File Systems

Partition Table

Every drive needs a partition tables before it can create partitions and format file systems onto them. There are two types of partition tables:

Partition Type	BIOS Type	Drive Size Limit	Number of Partitions	Beginning of Drive Space
Master Boot Record (MBR)	Legacy BIOS	2* TB	4**	31*** KiB
GUID Partition Table (GPT)	UEFI	9.7 ZB	128	1 MiB [63]

• *A larger drive can be used with MBR but only 2 TB will be usable.

• **MBR can have an extended partition to store additional partition table information. That allows up to 26 partitions.

• ***It is recommended to have 1 MiB for MBR but most older partitioning tools defaulted to 31 KiB. [64]

[61][62]

In Linux, you may also see MBR commonly referred to as BIOS, DOS, or MSDOS.

View the current partition table for a drive using parted. It will display “msdos” for MBR, “gpt” for GPT, or “unknown” if there is no partition table.

$ sudo parted /dev/<DEVICE> print | grep "Partition Table:"

Partition Table: msdos

Partition Table: gpt

Partition Table: unknown

Create a partition table as “msdos” or “gpt”. This will wipe any existing partition table making existing data difficult to recovery:

$ sudo parted /dev/<DEVICE> mklabel <PARTITION_TABLE_TYPE>

Types

Many types of file systems exist for various operating systems. These are used to handle the underlying file and data structure when it is being read and written to. Every file system has a limit to the number of inodes (files and directories) it can handle. The inode limit can be calculated by using the equation: 2^<BIT_SIZE> - 1.

Name (mount type)	OS	Description	File Size Limit	Partition Size Limit	Bits
Fat16 (vfat)	DOS	No journaling.	2GiB	2GiB	16
Fat32 (vfat)	DOS	No journaling.	4GiB	8TiB	32
exFAT	Windows NT	No journaling.	128 PiB	128 PiB	32
NTFS (ntfs-3g)	Windows NT	Journaling, encryption, compression.	2TiB	256TiB	32
ext4 [2]	Linux	Journaling, less fragmentation, better performance.	16TiB	1EiB	32
XFS	Linux	Journaling, online resizing (but cannot shrink), and online defragmentation.	8EiB (theoretically up to 16EiB)	8EiB (theoretically up to 16EiB)	64
Btrfs [3]	Linux	Journaling, copy-on-write (CoW), compression, snapshots, and RAID.	8EiB (theoretically up to 16EiB)	8EiB (theoretically up to 16EiB)	64
tmpfs	Linux	RAM and swap
ramfs	Linux	RAM (no swap).
swap	Linux	A temporary storage file system to use when RAM is unavailable.

[1]

Btrfs

Btrfs stands for the “B-tree file system.” The file system is commonly referred to as “BtreeFS”, “ButterFS”, and “BetterFS”. In this model, data is organized efficiently for fast I/O operations. This helps to provide copy-on-write (CoW) for efficient file copies as well as other useful features. Btrfs supports subvolumes, CoW snapshots, online defragmentation, built-in RAID, compression, and the ability to upgrade an existing ext file systems to Btrfs. [4]

Common mount options:

• autodefrag = Automatically defragment the file system. This can negatively impact performance, especially if the partition has active virtual machine images on it.

• compress = File system compression can be used. Valid options are:

  • zlib = Higher compression

  • lzo = Faster file system performance

  • no = Disable compression (default)

• notreelog = Disable journaling. This may improve performance but can result in a loss of the file system if power is lost.

• subvol = Mount a subvolume contained inside a Btrfs file system.

• ssd = Enables various solid state drive optimizations. This does not turn on TRIM support.

• discard = Enables TRIM support. [5]

Snapper

Snapper provides automatic Btrfs snapshots. It is configured individually on a subvolume basis.

• Arch Linux

  $ sudo pacman -S snapper
  

• Fedora

  $ sudo dnf install snapper
  

Enable the cleanup and timeline snapshot services [65]:

$ sudo systemctl enable --now snapper-cleanup.timer snapper-timeline.timer

Package Manager Snapshots

Snapshots can be created automatically whenever the package manager is used to install or remove packages.

• Arch Linux [66]

  $ sudo pacman -S snap-pac
  

• Fedora [67]

  $ sudo dnf install python3-dnf-plugin-snapper
  

RAIDs

In the latest Linux kernels, all Btrfs software RAID types (0, 1, 5, 6, and 10) are supported. [6]

Limitations

Known limitations:

• The “df” (disk free) command does not report an accurate disk usage due to Btrfs’s fragmentation. Instead, btrfs filesystem df should be used to view disk space usage on mount points and “btrfs filesystem show” for partitions.

  • For freeing up space, run a block-level and then a file-level defragmentation. Then the disk space usage should be accurate to df’s output. [7]

    • $ sudo btrfs balance start /

    • $ sudo btrfs filesystem defrag -r /

• The btrfs-convert command used for converting an Ext3 or Ext4 filesystems to Btrfs was rewritten in btrfs-progs 4.6. Older versions of this may not work reliably. [17]

exFAT

exFAT is an enhanced version of the FAT32 file system created by Microsoft. It offers the best cross-platform compatibility between Linux, macOS, and Windows. It is commonly used on external storage devices. As of Linux kernel version 5.4, exFAT is now natively supported. As of Linux kernel version 5.7, a faster driver has been implemented.

Installation:

• Arch Linux [39]:

  • Linux kernel >= 5.4

    $ sudo pacman -S exfatprogs
    

  • Linux kernel < 5.4

    $ sudo pacman -S exfat-utils
    

• Debian [40]:

  • Linux kernel >= 5.4

    $ sudo apt-get install exfatprogs
    

  • Linux kernel < 5.4

    $ sudo exfat-fuse exfat-utils
    

• Fedora [40]:

  • Linux kernel >= 5.4

    $ sudo dnf install exfatprogs
    

  • Linux kernel < 5.4

    $ sudo dnf install exfat fuse-exfat
    

Windows will not automatically mount a exFAT partition unless (1) it uses the GPT partitioning layout and (2) it has the msftdata flag on. [42]

$ sudo parted /dev/<DEVICE> set <PARTITION_NUMBER> msftdata on

ext4

The Extended File System 4 (ext4) is the default file system for most Linux operating systems. It’s focus is on performance and reliability. It is also backwards compatible with the ext3 file system. [8]

Mount options:

• ro = Mount as read-only.

• data

  • journal = All data is saved in the journal before writing it to the storage device. This is the safest option.

  • ordered = All data is written to the storage device before updating the journal’s metadata.

  • writeback = Data can be written to the drive at the same time it updates the journal.

• barrier

  • 1 = On. The file system will ensure that data gets written to the drive in the correct order. This provides better integrity to the file system due to power failure.

  • 0 = Off. If a battery backup RAID unit is used, then the barrier is not needed as it should be able to finish the writes after a power failure. This could provide a performance increase.

• noacl = Disable the Linux extended access control lists.

• nouser_xattr = Disable extended file attributes.

• errors = Specify what happens when there is an error in the file system.

  • remount-ro = Automatically remount the partition into a read-only mode.

  • continue = Ignore the error.

  • panic = Shutdown the operating system if any errors are found.

• discard = Enables TRIM support. The file system will immediately free up the space from a deleted file for use with new files.

• nodiscard = Disables TRIM. [9]

NTFS

The New Technology File System (NT File System or NTFS) is the primary file system used by Windows. As of Linux kernel version 5.15, it is natively supported by the new ntfs3 Linux kernel driver instead of the FUSE ntfs-3g driver. [41] The new driver is faster and also allows NTFS file systems to be writeable on Linux. [43] The original ntfs-3g CLI tool (not the driver) is still used with the new ntfs3 driver.

Installation:

• Arch Linux:

  $ sudo pacman -S ntfs-3g
  

• Debian:

  $ sudo apt-get update
  $ sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
  

• Fedora:

  $ sudo dnf install ntfs-3g
  

OpenZFS

OpenZFS is a unified project aimed at providing support for the ZFS file system on FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows operating systems. [21] It is not included in most Linux distributions due to licensing issues with the kernel. Debian and Ubuntu are the only Linux distribution that provide the Linux kernel module for ZFS in their official repositories. [22][23]

Installation (Source)

Debian:

• Install the build dependencies [38]:

  $ sudo apt install alien autoconf automake build-essential dkms fakeroot gawk libaio-dev libattr1-dev libblkid-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libelf-dev libffi-dev libssl-dev libtool libudev-dev libzstd-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r) python3 python3-dev python3-distutils python3-cffi python3-packaging python3-pyparsing python3-setuptools uuid-dev zlib1g-dev
  

• View and download an OpenZFS release from here.

  $ export OPENZFS_VER="2.0.4"
  $ wget https://github.com/openzfs/zfs/releases/download/zfs-${OPENZFS_VER}/zfs-${OPENZFS_VER}.tar.gz
  

• Build the DKMS packages so that the kernel module will be automatically rebuilt upon kernel updates.

  $ tar -z -x -v -f zfs-${OPENZFS_VER}.tar.gz
  $ cd ./zfs-${OPENZFS_VER}
  $ ./configure --enable-systemd
  $ make -j $(nproc) deb-utils deb-dkms
  

• Install the Debian package files. [24]

  $ sudo dpkg -i ./*.deb
  

• Load the ZFS kernel module and verify it works.

  $ echo -n "zfs" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules-load.d/zfs.conf
  $ sudo modprobe zfs
  $ lsmod | grep zfs
  

• Start and enable these services so that the ZFS pools and mounts will be persistent upon reboots. [28]

  $ sudo systemctl enable --now zfs-import-cache.service zfs-import-scan.service zfs-mount.service zfs-share.service zfs-zed.service zfs.target zfs-import.target
  

Usage

ZFS manages multiple devices as a single “pool” of devices. The pool can have several “datasets” (the equivalent to subvolumes in Btrfs) which can have their own settings, mount points, and separate snapshots.

Create a pool and then a dataset within the pool. Verify it was created.

$ sudo zpool create <POOL_NAME> <STORAGE_DEVICE_OR_FILE>
$ sudo zfs create <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>
$ sudo zfs list

Mount points:

• Pool = /<POOL_NAME>

• Dataset = /<POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>

If a dataset is accidently created over an existing directory it will be mounted on top. This means that the data is still there but is inaccessible. Either unmount the dataset and rename the existing directory or permanently change the mount point.

Unmount and then re-mount a dataset:

$ sudo zfs unmount <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>
$ sudo zfs mount <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>

Change the mountpoint:

$ sudo zfs set mountpoint=/mnt <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>

View all of the available properties that can be set for the pool and/or datasets.

$ man zfsprops

View the current value of a property and set a new one.

$ sudo zfs get <PROPERTY> <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>
$ sudo zfs set <PROPERTY>=<VALUE> <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>

Change the name of a ZFS pool. [44]

$ sudo zpool export <ZFS_POOL_NAME_ORIGINAL>
$ sudo zpool import <ZFS_POOL_NAME_ORIGINAL> <ZFS_POOL_NAME_NEW>
$ sudo zpool list

Adaptive Replacement Cache (ARC)

ARC is the name for the automatic file caching of frequently accessed files by ZFS. Level 1 ARC (L1ARC) stores the cache in RAM. Level 2 ARC (L2ARC) can be configured to use a faster storage device (such as a SSD) as an extra layer of cache for slower devices (such as a HDD). Files stored in L1ARC will be downgraded to L2ARC if they are not used. If L2ARC cache becomes unavailable when the same file is accessed again, it will be accessed directly from the storage device again and placed back into L1ARC.

Life cycle of a file in relation to ARC:

File is accessed from the disk --> Stored in L1ARC (RAM) --> Stored in L2ARC (SSD) --> Uncached

ARC usage:

• Add a L2ARC device to an existing ZFS pool. [25]

  $ sudo zpool add <ZFS_POOL> cache <STORAGE_DEVICE_OR_FILE>
  

• View a summary of the ARC cache statistics.

  $ sudo arc_summary
  

• View real-time statistics for ARC cache. [29]

  $ sudo arcstat
  

• Remove a L2ARC cache device. Verify that the cache device was listed before and removed afterwards. [49]

  $ sudo zpool status
  $ sudo zpool remove <ZFS_POOL> <STORAGE_DEVICE_OR_FILE>
  $ sudo zpool status
  

ZFS Intent Log (ZIL)

ZIL is a write buffer for a ZFS pool. By default, it uses existing drives in a pool. A Seconary Log (SLOG) can be configured to be a dedicated device for the ZIL. It is recommended to use a fast SSD with high IOPS, DRAM cache, and power loss protection (PLP) for the SLOG. It is similar in concept to the L2ARC except this is for write (not read) operations. It is possible, but not recommended, to put the L2ARC and SLOG cache on different partitions of the same drive. [54][60]

• Add a SLOG to a ZFS pool.

  $ sudo zpool add <ZFS_POOL> log <STORAGE_DEVICE_OR_FILE>
  

NFS and Samba Support

OpenZFS supports automatically configuring pools and datasets for both the NFS and Samba (CIFS) network file systems.

NFS [27]:

• Install the NFS service.

  $ sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server
  

• Configure a Samba CIFS share using ZFS.

  $ sudo zfs set sharenfs=on <POOL>/<DATASET>
  

• Test the NFS mount.

  $ sudo apt install nfs-common
  $ sudo mount -t nfs 127.0.0.1:/<POOL>/<DATASET> /mnt
  

Samba [25]:

• Install the Samba service.

  $ sudo apt install samba
  

• Configure a Samba CIFS share using ZFS.

  $ sudo zfs set sharesmb=on <POOL>/<DATASET>
  

• Configure a user for Samba and correct the permissions.

  $ sudo useradd <SAMBA_USER>
  $ sudo chown -r <SAMBA_USER>:<SAMBA_GROUP> <POOL>/<DATASET>
  $ sudo smbpasswd -a <SAMBA_USER>
  

• Test the CIFS mount.

  $ sudo apt install cifs-utils
  $ sudo mount -t cifs -o username=foo,password=foobar //127.0.0.1/<POOL>_<DATASET> /mnt
  

Properties and Options

ZFS settings are configured in one of two ways:

1. Properties can be set using sudo zfs set <PROPERTY>=<VALUE> <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>.

2. ZFS kernel module settings can be set by creating a modprobe configuration file, updating the initramfs, and rebooting. [54]

• Syntax:

  $ sudo -E ${EDITOR} /etc/modprobe.d/zfs.conf
  options zfs <KEY_1>=<VALUE_1> <KEY_2>=<VALUE_2>
  

  • Arch Linux:

    $ sudo mkinitcpio -P
    

  • Debian:

    $ sudo update-initramfs -u
    

  • Fedora:

    $ sudo dracut --regenerate-all
    

Properties [53]:

$ man zfsprops

Property	Default Value	Description
atime	on	Update the access time for every file that is opened.
casesensitivity	sensitive	If file and directory names should be case sensitive. Use insensitive if OpenZFS will be used for Samba, Wine, or Windows. [57]
compression	on (lzjb)	Compression method to use for each file.
xattr	on	How to store Linux extended attributes. on uses hidden files. sa uses file system inodes which are faster. [52]

Kernel Module Options:

$ sudo modinfo zfs

Option	Default Value	Description
l2arc_headroom	2	A multiplier of l2arc_write_max for how much new data should be written to the L2ARC cache. With default values, the L2ARC writes 675 GiB per day. [56] Use 0 to make the L2ARC cache persistent. [50]
l2arc_noprefetch	1	If ZFS should guess what files will be accessed next and automatically store them in L2ARC.
l2arc_write_max	8388508 (8 MiB)	The amount of data to write to the L2ARC cache. It is recommended to modify l2arc_headroom instead of changing l2arc_write_max as that affects the frequency of when data is written to the L2ARC cache. It can become either too slow or too fast. [51]
zfs_arc_max	(50% of available bytes of RAM)	The amount of RAM to use for ARC cache.

Performance Tuning

General

• Disable access times to lower the IOPS load by up to half. [52]

  $ sudo zfs set atime=off <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>
  

• Enable Zstandard compression. The default compression level of 3 provides a good balance of compression to performance ration and is better than Gzip and LZ4. [58][59] Even the lowest compression level will save space while using minimal CPU resources. Existing files cannot be compressed. [55] Use one of these two settings [53]:

  $ sudo zfs set compression=zstd-3 <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>
  

  $ sudo zfs set compression=zstd-fast-1 <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>
  

• Store extended attributes as part of the file system instead of hidden files. This increases the performance of SELinux. [52]

  $ sudo zfs set xattr=sa <POOL_NAME>/<DATASET_NAME>
  

Cache

• Set the ARC cache to be larger than the default of 50% of RAM on the system. These requires configuring the kernel module and then rebuilding the initramfs so the option takes affect when the file system is initialized. [54]

  • Example (100 GB):

    options zfs zfs_arc_max=107374182400
    

• Configure L2ARC cache to be persistent across reboots. Requires OpenZFS 2.0 or newer. [50]

  options zfs l2arc_headroom=0
  

• Prevent L2ARC from guessing what files should be cached. This wastes time and resources. [51]

  options zfs l2arc_noprefetch=1
  

Swap

Swap is a special file system that cannot be mounted. It is used by the operating system to temporarily read and write files to when the RAM is full. It prevents out-of-memory (oom) errors but it leads to a huge performance penalty because device storage is typically a lot slower than RAM. It is recommended to allocate more RAM instead of relying on swap wherever possible. According to this poll, most users prefer to allocate this amount of swap based on the available system RAM:

• <RAM> = <SWAP>

• <= 2GB = x2 RAM

• 2-8GB = RAM

• > 8GB = 8GB

Tests on the Steam Deck show that a total of 32 GB of tmpfs (RAM and swap) provide the best gaming performance for APUs. Anything beyond that provides no performance benefits. This assumes that the iGPU from the APU will use 8 GB as VRAM. That means that systems with dGPUs can use 24 GB of tmpfs instead. For the best results, add swap to a fast drive such as a NVMe drive.

RAIDs

RAID officially stands for “Redundant Array of Independent Disks.” The idea of a RAID is to get either increased performance and/or an automatic backup from using multiple disks together. It utilizes these drives to create 1 logical drive.

RAID Level	Minimum Drivers	Speed	Redundancy	Increased Storage	Description
0	2	Yes	No	Yes	I/O operations are equally spread to each disk.
1	2	No	Yes	No	If one drive fails, a second drive will have an exact copy of all of the data. Slower write speeds.
5	3	Yes	Yes	Yes	This can recover from a failed drive without any affect on performance. Drive recovery takes a long time and will not work if more than on drive fails.
6	4	Yes	Yes	Yes	This is an enhanced RAID 5 that can survive up to 2 drive failures.
10	4	Yes	Yes	Yes	This uses both RAID 1 and 0 together. Requires more physical drives. Rebuilding or restoring a RAID 10 will require downtime.

[10]

mdadm

Most software RAIDs in Linux are handled by the “mdadm” utility and the “md_mod” kernel module. Creating a new RAID requires specifying the RAID level and the partitions you will use to create it.

Syntax:

$ sudo mdadm --create --level=<LEVEL> --raid-devices=<NUMBER_OF_DISKS> /dev/md<DEVICE_NUMBER_TO_CREATE> /dev/sd<PARTITION1> /dev/sd<PARTITION2>

Example:

$ sudo mdadm --create --level=10 --raid-devices=4 /dev/md0 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1

Then to automatically create the partition layout file run this:

$ sudo echo 'DEVICE partitions' > /etc/mdadm.conf
$ sudo mdadm --detail --scan >> /etc/mdadm.conf

Finally, you can initialize the RAID.

$ sudo mdadm --assemble --scan

[11]

Network

NFS

Linux Client and Server

The Network File System (NFS) aims to universally provide a way to remotely mount directories between servers. All subdirectories from a shared directory will also be available.

NFSv4 port:

• 2049 TCP

NFSv3 ports:

• 111 TCP/UDP

• 2049 TCP/UDP

• 4045 TCP/UDP

Client

Install:

• Arch Linux

  $ sudo dnf install nfs-utils
  

• Debian

  $ sudo apt-get install nfs-common
  

• Fedora

  $ sudo dnf install nfs-utils
  

Server

Install:

• Arch Linux

  $ sudo dnf install nfs-utils
  

• Debian

  $ sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server
  

• Fedora

  $ sudo dnf install nfs-utils
  

On the server, the /etc/exports file is used to manage NFS exports. Here a directory can be specified to be shared via NFS to a specific IP address or CIDR range. After adjusting the exports, the NFS daemon will need to be restarted.

Syntax:

<DIRECTORY> <ALLOWED_HOST>(<OPTIONS>)

Example:

/path/to/dir 192.168.0.0/24(rw,no_root_squash)

NFS export options:

• rw = The directory will be writable.

• ro (default) = The directory will be read-only.

• no_root_squash = Allow remote root users to access the directory and create files owned by root.

• root_squash (default) = Do not allow remote root users to create files as root. Instead, they will be created as an anonymous user (typically “nobody”).

• all_squash = All files are created as the anonymous user.

• sync = Writes are instantly written to the disk. When one process is writing, the other processes wait for it to finish.

• async (default) = Multiple writes are optimized to run in parallel. These writes may be cached in memory.

• insecure = Allow NFS server connections from non-standard client ports.

• sec = Specify a type of Kerberos authentication to use.

  • krb5 = Use Kerberos for authentication only.

[12]

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, the exported directory will need to have the “nfs_t” file context for SELinux to work properly.

$ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t nfs_t "/path/to/dir{/.*)?"
$ sudo restorecon -R "/path/to/dir"

macOS Client

macOS defaults to using NFS version 3 but also supports version 4. [46]

• Configure the macOS client to use NFS version 4 by default instead of 3.

  $ sudo nano /etc/nfs.conf
  nfs.client.mount.options = vers=4
  

• Configure the Linux NFS server to use the “insecure” export option. [47] macOS uses non-standard client ports. [48]

Windows Client

Windows NFS clients require a very specific NFS server configuration.

• Find out which user and group is being used as the default anonymous accounts on the system. Newer systems use nobody/nogroup and older systems use nfsnobody. The default UID/GID for these accounts is normally 65534.

  $ less /etc/idmapd.conf
  [Mapping]
  
  Nobody-User = nobody
  Nobody-Group = nogroup
  

  • Create the accounts manually if they do not exist. [36]

    $ sudo groupadd -g 65534 nfsnobody
    $ sudo useradd -u 65534 -g 65534 -d /nonexistent -s /sbin/nologin nfsnobody
    $ sudo vim /etc/idmapd.conf
    [Mapping]
    
    Nobody-User = nfsnobody
    Nobody-Group = nfsnobody
    

    • Debian:

      $ sudo systemctl restart nfs-idmapd
      

    • Fedora:

      $ sudo systemctl restart rpcidmapd
      

• Find the exact UID and GID used by the anonymous NFS account.

  $ grep nobody /etc/passwd
  nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
  $ grep nogroup /etc/group
  nogroup:x:65534:
  

• Create an export using that anonymous NFS user. This will make it so that only a root user can access the share. Windows also requires all files in the NFS export to be executable, readable, and writable.

  $ sudo vim /etc/exports
  /exports/foobar *(rw,sync,no_root_squash,all_squash,anonuid=65534,anongid=65534)
  $ sudo mkdir -p /exports/foobar/
  $ sudo chown -R nobody.nogroup /exports/foobar
  $ sudo chmod -R 0770 /exports/foobar
  $ sudo systemctl restart nfs-server
  

  • Alternatively, set the anonuid and anongid to a Linux account that can also access the share such as 1000. By default, most Linux distributions create the first system user with the UID and GID of 1000. This user and group needs to be created and exist on both the client and the server.

• For configuring a Windows NFS client that can be connected to a Linux NFS server, refer to here.

[37]

GlusterFS

Gluster syncs two or more network shares. It is recommended to use an odd number of nodes to maintain quorum and prevent split-brain issues. [19]

Install

CentOS:

$ sudo yum install centos-release-gluster
$ sudo yum install glusterfs-server

Debian:

$ sudo apt-get install glusterfs-server

Fedora:

$ sudo dnf install glusterfs-server

Start and enable the service.

$ sudo systemctl enable --now glusterd

Usage

From one of the nodes, peer the other nodes to add them to the known hosts running Gluster services.

$ sudo gluster peer probe <NODE2>
$ sudo gluster peer probe <NODE3>
$ sudo gluster peer status

There are three types of volumes that can be created:

• replica = Reliability. Save a copy of every file to each node.

• disperse = Reliability and performance. A combination of replica and stripe. Files are read from and written to different nodes.

• stripe = Performance. Spread each file onto different nodes to spread out the I/O load among all of the nodes.

$ gluster volume create <VOLUME_NAME> <VOLUME_TYPE> <NODE1>:/<PATH_TO_STORAGE> <NODE2>:/<PATH_TO_STORAGE> <NODE3>:/<PATH_TO_STORAGE> force
$ gluster volume start <VOLUME_NAME>
$ gluster volume status <VOLUME_NAME>

On a client, mount the glusterfs file system and verify that it works.

$ sudo mount -t glusterfs <NODE1>:/<VOLUME_NAME> /mnt
$ sudo touch /mnt/test

[20]

SMB

The Server Message Block (SMB) protocol was created to view and edit files remotely over a network. The Common Internet File System (CIFS) was created by Microsoft as an enhanced fork of SMB but was eventually replaced with newer versions of SMB. On Linux, the “Samba” service is typically used for setting up SMB share. [13]

SMB Ports:

• 137 UDP

• 138 UDP

• 139 TCP

• 445 TCP

Samba

CIFS and SMB are network file system protocols created by Microsoft. Samba is an open source server created for UNIX-like servers that implements these protocols.

Client

Installation:

• Arch Linux:

  $ sudo pacman -S cifs-utils
  

• Debian:

  $ sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
  

• Fedora:

  $ sudo dnf install cifs-utils
  

Server

Installation:

• Arch Linux:

  $ sudo pacman -S samba
  

• Debian [45]:

  $ sudo apt-get samba samba-client
  

• Fedora:

  $ sudo dnf install samba samba-client
  

The default configuration file is located at /etc/samba/smb.conf and is in an “ini” format. Samba share settings can be set at the [global] or in a [<SHARE_NAME>]. Global settings cannot be defined in a [<SHARE_NAME>]. [14] Boolean settings can have a value of false/no or true/yes.

[global]
<GLOBAL_CONFIG_KEY> = <GLOBAL_CONFIG_VALUE>
<SHARE_CONFIG_KEY> = <SHARE_CONFIG_VALUE>

[<SHARE_NAME>]
<SHARE_CONFIG_KEY> = <SHARE_CONFIG_VALUE>

Global:

• interfaces (string) = Specify the interfaces to listen on.

• unix extensions (boolean) = This only works for the NT1 protocol. Samba developers are working on adding support to the SMB3 protocol. [30] It enables UNIX file system capabilities such as symbolic and hard links. Default: yes.

• workgroup (string) = Define a workgroup name. Default: MYGROUP.

Share:

• acl allow execute always (boolean) = If all files should be executable by Windows (not UNIX) clients. Default: no.

• allocation roundup size (integer) = The number of bytes for rounding up. This used to be set to 1048576 bytes (which is 1 MiB). Using 0 will not round up and provide an accurate size. Default: 0.

• [client|server] [max|min] protocol (string) = The protocol restrictions that should be set. Common protocols: NT1, SMB2, and SMB3. All protocols: CORE, COREPLUS, LANMAN1, LANMAN2, NT1, SMB2_02, SMB2_10, SMB2_22, SMB2_24, SMB3_00, SMB3_02, SMB3_10, SMB3_11 (SMB3), or SMB2_FF.

  • client max protocol = Default: SMB3_11.

  • client min protocol = Default: SMB2_02.

  • server max protocol = Default: SMB3_11.

  • server min protocol = Default: SMB2_02.

• comment (string) = Place a comment about the share. Default: none.

• create mask, create mode (integer) = The maximum permissions a file can have when it is created. Default: 0744.

• directory mask (integer) = The maximum permissions a directory can have when it is created.: Default: 0755.

• force create mode (integer) = The minimum permissions a file can have when it is created. Default: 0000.

• force directory mode (integer) = The minimum permissions a directory can have when it is created. Default: 0000.

• hosts allow (string) = Specify hosts allowed to access any of the shares. Wildcard IP addresses can be used by omitting different octets. For example, “127.” would be a wildcard for anything in the 127.0.0.0/8 range. Default: all hosts are allowed.

• path (string) = The path to the directory to share. Default is what the root directory value is set to.

• read only (boolean) = This is the opposite of the writable option. Only one or the other option should be used. If set to no, the share will have write permissions. Default: yes.

• root directory (string) = The primary directory for Samba to share. Default: none.

• writeable, writable, and write ok (boolean) = This specifies if the folder share is writable. Default: no.

• write list (string) = Specify users that can write to the share, separated by spaces. Groups can also be specified using by appending a “+” to the front of the name. Default: none.

Deprecated and removed settings:

• Share:

  • directory security mask (integer) = Removed in Samba 4. The maximum Windows permissions for a directory.

  • force security mode (integer) = Removed in Samba 4. The minimum Windows permissions for a file.

  • force directory security mode (integer) = Removed in Samba 4. The minimum Windows permissions for a directory.

  • security mask (integer) = Removed in Samba 4. The maximum Windows permissions for a file.

[14][31]

Example configurations:

• Force specific permissions for all files and directories.

  [share]
  create mask = 0664
  force create mode = 0664
  directory mask = 0775
  force directory mode = 0775
  

• Force all files to be executable.

  [share]
  acl allow execute always = yes
  create mask = 0775
  force create mode = 0775
  

• Enable UNIX extensions for soft and hard links to work.

  [global]
  client min protocol = NT1
  server min protocol = NT1
  unix extensions = yes
  

Verify the Samba configuration.

$ sudo testparm
$ sudo smbclient //localhost/<SHARE_NAME> -U <SMB_USER1>%<SMB_USER1_PASS>

The Linux user for accessing the SMB share will need to be created and have their password added to the Samba configuration. These are stored in a binary file at “/var/lib/samba/passdb.tdb.” This can be updated by running:

$ sudo useradd <SMB_USER1>
$ sudo smbpasswd -a <SMB_USER1>

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, the exported directory will need to have the “samba_share_t” file context for SELinux to work properly. [15]

$ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t samba_share_t "/path/to/dir{/.*)?"
$ sudo restorecon -R "/path/to/dir"

iSCSI

The “Internet Small Computer Systems Interface” (also known as “Internet SCSI” or simply “iSCSI”) is used to allocate block storage to servers over a network. It relies on two components: the target (server) and the initiator (client). The target must first be configured to allow the client to attach the storage device.

Target

For setting up a target storage, these are the general steps to follow in order:

• Create a backstores device.

• Create an iSCSI target.

• Create a network portal to listen on.

• Create a LUN associated with the backstores.

• Create an ACL.

• Optionally configure ACL rules.

• First, start and enable the iSCSI service to start on bootup.

Syntax:

$ sudo systemctl enable target && systemctl start target

• Create a storage device. This is typically either a block device or a file.

Block syntax:

$ sudo targetcli
> cd /backstores/block/
> create iscsidisk1 dev=/dev/sd<DISK>

File syntax:

$ sudo targetcli
> cd /backstore/fileio/
> create iscsidisk1 /<PATH_TO_DISK>.img <SIZE_IN_MB>M

• A special iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) is required to create a Target Portal Group (TPG). The syntax is “iqn.YYYY-MM.tld.domain.subdomain:exportname.”

Syntax:

> cd /iscsi
> create iqn.YYYY-MM.<TLD.DOMAIN>:<ISCSINAME>

Example:

> cd /iscsi
> create iqn.2016-01.com.example.server:iscsidisk
> ls

• Create a portal for the iSCSI device to be accessible on.

Syntax:

> cd /iscsi/iqn.YYYY-MM.<TLD.DOMAIN>:<ISCSINAME>/tpg1
> portals/ create

Example:

> cd /iscsi/iqn.2016-01.com.example.server:iscsidisk/tpg1
> ls
o- tpg1
o- acls
o- luns
o- portals
> portals/ create
> ls
o- tpg1
o- acls
o- luns
o- portals
    o- 0.0.0.0:3260

• Create a LUN.

Syntax:

> luns/ create /backstores/block/<DEVICE>

Example:

> luns/ create /backstores/block/iscsidisk

• Create a blank ACL. By default, this will allow any user to access this iSCSI target.

Syntax:

> acls/ create iqn.YYYY-MM.<TLD.DOMAIN>:<ACL_NAME>

Example:

> acls/ create iqn.2016-01.com.example.server:client

• Optionally, add a username and password.

Syntax:

> cd acls/iqn.YYYY-MM.<TLD.DOMAIN>:<ACL_NAME>
> set auth userid=<USER>
> set auth password=<PASSWORD>

Example:

> cd acls/iqn.2016-01.com.example.server:client
> set auth userid=toor
> set auth password=pass

• Any ACL rules that were created can be overridden by turning off authentication entirely.

Syntax:

> set attribute authentication=0
> set attribute generate_node_acls=1
> set attribute demo_mode_write_protect=0

• Finally, make sure that both the TCP and UDP port 3260 are open in the firewall. [16]

Initiator

This should be configured on the client server.

• In the initiator configuration file, specify the IQN along with the ACL used to access it.

Syntax:

$ sudo vim /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi
InitiatorName=<IQN>:<ACL>

Example:

$ sudo vim /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi
InitiatorName=iqn.2016-01.com.example.server:client

• Start and enable the iSCSI initiator to load on bootup.

Syntax:

$ sudo systemctl start iscsi && systemctl enable iscsi

• Once started, the iSCSI device should be able to be attached.

Syntax:

$ sudo iscsiadm --mode node --targetname <IQN>:<TARGET> --portal <iSCSI_SERVER_IP> --login

Example:

$ sudo iscsiadm --mode node --targetname iqn.2016-01.com.example.server:iscsidisk --portal 10.0.0.1 --login

• Verify that a new “iscsi” device exists.

Syntax:

$ sudo lsblk --scsi

[16]

Encrypted Partitions

Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS)

Setup

Install LUKS:

• Arch Linux:

  $ sudo pacman -S cryptsetup
  

• Debian:

  $ sudo apt-get update
  $ sudo apt-get install cryptsetup
  

• Fedora:

  $ sudo dnf install cryptsetup-luks
  

Encrypt a partition non-interactively:

$ echo <PASSWORD> | sudo cryptsetup -q luksFormat /dev/<DEVICE><PARTITION_NUMBER>

Open the encrypted partition as a specified /dev/mapper/<DEVICE_MAPPER_NAME> device which can be formatted and mounted as normal.

$ echo <PASSWORD> | sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/<DEVICE><PARTITION_NUMBER> <DEVICE_MAPPER_NAME>

[33]

Passwords

LUKS encrypted partitions can be accessed either with a password from standard input or a key file.

Add an additional password to unlock the encrypted partition:

$ sudo cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/<DEVICE><PARTITION_NUMBER>

Change an existing password (add a new password and delete the old one):

$ sudo cryptsetup luksChangeKey /dev/<DEVICE><PARTITION_NUMBER>

Remove one of the existing passwords:

$ sudo cryptsetup luksRemoveKey /dev/<DEVICE><PARTITION_NUMBER>

[34]

LUKS can use a key file to decrypt a partition. This can contain any kind of data. It is recommended to use either data from /dev/urandom, /dev/random, or the command openssl.

$ dd bs=512 count=8 if=/dev/urandom of=<PATH_TO_NEW_KEY_FILE>

$ openssl genrsa -out <PATH_TO_NEW_KEY_FILE> 4096

Add an additional key file to unlock the encrypted partition:

$ sudo cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/<DEVICE><PARTITION_NUMBER> <PATH_TO_NEW_KEY_FILE>

Use a key file to open an encrypted partition:

$ sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/<DEVICE><PARTITION_NUMBER> <DEVICE_MAPPER_NAME> --key-file=<PATH_TO_KEY_FILE>

[35]

Mounting

Image Files

ISO:

• Mount an ISO (CD/DVD) image:

  $ sudo mount -t iso9660 -o loop <IMAGE>.iso /mnt
  

Raw image with partitions [32]:

• Expose the partitions in the raw image. The image file extension is normally bin, img, or raw. The partitions will be available at /dev/mapper/loop<LOOP_DEVICE_NUMBER>p<PARTITION_NUMBER>.

  $ sudo kpartx -a -v <IMAGE>.img
  

• Mount and unmount the first partition.

  $ sudo mount /dev/mapper/loop0p1 /mnt
  $ sudo umount /dev/mapper/loop0p1
  

• Remove the partition mappings by referencing the raw image file or the loop device. This essentially ejects the raw image.

  $ sudo kpartx -d -v <IMAGE>.img
  

  $ sudo kpartx -d -v /dev/loop<LOOP_DEVICE_NUMBER>
  

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

The FHS provides a standard layout for files and directories for UNIX-like operating systems and is adopted by most Linux distributions.

Minimal [18]:

• / = The top level root directory that the operating system is installed in.

• /bin/ = Binaries for common utilities for end-users.

• /boot/ = The boot loader, Linux kernel, and initial RAM disk image.

• /dev/ = Files for handling devices that support input and/or output.

• /etc/ = Configuration files for services.

• /home/ = All user home directories.

• /lib/ = Libraries for all of the binaries.

• /media/ = Mount points for physical media such as USB and disk drives.

• /mnt/ = Temporary mount point for other file systems.

• /opt/ = Optional third-party (usually proprietary) software.

• /proc/ = Information about the system reported by the Linux kernel.

• /root/ = The “root” user’s home directory.

• /sbin/ = System binaries required to start the operating system.

• /sys/ = Configurable kernel settings.

• /tmp/ = Temporary storage.

• /usr/ = Unix system resources. These programs are not used when booting a system.

• /var/ = Variable data. Databases, logs, and temporary files are normally stored here.

Full:

• /etc/

  • /etc/bash.bashrc = Bash specific shell functions.

  • /etc/crypttab = The LUKS encrypted partition table.

  • /etc/environment = Global shell variables.

  • /etc/fstab = The partition table of partitions to mount on boot.

  • /etc/issue = The message banner to display before login for local users.

  • /etc/issue.net = The message banner to displaybefore login for remote users. This also needs to be configured in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config for SSH users.

  • /etc/motd = The message of the day banner to display after a successful login.

  • /etc/passwd = Basic user account settings.

  • /etc/profile = Generic shell functions.

  • /etc/profile.d/ = A collection of custom user-defined shell functions.

  • /etc/rsyslog.conf = rsyslogd configuration for most handling OS system logs.

  • /etc/shadow = Encrypted user passwords.

  • /etc/shells = Lists all available CLI shells.

  • /etc/sysconfig/selinux = SELinux configuration.

  • /etc/systemd/system/ = Administrator defined custom systemd service files. These will override any files from the default /usr/lib/systemd/system/ location.

• /proc/

  • /proc/<PID>/ = A folder will exist for every running PID.

  • /proc/cmdline = Kernel boot arguments provided by the bootloader.

  • /proc/cpuinfo = Information about the processor.

  • /proc/sys/vm/

    • /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches = Handles removing cached memory. Set to “3” for dropping all caches.

• /sys/

  • /sys/class/backlight/<BACKLIGHT_DEVICE>/{brightness,actual_brightness,max_brightness} = View and set the brightness level of the physical monitor.

  • /sys/class/net = The full list of network devices.

  • /sys/class/power_supply/BAT1/capacity = Show the maximum charge of the battery.

  • /sys/class/power_supply/BAT1/status = Show the current battery charge left.

  • /sys/class/scsi_device/device/rescan = Force a rescan of all drives by setting to “1”.

  • /sys/class/scsi_host/host<PORT>/scan = Manually scan for a device on that port by setting to “- - -“.

  • /sys/block/<DEVICE>/device/delete = Manually deactivate a device by setting to “1”.

• /var/

  • /var/log/ = System logs.

    • /var/log/audit/audit.log = SELinux log file.

  • /var/run/utmp = Shows currently logged in users.

  • /var/spool/cron/ = User crontabs are stored here.

• ~/ or $HOME

  • ~/.bash_profile = Shell aliases and functions are sourced for interactive users only.

  • ~/.bashrc = Non-interactive and interactive shells will source aliases and functions from here.

  • ~/.local/share/applications/ = Desktop application shortcuts.

Troubleshooting

Errors

Error when looking up ZFS pools.

$ sudo zpool list
no pools available

Temporary solutions [26]:

1. Import the pool automatically. This will search for available ZFS devices with the defined pool name.

   $ sudo zpool import <POOL>
   

2. Or explicitly import a specific device and name.

$ sudo zpool import -d /dev/<DEVICE> <POOL>

Permanent solution [28]:

1. Start and enable these services so any zpools that are created and/or changed will be persistent upon reboots. Existing zpools will be loaded immediately.

$ sudo systemctl enable zfs-import-cache
$ sudo systemctl enable zfs-import.target

---

Mounting a CIFS share states that it is read-only.

$ sudo mount -t cifs //<SAMBA_SERVER_ADDRESS>/<SAMBA_SHARE> /mnt
mount: /mnt: cannot mount //<SAMBA_SERVER_ADDRESS>/<SAMBA_SHARE> read-only.

Solution:

• Install the package for CIFS client tools: cifs-utils.

---

Mounting a NFS export on macOS fails because rpc.statd is not running on the server.

$ sudo mount -t nfs 10.10.10.5:/export /Users/sjobs/NFSDocuments
mount_nfs: can't mount with remote locks when server (10.10.10.5) is not running rpc.statd: RPC prog. not avail
mount: /Users/sjobs/NFSDocuments failed with 74

Solutions [46]:

• The NFS server may be running NFS version 4 which does not require the rpc.statd service.

  • Force the use of NFS version 4.

    • Temporarily: $ sudo mount -t nfs -o ver=4

    • Permanently:

      $ sudo nano /etc/nfs.conf
      nfs.client.mount.options = vers=4
      

  • Alternatively, enable backwards compatibility on the NFS server.

    $ sudo systemctl enable --now rpc-statd
    

---

Mounting a NFS export on macOS with a generic error message saying Operation not permitted.

$ sudo mount -t nfs 10.10.10.5:/export /Users/sjobs/NFSDocuments
mount_nfs: can't mount /export from 10.10.10.5 onto /Users/sjobs/NFSDocuments: Operation not permitted
mount: /Users/sjobs/NFSDocuments failed with 1

Solutions:

• The mount command needs to be run with sudo.

• macOS uses non-standard NFS client ports. The NFS server needs to update the export to include the “insecure” option. [46]

  $ sudo nano /etc/exports
  $ sudo systemctl restart nfs-server
  

History

• Latest

• < 2020.07.01

• < 2019.01.01

• < 2018.01.01

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