[xenpreview-dev] Xen + OCFS2 and sparse files

[Fraser Campbell]

Hi,

For Xen image storage I am considering these options:

* giving Xen raw disk slice on SAN using EVMS-HA (apologies I'm not yet
   familiar with EVMS terminology)
* using loopback images on SAN, hosted on top of OCFS2
* using NAS (NFS root) ... mostly have eliminated this option

My initial thinking was that giving "raw" slices via volume manager will 
offer best performance, I expect this is still the case.

When looking at the SLES10 previews I realized that the sparse file 
option for loopback storage would let us heavily overcommit disk so I 
started thinking about filesystem options.

It turns out that OCFS2 does not support sparse files so what I 
perceived as a big advantage of the loopback approach is now out the window.

Does anyone know if OCFS2 is likely to support spare files in the Xen 
timeframe?

Are there any guidelines available yet regarding Xen image storage?

Thanks,
Fraser