Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on December 08, 2005 09:32 AM
One big filesystem is harder to manage than several smaller ones. This is why I use Logical Volume Management (LVM) to deal with large storage devices. Instead of a bunch of directories under<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/big-disk-here, I create different logical volumes for each project and for home directories. Smaller volumes are also easier to back up.
Plus, your choice of filesystem is important. Programs like "du", "find", and your backup software have to walk the entire directory tree and run fstat() on every file entry each time they run, so it's important that "walking" the tree is efficient.
Walking the directory tree is horribly slow, for instance, on Sun UFS filesystems. Filesystems like ReiserFS and XFS are purported to be better than EXT-2/3 in this respect, so programs like "du" should run faster on these filesystems.
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Architecture, Architecture, Architecture
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 08, 2005 09:32 AMPlus, your choice of filesystem is important. Programs like "du", "find", and your backup software have to walk the entire directory tree and run fstat() on every file entry each time they run, so it's important that "walking" the tree is efficient.
Walking the directory tree is horribly slow, for instance, on Sun UFS filesystems. Filesystems like ReiserFS and XFS are purported to be better than EXT-2/3 in this respect, so programs like "du" should run faster on these filesystems.
As usual, YMMV and Test Early And Often.
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