ext4 state user question

ext4 state user question

[Christian Fischer]

Hello,

I have not found a ext4-user list or something similar, that's why my user 
question goes to this development list.

I had a lot of file system crashes with xfs the last time, Eric knows that, if 
he remembers.

I look for an alternate file system for our new production servers, and I need 
to use 2.6.29.4 for the moment due to all systems running on xen, and as far 
as I know 2.6.29.4 xen patched ist the best solution at the moment.

I've updated all xen kernels from 2.6.18 (which is the latest official xen 
kernel) to 2.6.29.4 because xfs tried to write to the superblock to run into 
the next bug, a radix_tree problem with xfs over nfs. I've backported 2.6.30 
patches to avoid the problem, that runs at the moment.

But I don't feel like waiting for the next crash.

I was never before as unshure as now which file system is to choose, IMO I 
have the choice between zfs on solaris, xfs or ext4.
Zfs is not really ported to linux, the stable time of xfs seems gone, and ext4 
is relatively young.

What do you think, is ext4 with 2.6.29.4 ready for productive work and to 
prefer over xfs at the moment?

Best Regards
Christian
-- 

Re: ext4 state user question

[Eric Sandeen]

Christian Fischer wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have not found a ext4-user list or something similar, that's why my user 
> question goes to this development list.

I think user questions are fine here, but thanks for asking.  :)

> I had a lot of file system crashes with xfs the last time, Eric knows that, if 
> he remembers.
> 
> I look for an alternate file system for our new production servers, and I need 
> to use 2.6.29.4 for the moment due to all systems running on xen, and as far 
> as I know 2.6.29.4 xen patched ist the best solution at the moment.
> 
> I've updated all xen kernels from 2.6.18 (which is the latest official xen 
> kernel) to 2.6.29.4 because xfs tried to write to the superblock to run into 
> the next bug, a radix_tree problem with xfs over nfs. I've backported 2.6.30 
> patches to avoid the problem, that runs at the moment.
> 
> But I don't feel like waiting for the next crash.
> 
> I was never before as unshure as now which file system is to choose, IMO I 
> have the choice between zfs on solaris, xfs or ext4.
> Zfs is not really ported to linux, the stable time of xfs seems gone, and ext4 
> is relatively young.

I think the xfs problems are sorted; you hit a bad spot, but Christoph 
got it worked out.

> What do you think, is ext4 with 2.6.29.4 ready for productive work and to 
> prefer over xfs at the moment?

As for ext4, I don't know of any current problems that would stop you 
from using it for this purpose.  But had you asked about xfs a month ago 
I would have said the same thing.  :)  I can say that ext4 is the 
default for F11, and I have had very few bug reports from users.

All software has bugs, unfortunately, though we do our best.  In the 
end, testing in your environment is the only way to know for sure what 
best suits your needs, I think.

-Eric

> Best Regards
> Christian

Re: ext4 state user question

[Christian Fischer]

On Saturday 22 August 2009, Eric Sandeen wrote:
> Christian Fischer wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have not found a ext4-user list or something similar, that's why my
> > user question goes to this development list.
>
> I think user questions are fine here, but thanks for asking.  :)
>
> > I had a lot of file system crashes with xfs the last time, Eric knows
> > that, if he remembers.
> >
> > I look for an alternate file system for our new production servers, and I
> > need to use 2.6.29.4 for the moment due to all systems running on xen,
> > and as far as I know 2.6.29.4 xen patched ist the best solution at the
> > moment.
> >
> > I've updated all xen kernels from 2.6.18 (which is the latest official
> > xen kernel) to 2.6.29.4 because xfs tried to write to the superblock to
> > run into the next bug, a radix_tree problem with xfs over nfs. I've
> > backported 2.6.30 patches to avoid the problem, that runs at the moment.
> >
> > But I don't feel like waiting for the next crash.
> >
> > I was never before as unshure as now which file system is to choose, IMO
> > I have the choice between zfs on solaris, xfs or ext4.
> > Zfs is not really ported to linux, the stable time of xfs seems gone, and
> > ext4 is relatively young.

Thanks Eric for the fast reply.

>
> I think the xfs problems are sorted; you hit a bad spot, but Christoph
> got it worked out.

Hmm, bad spot, I use xfs for years on a lot of servers, never any other, and 
that because of its stability, and its robustness in case of harware 
failures. Never had any problems. I got gray hairs last time.

>
> > What do you think, is ext4 with 2.6.29.4 ready for productive work and to
> > prefer over xfs at the moment?
>
> As for ext4, I don't know of any current problems that would stop you
> from using it for this purpose.  But had you asked about xfs a month ago
> I would have said the same thing.  :)  I can say that ext4 is the
> default for F11, and I have had very few bug reports from users.

I use ext4dev since it came up on my thinkpad, it runs. Good to hear your 
statement.

What do you think about 2.6.29?
Is it okay or should I wait until I can use a xen patched 2.6.31?

>
> All software has bugs, unfortunately, though we do our best.  In the
> end, testing in your environment is the only way to know for sure what
> best suits your needs, I think.

I know, we are in the business. But please not on my main servers ;-)

Christian
>
> -Eric
>
> > Best Regards
> > Christian
>
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Re: ext4 state user question

[Eric Sandeen]

Christian Fischer wrote:

...

> I use ext4dev since it came up on my thinkpad, it runs. Good to hear your 
> statement.
> 
> What do you think about 2.6.29?
> Is it okay or should I wait until I can use a xen patched 2.6.31?

F11 released with .29, and so far so good.  :)  You could look at 
changelogs after that to see if anything got fixed or added that you may 
care about.

-Eric