[CentOS] Query: Filesystems

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Mon, 2005-11-28 at 11:23 -0500, Jim Bartus wrote:
> WAFL does this, unfortunatly it only runs on NetApps.

Give LVM2/DeviceMapper enough time on Linux (like 2 more years), and
you'll see more and more features and capabilities.

But yes, you are correct.  A generic OS will _never_ have the features
like a filer-assuming, NVRAM, controller, etc... hardware-software
design symbios with Data OnTap its WAFL filesystem.

The PC would need to have some radical changes to even compete, because
the software very much requires certain hardware.  Intel is now starting
to put IOP33x (XScale) logic in the southbridge.  If they ever pair that
with battery-backed main memory in a semi-commodity design, then it
might be possible for generic OSes to offer far more.

Until then, if you want absolutely consistent filesystems, snapshots and
services, it's hard to beat NetApp because of the hardware-software
design symbios.  Generic systems and OSes can't match it.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org
http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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