Tips for managing Linux filesystems
SSHFS for Remote Filesystems
Mounting a filesystem locally via SSH is not rocket science with sshfs. You don't even need root privileges, after all sshfs is a FUSE:
$ sshfs tktest@192.168.56.105:/home/tktest ./sshdir/ tktest@192.168.56.105's password: $ cat /proc/mounts | grep ssh tktest@192.168.56.105:/home/tktest /home/user/tmp/sshdir \ fuse.sshfs rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000 0 0
In the preceding commands, an sshfs call is sufficient to mount the /home/tktest directory locally on the server 192.168.56.105. You can work with the target directory as with any other normal directory; the difference is that it is actually on the remote server.
As an alternative to the featured simple block devices, you can also created stackable block devices with Linux that offer additional features, such as the Logical Volume Manager (LVM), software RAID (md-raid), the Distributed Replicated Block Device (DRBD), or Device-Mapper targets.
Table 2
Filesystems Differences
| Ext3 | Ext4 | XFS | Btrfs |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production Ready? |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Partially |
| Filesystem Tools |
2fsprogs |
e2fsprogs |
xfsprogs |
btrfs-progs |
| mke2fs, resize2fs, e2fsck, tune2fs |
mkfs.xfs, xfs_growfs, xfs_repair, xfs_admin |
mkfs.btrfs, btrfs resize, btrfsck, btrfs filesystem |
||
| Maximum Filesystem Size |
16 TiB |
1 EiB |
16 EiB |
16 EiB |
| Maximum File Size |
2 TiB |
1 EiB |
8 EiB |
8 EiB |
| Expanding on the Fly? |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| Shrinking on the Fly? |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
| Expanding Offline? |
Y |
Y |
N |
N |
| Shrinking Offline? |
Y |
Y |
N |
N |
| Discard (ATA trim) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| Metadata CRC |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| Data CRC |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
| Snapshots/clones/internal RAID/compression |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
Infos
- Understanding EXT4 extents: http://digital-forensics.sans.org/blog/2010/12/20/digital-forensics-understanding-ext4-part-1-extents/
- Ext4 kernel documentation https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt
- Ext4 data loss: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/317781/comments/45/
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