EVMS currently ships with seven FSIMs. These file system modules allow EVMS to interact with file system utilities such as mkfs and fsck. Additionally, the FSIMs ensure that EVMS safely performs operations, such as expanding and shrinking file systems, by coordinating these actions with the file system.
You can invoke operations such as mkfs and fsck through the various EVMS user interfaces. Any actions you initiate through an FSIM are not saved to disk until the changes are saved in the user interface. Later in this chapter we provide examples of creating a new file system and coordinating file system checks through the EVMS GUI, Ncurses, and command-line interfaces.
The FSIMs supported by EVMS are:
JFS
XFS
ReiserFS
Ext2/3
SWAPFS
OpenGFS
NTFS
The JFS module supports the IBM journaling file system (JFS). Current support includes mkfs, unmkfs, fsck, and online file system expansion. You must have at least version 1.0.9 of the JFS utilities for your system to work with this EVMS FSIM. You can download the latest utilities from the JFS for Linux site.
For more information on the JFS FSIM, refer to Appendix F, JFS file system interface module.
The XFS FSIM supports the XFS file system from SGI. Command support includes mkfs, unmkfs, fsck, and online expansion. Use version 1.2 or higher, which you can download from the SGI open source FTP directory.
For more information on the XFS FSIM, refer to Appendix G, XFS file system interface module.
The ReiserFS module supports the ReiserFS journaling file system. This module supports mkfs, unmkfs, fsck, online and offline expansion and offline shrinkage. You need version 3.x.1a or higher of the ReiserFS utilities for use with the EVMS FSIM modules. You can download the ReiserFS utilities from The Naming System Venture (Namesys) Web site.
For more information on the ReiserFS FSIM, refer to Appendix H, ReiserFS file system interface module.
The EXT2/EXT3 FSIM supports both the ext2 and ext3 file system formats. The FSIM supports mkfs, unmkfs, fsck, and offline shrinkage and expansion.
For more information on the Ext2/3 FSIM, refer to Appendix I, Ext-2/3 file system interface module.
The SWAPFS FSIM supports Linux swap devices. The FSIM lets you create and delete swap devices, and supports mkfs, unmkfs, shrinkage and expansion. Currently, you are responsible for issuing the swapon and swapoff commands either in the startup scripts or manually. You can resize swap device with the SWAPFS FSIM as long as the device is not in use.
The OpenGFS module supports the OpenGFS clustered journaling file system. This module supports mkfs, unmkfs, fsck, and online expansion. You need the OpenGFS utilities for use with the EVMS FSIM module. You can download the OpenGFS utilities from the OpenGFS project on SourceForge.
For more information on the OpenGFS FSIM, refer to Appendix J, OpenGFS file system interface module.
The NTFS FSIM supports the NTFS file system format. The FSIM supports mkfs, unmkfs, and offline shrinkage and expansion. It also has support for running the ntfsfix and netfsclone from the ntfsprogs utilities. You can download the ntfsprogs utilities from the Linux NTFS project web site.
For more information on the NTFS FSIM, refer to Appendix K, NTFS file system interface module.