[SOLVED] Any advantage of running various file systems types on a Linux server?

JockVSJock · 08-12-2017, 07:22 AM

I've noticed that when building RHEL6 servers, I can select either XFS or EXT4 file system types or others for various partitions.

I have a test project going on right now where we are experimenting with Mongodb and it requires to have a XFS partition file system type.

So I'm wondering if there are any advantages/disadvantages if you were to build a server with various file system types?

DavidMcCann · 08-12-2017, 10:50 AM

On the whole, I suspect that any advantages of ext4 will be because it's designed for Linux, not a port from another POSIX system. There can be some problems with JFS not updating the journal under certain types of operation. XFS has some keen supporters using it with Linux — NASA and the BBC, for example — and RH recommend it for really huge systems (100TB!)

Reiser is a dead man walking and, despite all the extravagant praise you hear for BTRFS, it's being dropped it in RHEL 8.

JockVSJock · 08-12-2017, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann

despite all the extravagant praise you hear for BTRFS, it's being dropped it in RHEL 8.

Already dropped in RHEL 7.4 .

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14907771

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...es-Btrfs-Again

jlinkels · 08-12-2017, 11:03 AM

At a moment it comes down to selecting the best file system for a given use. While ext4 is very versatile and is considered the best overall, some others have their advantages. Xfs is one of them.

But I think your question is whether there are [dis|ad]vantages running various file systems. Then you already decided on using certain file systems for certain tasks.

Well, no, there is no disadvantage at all. Most likely you already do it. FAT on a USB, NFS for shared access, maybe iSCSI (which strictly is not a file system), ext2 for your boot sector and ext4 for your root.

The only advantage is that you select the best file system for your purpose. I run xfs on my 2TB data partition because it is said xfs is good for file systems containing zillions of files. And ext4 on my root partition because it is stable.

jlinkels

JockVSJock · 08-12-2017, 12:46 PM

Sorry, I'm not clear on the question.

Say for example, I have the following Linux server with the following partitions with the following file system types:

Code:

/home     ext4
/etc     xfs 
/var     ext4 
/var/log     xfs 
/var/log/audit     xfs 
/var/tmp     vfat
/tmp     xfs
/usr/local     ext3

This is just an example. However would there be say performance problems with an Linux system with a mix of file system types for one OS?

jlinkels · 08-12-2017, 01:37 PM

You were clear in your question.

AFAIK there is no performance penalty. The kernel simply uses a different function to access the partition.

jlinkels

AwesomeMachine · 08-12-2017, 05:42 PM

There is every reason to use different formats on the same Linux system, As was mentioned by DavidMcCann, xfs is better for many small files within the same directory. Xfs is scalable to very large volumes without performance penalty.

Ext4 is a multipurpose Linux file system designed for good performance and stability in most applications. ext4 is ready made for SElinux, whereas xfs requires tweaks to the metadata during the format to use SElinux.

Because the striping of the format can be adjusted during format, xfs can be configured for higher performance on certain types of raid volumes.

If you have more than one type of file system, the kernel simply loads the modules for each one.