1.0 Overview of Linux POSIX File Systems

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 Service Pack 4 (SP4) provides several native Linux POSIX file systems. Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES) 11 Support Pack 3 (SP3) allows you to use the Novell Storage Services (NSS) Management Utility (NSSMU) and the Novell Linux Volume Manager (NLVM) commands to create native Linux POSIX volumes and Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) volume groups and logical volumes on your OES servers.

The NSSMU and NLVM tools also allow you to create cluster-enabled LVM volume groups and logical volumes on your Novell Cluster Services clusters. You can use the Clusters plug-in for Novell iManager and cluster commands to manage the resources. See Section 8.0, Clustering LVM Volume Groups with Novell Cluster Services. For information about Novell Cluster Services, see the OES 11 SP3: Novell Cluster Services for Linux Administration Guide.

The Linux features of these NSS tools support the Btrfs, Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, and XFS file systems. Each file system has its own advantages and disadvantages. This section describes key features of the supported native Linux POSIX file systems, including access control, availability, scalability, and speed. You can use this information to help determine which of these file systems best fits your storage needs. For a side-by-side comparison of the technical features of native Linux file systems, see File System Support on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Technical Information website.

For information about managing the NSS file system on your OES servers, see the OES 11 SP3: NSS File System Administration Guide for Linux.