[Bioclusters] Large numbers of files (again...?)

[Dan Bolser]

On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Andrew Fant wrote:

> 
> 
> --On Wednesday, January 28, 2004 15:59:52 +0000 Dan Bolser 
> <dmb@mrc-dunn.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> > ++ Joe Landman--
> >> Hi Dan:
> >>
> >>   If it is a chore to have them switch, then the hashing function is a
> >> much better choice.  I am not so sure about trusting real data to
> >> Reiser, I have been (badly) burned by it in the past.
> >
> > I know Reiser and xfs are still very new.
> >
> > Anyone actively using xfs?
> >
> > I guess switch involves reformatting disks? Actually we have a large
> > storage space yet to come 'on line'. It might be a good chance to try xfs.
> 
> 
> Actually, xfs is new only in the sense that it has just made it into the 
> stable linux kernel trees.   As an old SGI admin, I've used it for about 5 
> years total, and about half that long on Linux.  As you might suspect, I am 
> quite fond of it.
> 
> On my Linux systems, I use it for most partitions except for /boot (grub 
> can handle xfs, but with lilo and multiple os use, xfs on a boot partition 
> is a no-no).   A couple caveats apply.  First, you should always have your 
> system on a ups of some kind if you use xfs.  The aggressive caching is 
> great, but a badly timed power cut can trash a filesystem ( It's never 
> happened to me, but forewarned is forearmed).  Also, to get the best 
> performance, you need to do a little reading of the documentation for 
> mkfs.xfs.  The defaults tend to over-allocate internal filesystem data 
> structures, which can slow things down.

Thanks for the details. It is annoying that a powercut can do this to a
journaling file system, given the reason for journaling in the first
place.

When you say it has never happened to you, have you tried to mess up a
test system running xfs? Or have you just always relied (more or less) on
ups?


> If there's anything more specific you want to know, please feel free to 
> drop me a line.

Cheers, and thanks again (for all the replies),
Dan.

> 
> Andy
> 
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