From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Joe Landman Subject: Re: Blog: "BTRFS is effectively stable" Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 19:07:27 -0400 Message-ID: <4CCCA52F.9040007@gmail.com> References: <201010301038.28038.chris@csamuel.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed To: linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org Return-path: In-Reply-To: List-ID: On 10/30/2010 05:19 PM, Freddie Cash wrote: > On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 4:38 PM, Chris Samuel wrote: >> A friend of mine who builds storage systems designed for HPC >> use has been keeping an eye on btrfs and has just done some >> testing of it with 2.6.36 and seems to like what he sees in >> terms of stability. > > That's a *very* misleading conclusion to come to based solely on a > single file I/O test. It's more realistic to say "stable under fio > load in ideal conditions". Since it's my blog post that is generating these responses, let me provide some more information. We want to see if the file system, at a basic level, works under load. We aren't yanking power, or otherwise purposefully damaging the underlying platform during operations, as that is not what we are testing. What we've found is that zfs on fuse doesn't pass these very basic tests. nilfs2 does (recent kernels anyway). btrfs does (now). Our focus for the tests were quite simple. Will the file system work when we are trying to shove GB/s down its throat. If the answer is no, then we don't even consider looking at the "lets see how stable it is under purposefully harmful conditions" tests. If the answer is yes, that it works, then we have to ask is the performance near where we need it for it to be useful. Currently the answer to that is no. Once this changes (and I saw some posts recently from Chris M that suggests that there have been some changes in this respect for 2.6.37 time frame), then we can start looking at the broader picture of suitability for use. That latter set of issues, file system and metadata repair, stability in the face of less than ideal conditions, gets tested after we see the system able to perform where we need it to. We aren't there yet. Its stable against the tests we ran on it, which, as noted, some other file systems (some in wide spread use) aren't. - Joe