>>> On 8/25/2010 at 08:26 AM, Christian Paro <[email protected]> wrote: 
> As for ext2 vs ext3 for the read-only file system, there is a question of
> whether it's a disk which is to be written to once and then linked to and
> mounted read-only by everyone (in which case ext2 makes the most sense, with
> ext3 adding nothing but unnecessary overhead), or a disk which is regularly
> written to by one system - which you for some reason want be able to link to
> and mount read-only from another (in which case the ext3 journal does still
> serve a purpose while the disk is being accessed in write mode by that first
> system).

This would be a very dangerous practice, and one I always tell people to never 
use.  If a file system is going to be shared between Linux systems, it needs to 
be mounted read-only by all systems, including the "owner" of it.  (Unless 
we're talking about clustering file systems, which we're not.)  Given the way 
Linux delays write I/O you're likely to never have a consistent view of the 
file system from anywhere other than the owner.  Throw in z/VM minidisk caching 
and the problem can get much worse very quickly.

To me, the bottom lines is that if you want to share non-clustering file 
systems, no one can have it mounted read-write.  If that functionality is 
necessary, then you need to go with a cluster file system and all the 
additional infrastructure that entails.  With SLES11 that was made pretty easy 
to do, and SLES11 SP1 improves on that.  The SLE High Availability Extension is 
a no additional cost option for anyone with a valid SLES subscription.  Use it, 
and keep your data intact.


Mark Post

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