Fileserver options - filesystem

Soldato
Joined
18 Dec 2004
Posts
6,567
Location
London/Kent
Hello all,

I've been merrily continuing with my linux adventure again! I have come to the point where I'm actually getting somewhere but wanted just a little help.

Hardware:
Intel E2220 @ 2.4ghz stock
Intel G31 foxconn mobo
1GB DDR2 533mhz RAM
Realtek GbE LAN
20GB laptop IDE - /boot:100MB ext3, /swap:1GB, /root:18.5GB ext3
2x Seagate 320GB 7200.10 - software RAID1, XFS.
Idle: 50W, average at load: 75W draw from the socket (measured).

After having a few issues with CentOS (not issues as such, just quirks which I didn't like - e.g. lack of native filesystem support for many different filesystems), I decided to give ubuntu another shot. So I did...

I've installed ubuntu server 8.04 LTS x64 server and installed ubuntu-desktop over the top (/gets under flameproof jacket). I know - but I'm a n00b.

Anyway, CentOS was great but my test run didn't go so well. Copied over my video files to it (mostly avi's) as a test run. Then tried to play them. It worked for a few seconds, then the video became choppy and unwatchable. Tried video first, as I was going to test with music, but videos are a better tester.

I attributed this as being down to the filesystem, as files would copy over quickly enough e.g. copied the Centos DVD from my desktop at about 65MB/s through the gigabit switch to the server. Videos just didn't seem to play well. Anyway, made the switch to ubuntu server. This is going well as ubuntu server runs at 50W idle, as opposed to 60W, due obviously to better driver support for the hardware and additional power saving options/states. All hard drives power down now which saves a fair bit of power.

I read up on filesystems and it seems XFS is a relatively stable and mature fs. So I run the RAID from XFS now. Any comments on this?

I know about ZFS, however I don't think I want to play with Solaris right now - a little over my head as I can't be dealing with driver issues.

Should I have stuck with ext3? Obviously it needs to be journalling - I don't have a UPS yet, so a power failure needs to be governed for. This server will be backed up to an external 500GB drive - I know RAID1 is not a backup. The purpose is to be relatively safe as the backup to external is likely to be weekly. Home office files, photos and music are be placed on the server which is like a NAS, but also the main store. Further, it is likely that the files will be worked on remotely i.e. from client PC's with the actual files remaining on the server - are there any comments on this in terms of XFS use? Does XFS lock files properly?

Finally, is there anything wrong with enabling the root account on ubuntu? AS I'm mainly using the GUI, issues have arisen when trying to change permissions and editing config files in the standard text editors because I am not root. As this computer sits behind a NAT and isn't open to the world, should I worry about enabling root?

Many thanks in advance!

smids.
 
Last edited:
I know there are a number of variables but mostly it boils down to whether XFS is a suitable and reliable filesystem where no UPS is available and just generally. I'm testing openSUSE at the moment and it is going well. I'll be re-trying ext3 too, though I had a problem with it on my first install (think I shut down before the RAID had sync'ed for the first time as I didn't know it was sync'ing and it died - or at least failed the fsck losing its supernodes).

And yes, I'm getting ~500Mbps as in 65 megabytes per second on a copy over the network. Just not when 'streaming' the data.

I just want a reliable, usuable filesystem. I know and trust NTFS, though I'm going to need a little convincing on any of the linux flavours (being a primary Windows user).
 
XFS for large streaming data systems.
JFS on small/old/portable crap.
ext3 for the rest.

This I had seen floating about.

Problems I'm thinking though:

XFS - apparently can slowly corrupt data and there are some horror stories about using this when the shutdown isn't clean - especially in the middle of a write. Apparently it writes null data to the remainder of an incomplete file if the journal has already been written... not exactly great. Of course, any unclean shutdown is bad for a system - data will be lost but I've just heard about XFS being bad for this.

JFS - Old, quite stable, but lacking. Also, apparently bad metadata (caused by bad shutdowns) can corrupt the whole thing.

ReiserFS - NO, NO. SUSE moved away from this (I run OpenSUSE now :D). Author in jail? Not likely to have much in the way of future support.

ext3 - had a few problems with this losing its superblock on unclean shutdowns when the RAID was sync'ing. Irreparable damage done to the FS resulting in a reinstalling. I would like to use it, as it is the best supported linux FS and a general purpose one, just worry about it though...

I'm thinking I'll stick with XFS for now and continue my testing...
 
Back
Top Bottom