[ubuntu-us-ut] ext3 or XFS

[Mike Basinger]

The digital collections are about 1 TB (terabyte) containing hundred
of thousands image files (jpg, tiff, or pdf).

Mike

On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 3:33 PM, Trevor Sharpe <tsharpe at xmission.com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>  Hash: SHA1
>
>
>
>  Mike Basinger wrote:
>  > We are planning to switch a digital collection we run on CnntentDM for
>  > Windows 2003 using NTFS to Ubuntu Server 8.04 (when it is final). The
>  > collection is hundreds of thousands of graphic files. Would it make
>  > sense to using XFS or ResierFS over ext3? I always used ext3 in the
>  > pass and been happy, but nothing with so many files.
>  >
>  > =========================================
>  > [from vendor, assumed we were going to use RedHat Enterprise and not Ubuntu]
>  > I saw your recent request to do a Linux evaluation of CONTENTdm and
>  > wanted to get in touch with you to discuss a potential issue. Linux
>  > (specifically Red Hat Enterprise Linux) has a fundamental file system
>  > limitation that can compromise the functionality of CONTENTdm
>  > collections. I know that you all have a LOT of data and some very
>  > large collections, so this limitation will almost certainly be
>  > encountered during your Linux evaluation if you are planning to use
>  > Red Hat Enterprise. The problem is easy to work around if an alternate
>  > file system is used, but Red Hat explicitly does not support any file
>  > systems other than these non-scalable ext2/ext3 volumes. Nearly all
>  > other Linux distributions support file systems that do not have this
>  > problem (e.g. XFS, ReiserFS).
>  >
>  > Are you planning to deploy CONTENTdm on Red Hat Enterprise Linux? If
>  > you'd like to discuss this in more detail, let me know a good time to
>  > reach you and the best number to use.
>  > =========================================
>
>  Mike,
>
>  I am reminded of a conversation that Stuart Jansen had on the PLUG list
>  a couple days ago. The real question to me is, are you looking for
>  efficient use of space or performance? I have heard that over larger
>  drives (320+ GB) that ReiserFS is still a more effective use of the
>  space. Although I understand that you tune XFS for performance.
>
>  Its a interesting question, to say the least.
>
>  - --- Stuart Jansen's email ---
>
>  Today I had a chance to compare ext3 and XFS overhead. Basically, I
>  created a new XFS filesystem and copied a bunch of data onto it. Then I
>  created an ext3 filesystem and copied everything from the XFS filesystem
>  onto it. Most files were under 15M in size. I didn't compare performance
>  because all I cared about was space efficiency. Count me as another XFS
>  fan.
>
>  /dev/simplicity/scratch mounted on /mnt is ext3
>  /dev/simplicity/mirror mounted on /data/mirror is xfs
>
>  $ df -h /mnt/
>  Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
>  /dev/mapper/simplicity-scratch
>                       6.4G  5.8G  348M  95% /mnt
>  $ df -h /data/mirror/
>  Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
>  /dev/mapper/simplicity-mirror
>                       6.5G  5.6G  913M  87% /data/mirror
>
>   --- Logical volume ---
>   LV Name                /dev/simplicity/scratch
>   VG Name                simplicity
>   LV UUID                cH3Iu4-oE1k-NoPV-cfBd-t7fU-oKIX-vcq083
>   LV Write Access        read/write
>   LV Status              available
>   # open                 1
>   LV Size                6.50 GB
>   Current LE             208
>   Segments               2
>   Allocation             inherit
>   Read ahead sectors     0
>   Block device           253:6
>
>   --- Logical volume ---
>   LV Name                /dev/simplicity/mirror
>   VG Name                simplicity
>   LV UUID                ULZz2r-PUct-mysE-0uHn-bs1Q-4Uvt-2C3Ffj
>   LV Write Access        read/write
>   LV Status              available
>   # open                 1
>   LV Size                6.50 GB
>   Current LE             208
>   Segments               1
>   Allocation             inherit
>   Read ahead sectors     0
>   Block device           253:7
>
>  - --- End Stuart's email ---
>
>  - --
>  Trevor Sharpe
>  E-Mail:         tsharpe at xmission.com
>  Jabber:         tsharpe at gmail.com
>  - ----------
>  Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist
>  the black flag, and begin slitting throats.       ---H. L. Mencken
>  -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
>  Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
>  Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>
>  iD8DBQFH3uPERDaxm/9432IRAo+AAJ9K1z9VUb46eH/8Pq106NuFRsCF+gCfRnoa
>  5y6uZ556fWyeO6n/0ztn0N8=
>  =CpGB
>  -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>  --
>  ubuntu-us-ut mailing list
>  ubuntu-us-ut at lists.ubuntu.com
>  https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ut
>



-- 
Mike Basinger
mike.basinger at gmail.com
http://www.mikesplanet.net