A Btrfs field test and workshop

In the Hot Seat

Conclusions

Btrfs already offers an amazing number of practical functions that can simplify operations significantly on computer systems. Both SUSE and Oracle regard this as sufficient reason to use Btrfs, even though development is not yet complete.

Here, I've shown that Btrfs still has rough edges that make trouble-free use of the filesystem a thing of the future. You should expect stable and simple basic functionality coupled with simple and straightforward administration tools of a filesystem to which you entrust your valuable data.

Although Btrfs is on the right path to becoming the default filesystem on Linux, it will take a number of kernel releases until it equals ext3's reputation in terms of stability and reliability. Administrators should keep an eye on Btrfs as the future enterprise filesystem, and its main characteristics can be meaningfully tested right now. However, if you plan to put Btrfs into production use today, you should have a complete backup plan at hand – but you should have that anyway, no matter what the filesystem!

Infos

Btrfs wiki: https://Btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page
Git repository for Btrfs programs: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/mason/btrfs-progs.git;a=summary
Update btrfs-tools in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Bug #968403: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/btrfs-tools/+bug/968403
btrfs-tools package in Debian Sid: http://packages.debian.org/sid/Btrfs-tools
SLES 11 SP2 release notes http://www.suse.com/releasenotes/x86_64/SUSE-SLES/11-SP2/
Snapper portal: http://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Snapper
Ubuntu mainline kernel archive: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline

The Author

Andreas Kurz is the CTO and Principal Consultant at hastexo. Highly available and scalable storage solutions are his passion. He spends his spare time looking after his two small sons.

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