Linux: Choosing a File System - Paiet/Tech-Journal-for-Everything GitHub Wiki
- Considerations
- Conversions are not supported by Red Hat
- Recommended method:
- Choose right in the first place
- Create a new volume with the appropriate file system and move all of your data over to it
- BTRFS is the future so plan for migrations
- EXT[2,3,4]
- Extended File System
- EXT3 is the most common Linux file system
- Stable and well supported
- Uses bitmapping which can be inefficient
- EXT4 is an update to EXT3
- Increases file and volume sizes
- Uses extents instead of bitmapping
- Incorporates journaling
- XFS
- Extents File System
- Successor to EXT
- Default file system as of RHEL7
- Increases supported file system sizes
- Incorporates journaling
- File system can grow, but cannot shrink
- BTRFS
- B-Tree File System
- Currently in preview
- Massive file system sizes
- Incorporates journaling and a number of other features
- Integrated LVM
- Not supported in production
Red Hat Certified Maximums
| File System | Maximum File Size | Maximum Volume Size | |-------------|-------------------|---------------------| | EXT3 | 2TB | 16TB | | EXT4 | 16TB | 50TB (1EB) | | XFS | 500TB (8EB) | 500TB (16EB) | | BTRFS | (8EB) | (16EB) |