Which filesystem is most secure and robust?

MikeHunt79

MikeHunt79

MikeHunt79

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I'm in the process of setting up a server running Ubuntu 7.10, and I've got 2 drives in a RAID 1 config.

Which filesystem would be the most robust? EXT3? I'm not too worried about speed, I only plan to do a nightly backup of files on windows workstations...
 
Ext3 is pretty good for robustness, ie will probably best survive you pulling the plug on the box. Ext2 is even better :)
 
Always used ext3 on my most recent installs, never had any problems.
I heard somewhere ReiserFS is meant to be good, but can't remember why exactly. Google it :P
 
ext3 is most established and the only Linux kernel filesystem with full data journaling (the others are just metadata-journaled, apart from ext4 - but that's experimental).

Mount your ext3 filesystems with -o data=journal (instead of the default data=ordered) and you will have the most reliable filesystem available on Linux.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
As above, this isn't true. ext3 is essentially ext2 with full journaling. As such it's far more robust and resistant to data loss.
Click to expand...

My bad :(

I was thinking that somehow journalling made it more susceptable to data loss in the event of sudden power failure. But that was just me being confused :(
 
matja said:
ext3 is most established and the only Linux kernel filesystem with full data journaling (the others are just metadata-journaled, apart from ext4 - but that's experimental).

Mount your ext3 filesystems with -o data=journal (instead of the default data=ordered) and you will have the most reliable filesystem available on Linux.
Click to expand...
Am I right in thinking /etc/fstab mounts all your things automatically?

Here is the line which mounts my ext3 partition:

/dev/sda2 UUID=cc9ba560-c039-49dd-b0b5-a59d301b81cc / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0

would I change it to

/dev/sda2 UUID=cc9ba560-c039-49dd-b0b5-a59d301b81cc / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro,data=journal 0

?
 
russ0r said:
Always used ext3 on my most recent installs, never had any problems.
I heard somewhere ReiserFS is meant to be good, but can't remember why exactly. Google it :P
Click to expand...

Reiserfs is very fast. Also happens to be one of the most complex filesystems out. Has some issues though - like you can't put a reiserfs filesystem on a disk or partition that previously held a reiser partition, as the error correction is so good, the fs simply sees the files as "lost files" and they reappear in the new file structure... Fixed in four - IF it ever comes out!!

I would probably choose ext3 for robustness though, as it's the longest established and reiser is pretty new.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
Am I right in thinking /etc/fstab mounts all your things automatically?
Click to expand...

correct: fstab = File System TABle

Here is the line which mounts my ext3 partition:

/dev/sda2 UUID=cc9ba560-c039-49dd-b0b5-a59d301b81cc / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0

would I change it to

/dev/sda2 UUID=cc9ba560-c039-49dd-b0b5-a59d301b81cc / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro,data=journal 0

?
Click to expand...

not sure you would need "defaults" as an option... also, I'm not sure that you really need to specify the UUID (no point taking it out though).

Also, if data integrity is paramount to you, maybe set it to fsck every time it's mounted (very time consuming, especially on big drives).
 
.walls said:
not sure you would need "defaults" as an option... also, I'm not sure that you really need to specify the UUID (no point taking it out though).

Also, if data integrity is paramount to you, maybe set it to fsck every time it's mounted (very time consuming, especially on big drives).
Click to expand...
The machine will be left on 24/7, so I guess it would be better to make it fsck as a cron job? It's 160gb raid 1 btw.

Also, the fstab was generated by ubuntu 7.10 when it was installed, hence all the extra stuff... I think I'll just add the extra option and leave the rest as it is. :)
 
I really like XFS for my data partitions, and EXT3 for my system partitions. Beware you can have full journalling or meta journaling with EXT3 for safety you'd want full.

I hard powered of my XFS file systems numerous times, never had any data loss or corruption.
 
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