Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Joshua Schmidlkofer <joshland@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] BIG reiserfs problem
Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:03:01
Message-Id: dd0cef60610290755j66b64f2bhca1b768dac0c5e90@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] BIG reiserfs problem by Norberto Bensa
1 Dude - I use xfs w/o a UPS for desktops and laptops. I use it on
2 servers with RAID and with UPS protection. I also keep good backups
3 for the servers. I have been using XFS since _just_ _after_ it came
4 to Linux. I have used XFS on several hundred systems (which I have
5 been responsible for). I have, to date, lost two filesystems.
6
7 a. 2000 - I lost a filesystem when I was running a CVS kernel.
8 *hhahaha* yeah, it was ugly, during the 2.4 kernel of pain days.
9
10 b. 2006 - hardware slowly corrupted an FS. Some files wouldn't read,
11 and we had wierd problems, (but good backups). After firmware updates
12 problems got stranger, and xfs_repair finished the job. I blame the
13 hardware.
14
15 I have read the list, and seen the problems. I don' t know what I do
16 that makes XFS succeed, but It really does work well. The first
17 filesystem I ever tried with JFS failed. I had weird errors, and
18 strange messages. I tried the repair tools, but they crashed. Then,
19 I posted to the LKML. No one replied, or was interested. I left JFS,
20 and returned to XFS.
21
22 I have run into a few strange bugs with XFS, but in every case I found
23 the mailing list and IRC very responsive and I was able to return the
24 servers to operation. Twice those have been caused by either 2.4 or
25 XFS. Once or twice it was several compound power outages.
26
27 What really kills XFS is _NOT_ power outages - it is out-of-order
28 commits. When the drives re-order the commits, it really can f-up the
29 drive. The data portion of the disk is updated and the journal isn't.
30 Then, if you have a crash, you are in some pretty sh*t. That's why
31 write barriers are so important.
32
33 Use what you want, but don't misunderstand XFS - as many people here
34 clearly do. It's a good FS, but it is sensitive to hardware problems.
35 By problems I mean: dying disks (which will kill anyone), faulty
36 commit order for data vs. journal (which probably affects all of the
37 journaling FSs as well), silent corruption, faulty RAM, and last but
38 not least DMA problems.
39
40 If you have a drive that commits out of order, and you are prone to
41 power problems: USE EXT2 - it is , bar none, the SAFEST filesystem in
42 that case. I do use it on a couple systems with those exact
43 problems. (And a couple of low-memory systems, journalling sucks up
44 resources). I have not lost an ext2 fs yet in either of those cases.
45 Sure, the systems occasionally experience some meessed up files, but
46 never the whole FS, and replacing a library or binary is /not/ /that/
47 /tough/.
48
49 Good Luck,
50 Joshua
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