Hi,
Is their any gotcha when using ResiserFs as a file system?
centos@911networks.com wrote:
Hi,
Is their any gotcha when using ResiserFs as a file system?
You have to be careful with which OSes you use it with, for example, you can't really get a "base install" with ReiserFS, nor a default RescueCD with it...you'd want to choose a partition to dedicate for ReiserFS, and make sure you had among your DR tools a disk that has ReiserFS kernel module and tools.
ReiserFS is more CPU intensive, so using it on a lower-powered CPU will have more load. ReiserFS also is not a "robust" as extX file systems. So if you kick your power cord out when someone sends you a killer joke, ReiserFS is more likely to lose data. Hearsay has it that it's harder to recover data from.
My opinion on when to use ReiserFS is under these conditions: - stable server, backups and raid - used on an appropriate volume, not all volumes - you want conserve disk space because you're handling a large volume of files that are typically smaller than your filesystem block size (for example, you'd lose a lot space in /var/spool/imap if your ext3 fs blocksize was 8K. - you have DR utilities to cope
Jed
On Sun, Jan 27, 2008, centos@911networks.com wrote:
Hi,
Is their any gotcha when using ResiserFs as a file system?
We used reiserfs for a while on SuSE systems thinking that it would be OK because it was the default. Unfortunately I have had several occassions where we had massive data loss with reiserfs so haven't used for several years.
We moved to ext3 on the ``/'' file system with xfs on other file systems on SuSE with no problems. The ext3 systems seem to be bullet proof, and xfs doesn't require fsck in most cases.
We have used ext3 on all the CentOS systems as it doesn't support xfs in the default configuration.
Bill -- INTERNET: bill@celestial.com Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC URL: http://www.celestial.com/ PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way FAX: (206) 232-9186 Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676
DOS: n., A small annoying boot virus that causes random spontaneous system crashes, usually just before saving a massive project. Easily cured by UNIX. See also MS-DOS, IBM-DOS, DR-DOS.
On Mon, 2008-01-28 at 00:03 -0800, Bill Campbell wrote:
<snip>
Bill
INTERNET: bill@celestial.com Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC URL: http://www.celestial.com/ PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way FAX: (206) 232-9186 Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676
DOS: n., A small annoying boot virus that causes random spontaneous system crashes, usually just before saving a massive project. Easily cured by UNIX. See also MS-DOS, IBM-DOS, DR-DOS.
*chuckle* Seems to be a synonym for Denial Of Service, doesn't it? :-)
<snip sig stuff>
Bill Campbell wrote:
On Sun, Jan 27, 2008, centos@911networks.com wrote:
Hi,
Is their any gotcha when using ResiserFs as a file system?
We used reiserfs for a while on SuSE systems thinking that it would be OK because it was the default. Unfortunately I have had several occassions where we had massive data loss with reiserfs so haven't used for several years.
We moved to ext3 on the ``/'' file system with xfs on other file systems on SuSE with no problems. The ext3 systems seem to be bullet proof, and xfs doesn't require fsck in most cases.
We have used ext3 on all the CentOS systems as it doesn't support xfs in the default configuration.
I also played around with Reiser for a while. If you want a "fire and forget" solution, it isn't for you. As several others have mentioned, you need to jump through a lot of extra hoops to keep it operating and the data loss can be catestrophic if it fails. All that hassle for a bit of extra disk performance isn't really worth it. EXT3 is plenty fast enough for me.
On the flipside, perhaps if you call Hans and agree to cover his legal bills you can get a good lifetime support contract. :)
Cheers,
on 1/28/2008 6:57 AM Chris Mauritz spake the following:
Bill Campbell wrote:
On Sun, Jan 27, 2008, centos@911networks.com wrote:
Hi,
Is their any gotcha when using ResiserFs as a file system?
We used reiserfs for a while on SuSE systems thinking that it would be OK because it was the default. Unfortunately I have had several occassions where we had massive data loss with reiserfs so haven't used for several years.
We moved to ext3 on the ``/'' file system with xfs on other file systems on SuSE with no problems. The ext3 systems seem to be bullet proof, and xfs doesn't require fsck in most cases.
We have used ext3 on all the CentOS systems as it doesn't support xfs in the default configuration.
I also played around with Reiser for a while. If you want a "fire and forget" solution, it isn't for you. As several others have mentioned, you need to jump through a lot of extra hoops to keep it operating and the data loss can be catestrophic if it fails. All that hassle for a bit of extra disk performance isn't really worth it. EXT3 is plenty fast enough for me.
On the flipside, perhaps if you call Hans and agree to cover his legal bills you can get a good lifetime support contract. :)
Cheers,
Last I heard, he was being investigated for a possible "lifetime commitment". But that was a while ago.
Scott Silva wrote:
On the flipside, perhaps if you call Hans and agree to cover his legal bills you can get a good lifetime support contract. :)
Cheers,
Last I heard, he was being investigated for a possible "lifetime commitment". But that was a while ago.
Heh. Before the topic police scold us....
The other reason I'd avoid reiserfs is that namesys (the company that was developing reiserfs) is effectively shut now. Hans was unable to sell the company before it just fizzled into obscurity. That doesn't mean that someone else won't pick up the ball and run with it (it is, after all, open source), but I don't think I'd be willing to bet the farm on it remaining a viable alternative to ext3 for the long haul in a production environment...even if you ignore the other problems mentioned earlier.
Cheers,
on 1/28/2008 8:54 AM Chris Mauritz spake the following:
Scott Silva wrote:
On the flipside, perhaps if you call Hans and agree to cover his legal bills you can get a good lifetime support contract. :)
Cheers,
Last I heard, he was being investigated for a possible "lifetime commitment". But that was a while ago.
Heh. Before the topic police scold us....
The other reason I'd avoid reiserfs is that namesys (the company that was developing reiserfs) is effectively shut now. Hans was unable to sell the company before it just fizzled into obscurity. That doesn't mean that someone else won't pick up the ball and run with it (it is, after all, open source), but I don't think I'd be willing to bet the farm on it remaining a viable alternative to ext3 for the long haul in a production environment...even if you ignore the other problems mentioned earlier.
Cheers,
I'm pretty sure that the main developer being "busy" is still on topic, as it shows that development will be slow or stop completely. Too bad, as Reiser4 showed some great potential.
Scott Silva wrote:
Last I heard, he was being investigated for a possible "lifetime commitment". But that was a while ago.
for the blow by blow trial notes, see http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/localnews/category?blogid=37&cat=142...
annoying, its newest on top, so you have to read from the bottom up.
On Mon, Jan 28, 2008 at 10:07:38AM -0800, John R Pierce wrote:
Scott Silva wrote:
Last I heard, he was being investigated for a possible "lifetime commitment". But that was a while ago.
for the blow by blow trial notes, see http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/localnews/category?blogid=37&cat=142...
annoying, its newest on top, so you have to read from the bottom up.
Nice, the journalistic equivalent of top-posting. :-)
Ray
On 1/28/08, centos@911networks.com centos@911networks.com wrote:
Is their any gotcha when using ResiserFs as a file system?
Aside from not being supported by the CentOS kernels in base/updates, I would recommend against it. No major distributor seems to put development effort into reiserfs anymore and I have seen a lot of people having major recovery problems with it (e.g. when the internaly tree is badly damaged, reiserfs fsck may try to merge anything that looks like a reiserfs filesystem, like filesystems in disk images).
-- Daniel
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Chris Mauritz -
Daniel de Kok -
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John R Pierce -
Ray Van Dolson -
Scott Silva -
William L. Maltby