[Samba] suggestions for a "fast" fileserver - 1G / 10G

[Michael Arndt]

Hello *,

just a confirmation for Emmanuels remark about XFS for Fileservers with a greater volume,
for those who need specs for a file system with a reasonable storage size ...

In case you do not reach the limits where a cluster file system is needed ( like GPFS or Lustre )
XFS imay be the  linux file system of choice

- fortunately it is supported by Redhat again, like Emmanuel mailed before, and it is very well flight tested for  big storages in commercial environments
 ( disclaimer:  naturally for those storages that are not completely based on commercial vendors  own fileystems  like WAFL or OneFS 

- xfs is journaled which guarantees within limits data transfer integrity.
   ( against data loss for big storages you need to protect on raid level or with a backup )

-Even with journaling on and on the same device like the file system i can confirm
  that a "typical" speedup on a "big storage" with XFS is 30% compared to other  classic linux filesystems

-exceptions to this "rule of thunb"

- There are linux filesystems that are more tuned to "many small files" using btrees+ (balanced bayer trees 

-specialized file systems for a given purpose, like database pattern optimized file systems from a big database venodr ;-)
  or filesystems tuned for USB sticks. The infos given relate to "file server" usage


Micha