During FC1 to FC4 upgrade, Do I need to upgrade Ext3 file systems?

[Robinson Tiemuqinke]

Hi,

I'm doing FC1 to FC4 upgrade these days and I find
that the ext3 file system features of FC1 and FC4 are
different.

For FC4, there are three more ext3 file system
features are on: they are ext_attr, resieze_inode, and
dir_index.

FC4:

Filesystem features:      has_journal ext_attr
resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery
sparse_super large_file

FC1:
Filesystem features:      has_journal filetype
needs_recovery sparse_super large_file

So How do I add these 3 ext3 features to untouched
data partitions like /home after my server is upgraded
to FC4? Do I have to do it manually? or the upgrade
will do it for me automatically? I'm afraid of losing
precious data but still like to have cool new
features.

Any suggestions are greatly welcomed.

Thanks.

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[James Wilkinson]

Robinson Tiemuqinke wrote:
> I'm doing FC1 to FC4 upgrade these days and I find
> that the ext3 file system features of FC1 and FC4 are
> different.
>
> For FC4, there are three more ext3 file system
> features are on: they are ext_attr, resieze_inode, and
> dir_index.
>
> FC4:
>
> Filesystem features:      has_journal ext_attr
> resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery
> sparse_super large_file
>
> FC1:
> Filesystem features:      has_journal filetype
> needs_recovery sparse_super large_file
>
> So How do I add these 3 ext3 features to untouched
> data partitions like /home after my server is upgraded
> to FC4? Do I have to do it manually? or the upgrade
> will do it for me automatically? I'm afraid of losing
> precious data but still like to have cool new
> features.
>
> Any suggestions are greatly welcomed.

First suggestion: if your data is precious, do a backup. Make sure it's
good *before* you do the update.

To be honest, I'd do the upgrade then worry about the features. I'm
pretty sure the FC upgrade does them automatically, but it's been a
while since I checked.

Dir_index is indexed directory support: several years back, Dave Jones
wrote:

EXT3.
    ~~~~~
    - The ext3 filesystem has gained indexed directory support, which
      offers considerable performance gains when used on filesystems
      with directories containing large numbers of files.
    - In order to use the htree feature, you need at least version
      1.32 of e2fsprogs.
    - Existing filesystems can be converted using the command

tune2fs -O dir_index /dev/hdXXX

See http://lwn.net/Articles/28765/ .

Resize_inode is only of use if the filesystem is in a logical volume
manager which allows a filesystem to be resized. One upgraded from FC1
won't be. But, as before, you can run
        tune2fs -O resize_inode /dev/hdXXX
to add it.

Ext_attr, extended attributes, are necessary for SELinux support and
access control lists. I wouldn't recommend turning SELinux off
permanently, but if the worst comes to the worst, you can turn it off
temporarily at the grub prompt, boot, add ext_attr, touch /.autorelabel,
and reboot. The system will relabel everything on reboot.

You can check the attributes on an ext3 filesystem with
tune2fs -l /dev/hdXX
But you probably knew that anyway.

Hope this helps,

James.

[Robinson Tiemuqinke]

James,

Thanks a lot for you suggestion!

In fact, I turned off the SElinux because of lots of
warning/error messages were added in my
/var/log/messages when I turned it on. SElinux may be
still in its early stage and I don't have too much
time to debug stuff.

As far as Access control list (ACLs) is concerned, I
don't have it currently, But I know that ACLs on
Solaris are pretty cool, so definitely I will play
with ACLs on Linux shortly.

Thanks.

--- James Wilkinson 
wrote:
> Robinson Tiemuqinke wrote:
> > I'm doing FC1 to FC4 upgrade these days and I
>
> find
> > that the ext3 file system features of FC1 and FC4
>
> are
> > different.
> >
> > For FC4, there are three more ext3 file system
> > features are on: they are ext_attr, resieze_inode,
>
> and
> > dir_index.
> >
> > FC4:
> >
> > Filesystem features:      has_journal ext_attr
> > resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery
> > sparse_super large_file
> >
> > FC1:
> > Filesystem features:      has_journal filetype
> > needs_recovery sparse_super large_file
> >
> > So How do I add these 3 ext3 features to untouched
> > data partitions like /home after my server is
>
> upgraded
> > to FC4? Do I have to do it manually? or the
>
> upgrade
> > will do it for me automatically? I'm afraid of
>
> losing
> > precious data but still like to have cool new
> > features.
> >
> > Any suggestions are greatly welcomed.
>
> First suggestion: if your data is precious, do a
> backup. Make sure it's
> good *before* you do the update.
>
> To be honest, I'd do the upgrade then worry about
> the features. I'm
> pretty sure the FC upgrade does them automatically,
> but it's been a
> while since I checked.
>
> Dir_index is indexed directory support: several
> years back, Dave Jones
> wrote:
> EXT3.
> ~~~~~
> - The ext3 filesystem has gained indexed
>
> directory support, which
>       offers considerable performance gains when
> used on filesystems
>       with directories containing large numbers of
> files.
>     - In order to use the htree feature, you need at
> least version
>       1.32 of e2fsprogs.
>     - Existing filesystems can be converted using
> the command
>     tune2fs -O dir_index /dev/hdXXX
>
> See http://lwn.net/Articles/28765/ .
>
> Resize_inode is only of use if the filesystem is in
> a logical volume
> manager which allows a filesystem to be resized. One
> upgraded from FC1
> won't be. But, as before, you can run
>         tune2fs -O resize_inode /dev/hdXXX
> to add it.
>
> Ext_attr, extended attributes, are necessary for
> SELinux support and
> access control lists. I wouldn't recommend turning
> SELinux off
> permanently, but if the worst comes to the worst,
> you can turn it off
> temporarily at the grub prompt, boot, add ext_attr,
> touch /.autorelabel,
> and reboot. The system will relabel everything on
> reboot.
>
> You can check the attributes on an ext3 filesystem
> with
> tune2fs -l /dev/hdXX
> But you probably knew that anyway.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> James.
>
> -- 
> E-mail address: james | "But alas, we don't need a
> car, so I have a bus
> @westexe.demon.co.uk  | timetable and one day the
> buses will read it too."
>                       |     -- Telsa Gwynne
>
> -- 
> fedora-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
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> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list

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