8.5. FilesystemsLinux supports a wide range of traditional filesystem types and a number of different types of filesystems (volume managers, clustered filesystems, etc.). The traditional filesystem types (normal or journaled) can be selected from the main File systems configuration menu: File systems [*] Second extended fs support [*] Ext3 journalling file system support [ ] Reiserfs support [ ] JFS filesystem support [ ] XFS filesystem support This section will show a few of the nontraditional filesystem types that Linux supports and how to enable them. 8.5.1. RAIDRAID offers the option of combining numerous disks together so that they look like one logical disk. This can help in providing ways of providing redundancy or speed by spreading the data across different disk platters. Linux supports both hardware and software RAID. Hardware RAID is handled by the disk controller, without any help needed from the kernel.
8.5.2. Logical Volume Manager and Device MapperMuch like RAID, Logical Volume Manager (LVM) allows the user to combine different block devices to look like one logical device. However, it does not work on a device level like RAID, but through a block and sector mapping mechanism. It allows different portions of different disks to be combined together to look like one large block device to the user. To do this, the kernel uses something called Device Mapper (DM).
8.5.3. File Sharing with WindowsSamba is a program that allows Linux users to access Windows machines natively across the network, providing a way to share drives and devices in a transparent manner. It also allows Linux to work as a Windows server, allowing Windows clients to connect to it thinking that it is a real Windows machine. Two different filesystems that allow a Linux machine to connect with a Windows machine: the SMB filesystem and the CIFS filesystem. For the ability to connect to older Windows for Workgroups or Windows 95 or 98 machines, select the SMB filesystem: File systems Network File Systems [*] SMB file system support (to mount Windows shares etc.) For the ability to connect to newer Windows machines, the CIFS filesystem is recommended instead: File systems Network File Systems [*] CIFS support For more details on the differences between these two filesystems, and when one should be used instead of the other, please see the SMB_FS and CIFS entries in Chapter 11. 8.5.4. OCFS2OCFS2 is a cluster filesystem from Oracle that works for large network installations and small local systems at the same time. This filesystem is recommended when using large databases, such as Oracle or DB2, because it can be moved over time to different backing disks across the network quite easily as more storage is needed. To enable the filesystem: File systems [*] OCFS2 file system support |