Hi,

> Hi Bob!
> 
> On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:55:41 -0700
>  Bob Barton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > I am setting up a 2 TB file system to use for AFS volumes
> > on an AFS file server and I am wondering which file
> > system I should use - XFS or ext3. I plan to use
> > Scientific Linux 5.1 or 5.2 x86_64 as the operating
> > system on the file server machine.
> > Suggestions, comments and recommendations are very
> > welcome.
> Assuming that you use LVM anyway, I would recommend xfs.
> It is said to be slightly faster than ext3 (I have not

ext3 can be just as fast by disabling it's "more redundant" features (atime,
etc). XFS isn't as redundant as ext3 so is typically not recommended to be
used to store data of "very high importance".

> tested this by myself), it can take more directories,
> which in the case of AFS is not important and - the main
> point - you can modify the size of the filesystem
> with # xfs_growfs while xfs is mounted! 

You can do exactly the same thing with ext3 using resize2fs, from the man page:

       The  resize2fs  program  will  resize  ext2 or ext3 file systems.  It
can be used to enlarge or shrink an
       unmounted file system located on device.  If the filesystem is mounted,
it can be used to expand the size
       of the mounted filesystem, assuming the kernel supports on-line
resizing.  (As of this writing, the Linux
       2.6 kernel supports on-line resize for filesystems mounted using ext3
only.).

I've used it many times before and it works fine.

Regards,

Michael.

> E.g. if you want to add disks to your RAID ...
> I have very good experience extending LVM and xfs
> whithout stopping the service. 
> Please keep in mind that you cannot extend an xfs
> while it is 100.00% full. At least some blocks
> must be free :-)
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Anton J. Gamel
> 
> HPC und GRID-Computing
> Physikalisches Institut
> Abteilung Professor Herten
> 
> c/o Rechenzentrum der Universität Freiburg
> Arbeitsgruppe Dr. Winterer
> Hermann-Herder-Straße 10
> 79104 Freiburg
> 
> Tel.: ++49 (0)761 203 -4672
> 
> --
> Es bleibt immer ein Rest - und ein Rest vom Rest.
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