[Ocfs2-users] future of ocfs2

[Sunil Mushran]

One point I missed out earlier is that ocfs2 should not be viewed as
an Oracle only product. When the fs was pushed into the mainline kernel,
it was because we wanted it to become a community project. Like Linux
itself.

Until some time ago, we would credit non-oracle people who contributed
patches to it. No more. It is getting very complicated. For example,
let's review the parentage of two new features we've added recently.

1. Extended attributes: Added in 2.6.28. The spec was first written by
Suse, later enhanced by Oracle. Coded by Oracle. Patches reviewed by Suse
and Oracle. Tested by Oracle. Being currently tested in Suse as it is part
of their next release.

2. Quotas: Added in 2.6.29. Spec-ed and developed by Suse (by the kernel's
quota subsystem maintainer). Reviewed by Oracle and Suse. Tested by Oracle.

And it is not just Suse. Even as I write, I am debugging an issue pointed
to by Red Hat's Linux Cluster group. It has to do with ocfs2 working with
the new cman.

OCFS2, in more ways than one, is very much a product of this decade.

Sunil


Joel Becker wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 05, 2009 at 06:28:51PM -0600, Jeremy Schneider wrote:
>   
>> We're internally debating whether or not we should include OCFS2 in this 
>> design right now, and I'm curious if anyone has arguments one way or the 
>> other to share. Our standard design on Solaris does utilize a cluster 
>> filesystem and we would welcome a similar design, but there are some 
>> concerns about the readiness, stability and future of OCFS2.
>>     
>
> 	Short answer: It's been ready for years, it's been stable for
> years, and it has a bright future.
>
>   
>> OCFS2 is being considered for these four use cases:
>> - database binaries (vs local files or NFS)
>> - diag top (11g) or admin tree (10g) (vs local files or NFS)
>> - archived logs
>> - backups
>>     
>
> 	These are the most standard and basic of ocfs2 uses outside of
> data files.  Almost all customers running ocfs2 are using it for most or
> all of these files.
>
>   
>> I have seen mention in blogs such as 
>> http://bigdaveroberts.wordpress.com/ of something called ASMFS in 11gR2 
>> and I'm wondering - will this feature (if included) have any impact on 
>> Oracle's commitment to OCFS2 development? Could Oracle conceivably 
>> develop a whole new cluster filesystem and put their full weight behind 
>> it as they did for ASM storage, leaving OCFS2 as a lower priority for 
>> new features and improvements? Has Oracle demonstrated significant 
>> commitment to OCFS2 development and support in the past, and is this a 
>> mature enough technology for wide-scale deployment?
>>     
>
> 	Oracle continually works to improve the power and usability of
> of its products.  Sometimes features overlap, but that doesn't mean they
> must exclude each other.  For example, you are planning to use ASM
> storage for datafiles, but a filesystem of some type (ocfs2, NFS,
> whatever) for other files.  This works just fine.  Those of us who work
> on ocfs2 are not stopping.
> 	Let's revisit your questions at the top.  First up is readiness.
> ocfs2 1.2, the older of the two currently supported production releases,
> was released in February 2006.  That's three years ago.  Customers have
> been running it for the use cases you describe ever since.
> 	Next is stability.  Oracle does extensive testing on each
> release of ocfs2 to provide the best stability we can.  The 1.2 release
> ironed out most of its bugs long ago.  The new 1.4 release, released in
> August 2008, provides some significant performance improvements and is
> already being adopted by our customers.
> 	What about the future?  We just released the 1.4 version, and
> we're not done yet.  As Sunil pointed out in his email, we have a number
> of significant features landing in the mainline Linux kernel; this is
> where we do the development of ocfs2.  These features will make their
> way into ocfs2 1.4 or a future release as they become stable.
> 	I hope that covers Oracle's commitment to the development of
> ocfs2.  For support, let's look at
> http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/ (you can go there for all sorts of
> information about ocfs2):
>
> -8<--------------------------------------------------------------------
> SUPPORT
>
> Oracle provides full support for the OCFS2 file system for Oracle's
> Unbreakable Linux Network subscribers.
>
> Oracle also extends support for the OCFS2 file system to Red Hat
> Enterprise Linux users for use with Oracle's database product.
>
> Novell provides full support for the OCFS2 file system to SUSE Linux
> Enterprise Server users. 
> ->8--------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 	I hope this answers your questions and helps you in making your
> decision.
>
> Joel
>
>