16TB ext3 mainstream - when?

[Andreas Dilger]

On Oct 03, 2006  19:20 -0500, Damian Menscher wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Oct 2006, Andreas Dilger wrote:
> >On Oct 03, 2006  23:30 +0100, Chris Allen wrote:
> >>Are we likely to see patches to allow 16TB ext3 in the mainstream
> >>kernel any time soon?
> >
> >I think the patches are going into -mm (if not already), so start 
> >testing...
> >If not, they have been posted here several times, along with a URL for
> >download.
> 
> Will those patches work to grow an existing ext3 filesystem to >8TB, or 
> do they only work on new filesystems (created with those patches or 
> other special options)?

There are no special options or features needed to use > 8TB filesystems,
just bug fixes in the kernel.

> I ask because we need to create an <8TB filesystem now, but with the 
> option to grow it to >8TB in the future.

I have never tested that, and I don't know anyone else who has.  That
said, I'm not aware of any inherent limitations on growing the filesystem
up to 16TB.  I haven't looked at that code for a long time, and never
really with an eye toward scalability to 16TB.  It definitely will NOT
work to grow past 16TB at all.

Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
Principal Software Engineer
Cluster File Systems, Inc.