT4 couldn't handle it. The single file size limits of EXT4 are so small that they even can impact the SMB market today. This is a big reason why XFS took over so quickly as the main filesystem on Linux. 16TB isn't "small" but when it represents the entire filesystem for a file server, it starts to look like quite the limitation.
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I've been using XFS for pretty much everything new for a year or so now. Just seems to make the most sense.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
@scottalanmiller said:
EXT4 vs XFS
Filename Length Max File Size Max Filesystem ext4 255 bytes 16 GiB to 16 TiB 1 EiB XFS 255 bytes 8 EiB 8 EiBThat's a pretty big file.
On XFS that's one crazy large file. On EXT4, it's not really. If you wanted to virtualized a moderately sized file server today (smaller than several of NTG's systems) then EXT4 couldn't handle it. The single file size limits of EXT4 are so small that they even can impact the SMB market today. This is a big reason why XFS took over so quickly as the main filesystem on Linux. 16TB isn't "small" but when it represents the entire filesystem for a file server, it starts to look like quite the limitation.
Ya I meant XFS. I really only use EXT4 if I'm going to be playing with the sizes of the LVs to test stuff. The home partition on my laptop is EXT4 but it's been that way for about 2 years and I don't want to move everything off to change it.
I also usually use EXT4 for USB drives.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
@scottalanmiller said:
EXT4 vs XFS
Filename Length Max File Size Max Filesystem ext4 255 bytes 16 GiB to 16 TiB 1 EiB XFS 255 bytes 8 EiB 8 EiBThat's a pretty big file.
On XFS that's one crazy large file. On EXT4, it's not really. If you wanted to virtualized a moderately sized file server today (smaller than several of NTG's systems) then EXT4 couldn't handle it. The single file size limits of EXT4 are so small that they even can impact the SMB market today. This is a big reason why XFS took over so quickly as the main filesystem on Linux. 16TB isn't "small" but when it represents the entire filesystem for a file server, it starts to look like quite the limitation.
you have files (a VM file) that's larger than 16 TiB?
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
@scottalanmiller said:
EXT4 vs XFS
Filename Length Max File Size Max Filesystem ext4 255 bytes 16 GiB to 16 TiB 1 EiB XFS 255 bytes 8 EiB 8 EiBThat's a pretty big file.
On XFS that's one crazy large file. On EXT4, it's not really. If you wanted to virtualized a moderately sized file server today (smaller than several of NTG's systems) then EXT4 couldn't handle it. The single file size limits of EXT4 are so small that they even can impact the SMB market today. This is a big reason why XFS took over so quickly as the main filesystem on Linux. 16TB isn't "small" but when it represents the entire filesystem for a file server, it starts to look like quite the limitation.
you have files (a VM file) that's larger than 16 TiB?
That's not a ton for a file server with large CAD drawings.
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@johnhooks said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
@scottalanmiller said:
EXT4 vs XFS
Filename Length Max File Size Max Filesystem ext4 255 bytes 16 GiB to 16 TiB 1 EiB XFS 255 bytes 8 EiB 8 EiBThat's a pretty big file.
On XFS that's one crazy large file. On EXT4, it's not really. If you wanted to virtualized a moderately sized file server today (smaller than several of NTG's systems) then EXT4 couldn't handle it. The single file size limits of EXT4 are so small that they even can impact the SMB market today. This is a big reason why XFS took over so quickly as the main filesystem on Linux. 16TB isn't "small" but when it represents the entire filesystem for a file server, it starts to look like quite the limitation.
you have files (a VM file) that's larger than 16 TiB?
That's not a ton for a file server with large CAD drawings.
Hold on - why would you put the CAD drawings into a VM at that point? Assuming you aren't saying you have single drawings that are 16 TiB. Why not just dump the CAD files directly into a filesystem themselves?
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@Dashrender said:
@johnhooks said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
@scottalanmiller said:
EXT4 vs XFS
Filename Length Max File Size Max Filesystem ext4 255 bytes 16 GiB to 16 TiB 1 EiB XFS 255 bytes 8 EiB 8 EiBThat's a pretty big file.
On XFS that's one crazy large file. On EXT4, it's not really. If you wanted to virtualized a moderately sized file server today (smaller than several of NTG's systems) then EXT4 couldn't handle it. The single file size limits of EXT4 are so small that they even can impact the SMB market today. This is a big reason why XFS took over so quickly as the main filesystem on Linux. 16TB isn't "small" but when it represents the entire filesystem for a file server, it starts to look like quite the limitation.
you have files (a VM file) that's larger than 16 TiB?
That's not a ton for a file server with large CAD drawings.
Hold on - why would you put the CAD drawings into a VM at that point? Assuming you aren't saying you have single drawings that are 16 TiB. Why not just dump the CAD files directly into a filesystem themselves?
I'm saying you can easily get CAD files that are around 300-600 GB each for large assemblies with a bunch of sub-assemblies.
