Upgrading from 6.6 to 7.2/7.4 - xfs or ext4
I'm currently running a RHEL 6.6 on my production server. The OS is installed on an SSD drive using the ext4 file system.
In addition to the OS drive, I have mounted a RAID, also formatted with the ext4 file system.
I'm now going to do a clean install of RHEL 7.2 (or 7.4) and want to know if I should stick with ext4 on the OS drive or if I should switch to xfs. The new OS will be installed on a new SSD. Any suggestions?
If I switch from ext4 to xfs, will there be any issues in mounting the ext4 based RAID?
Thanks.
Responses
Guru
6222 points
Hello Tore,
There should not be any issues using xfs for the Operating System an ext4 for a "data" filesystem.
I would recommend to install RHEL 7.4, if your application are certified for RHEL 7.4.
Regards,
Jan Gerrit Kootstra
Guru
9710 points
Hi Tore,
I would stick with ext4, it is a very reliable file system. The ext4 filesystem can support volumes with sizes up to 1 exbibyte (EiB) and files with sizes up to 16 tebibytes. Unless you would need more (which I assume you don't), I see no reason to switch to XFS. The main reason for me not to use XFS is, that you can't shrink a XFS partition. But this is just my personal opinion of course, right as this topic naturally is opinion based. Just check out the pro's and con's of ext4 and XFS yourself and decide what fits best to your needs. By the way, I recommend to install the latest stable edition 7.4 of RHEL.
Regards,
Christian
Guru
9710 points
Yes Tore,
When you choose "Automatically configure partitioning", the system will be installed on a XFS file system, because it is the default file system used for RHEL. So select "I will configure partitioning" in the Anaconda installer, then choose "Standard Partition" and select "ext4" to install the system to ext4 partitions.
Regards,
Christian
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