Advanced filesystem implementor's guide

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(Last updated: Feb. 14, 2002)

With the 2.4 release of Linux come a host of new filesystem possibilities, including ReiserFS, XFS, GFS, and others. Sure, these filesystems sound cool, but what exactly can they do, what are they good at and exactly how do you go about safely using them in a Linux production environment?

In the advanced filesystem implementor's guide at IBM's developerWorks, Daniel Robbins answers these questions by showing you how to set up these new advanced filesystems under Linux 2.4. Along the way, he shares valuable practical implementation advice, performance information and important technical notes so that your new filesystem experience is as pleasant as possible.

The following articles in this series have now been published . . .

Part 1: Journaling and ReiserFS -- This introduction to the series explains the benefits of journaling and ReiserFS filesystems
Part 2: Using ReiserFS and Linux 2.4 -- In this article, Daniel walks you through the process of how to get ReiserFS running under a 2.4 series kernel.
Part 3: Using the virtual memory (VM) filesystem and bind mounts -- In this installment, Daniel takes a look at tmpfs, a VM-based filesystem, and introduces you to the new possibilities available with 2.4's "bind"-mounting abilities.
Part 4: Introduction to devfs -- In this installment, Daniel explains the significance and benefits of devfs, the device management filesystem, getting you ready for the next article where he'll show you how to optimally set up devfs on your system.
Part 5: Setting up devfs -- In this installment, Daniel guides you through the process of preparing your system for devfs. By the end of this article, you'll be ready to enable devfs on your system; Daniel will cover final devfs setup in detail in the next article.
Part 6: Implementing devfs (using the init wrapper) -- In this installment, Daniel shows you how to use an init wrapper to (finally!) convert your system to "devfs mode".
Part 7: Introducing ext3 -- In this installment, Daniel takes a look at ext3, a new improved version of ext2 with journaling capabilities.
Part 8: Surprises in ext3 -- In this installment, Daniel continues his look at ext3, a new improved version of ext2 with journaling capabilities. He reveals all the inside information on ext3, and demonstrates some shockingly good ext3 data=journal interactive performance numbers.
Part 9: Introducing XFS -- In this installment, Daniel introduces XFS, SGI's free enterprise-class filesystem now available for Linux.
Part 10: Deploying XFS -- In this installment, Daniel shows you how to get XFS up and running on your system and explores some of XFS's more advanced features.
Part 11: Update on XFS, ReiserFS, and ext3 -- this article shows you how to use the latest filesystem technologies in Linux 2.4 and gives an update on the status of the XFS, ReiserFS, and ext3 filesystems. The author shares implementation advice, performance information, important technical notes, as well as an outline of how these various filesystems will continue to improve over the next year.
Part 12: Introduction to the Enterprise Volume Management System (EVMS) -- this article introduces the Enterprise Volume Management System (EVMS) filesystem for Linux. The author explains what EVMS is, why it is so desperately needed, and why it will very likely transform the way storage is managed on Linux systems.
Part 13: More on EVMS -- Daniel picks up where he left off in his introduction to EVMS in part 12, and guides you through the process of using evmsn, EVMS' ncurses-based administration tool. This article will show you how to use EVMS to take a new hard drive, partition it, and create LVM volumes on it. Along the way, it will also fill you in on important EVMS concepts that you'll find essential as you continue your exploration of this powerful technology.
Related tutorial: JFS fundamentals -- This free tutorial shows how to install and use JFS under Linux. JFS is an enterprise journaling filesystem (JFS) technology currently used by IBM enterprise servers and now being ported to Linux. After a quick (2 minutes, tops) registration, you can begin the tutorial. The tutorial should take you less than an hour to complete. You can take it online, or download a PDF or zip file of the tutorial.

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