So friends, the very first concept that I want to talk to you about is the file
systems on
our system.
So the first thing that I want to highlight about a file system is what exactly
is its
purpose?
Why do we even have to have them in the first place?
So the main purpose of our file system is so that we have a way to manage our
data on
our disks.
Quite simply, when we actually have a file system, it gives us a type of
hierarchy to
work with.
So if you could imagine that you had a disk with no file system on it, I know WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So if you could imagine that you had a disk with no file system on it, I know
that would
be hard to believe, but just imagine it for a moment, just think how much of a
headache
it would be to try to find your information, say you wanted to have your data
with any
particular folder, maybe you have a music folder full of mp3s, well imagine you
couldn't
organize that data, imagine all the data was just scattered absolutely
everywhere, clearly
we don't want that so we use file systems.
So that is the type of hierarchy and organization that we really want.
Now in a previous scale we were able to take a disk and what we could do would WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Now in a previous scale we were able to take a disk and what we could do would
be to partition
that particular disk and effectively carve it up.
We could have a partition one here and maybe a partition two here and then
partition three,
partition four and partition five, however many we would like to see.
Now we were able to do this with Ansible which is very, very handy when we want
to create
partitions on multiple different devices, but what we didn't do was actually
put any
data onto these partitions and access that data because here is the thing when
we happen
to create data on a particular disk, we need to ensure that that partition has WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
to create data on a particular disk, we need to ensure that that partition has
indeed been
formatted with a file system and once you have the file system formatted, we
can then
mount that file system and then access the data on it.
Now we'll talk about mounting it a little bit more later on within this scale,
but for
now let's focus on this concept of formatting the disk using file systems.
Now just to be clear here we actually have different file systems available to
us and
we briefly talked about this in a previous scale.
Let's look at it though, any tiny bit more detail. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Let's look at it though, any tiny bit more detail.
So within Linux a very common file system that you're going to see is one known
as
the extended file system and this has different versions.
The original version is one known as EXT2.
Now EXT2 is super ancient, it is very outdated and you really shouldn't be
using this particular
file system in my opinion, one thing you may notice though is that some of the
tools that
you use for bizarre reasons sometimes default to this particular file system.
So whilst as the original it does have a big problem and that it doesn't WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So whilst as the original it does have a big problem and that it doesn't
actually support
a feature known as journaling.
Now all journaling means is that changes on the disk are logged into a journal
and
pretty much this is going to be really helpful for you when you want to prevent
data loss,
say for example the computer crashes when you are performing a particular
action, the
actual changes you were making can actually be written into the journal in
which case
you do have a way to retrieve that particular data.
Now like I say with EXT2 this is a feature that is not available. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Now like I say with EXT2 this is a feature that is not available.
So really, kind of want to avoid that particular file system.
Now the good thing is is that the EXT file system did come with newer
iterations.
So the one after that no surprises there was EXT3, this is very very similar
but it did
provide some higher performance benefits and very crucially it did have support
for journaling.
But as you can expect as technology developed these older solutions gradually
became outdated
and then we eventually saw the creation of EXT4. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and then we eventually saw the creation of EXT4.
Now EXT4 is very very common, you are going to see this on many modern
distributions,
say for example if you happen to have an Ubuntu system that you are managing,
very likely
that is going to be formatted with the EXT4 file system.
This is very similar to EXT3 and the fact that it does give us access to
journaling once again
which is very important and it does have support for even larger partitions.
So these are all potential options that you can use but in the case of Red Hat
based systems WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
based systems
typically you are going to see the XFS file system.
Now XFS was actually designed for larger partitions, it was basically trying to
overcome the shortcomings
of things like EXT2 and EXT3 but really this was a file system designed for
performance.
And like I say if you happen to be using Red Hat Enterprise Linux or say for
example something
like Rocky Linux or maybe CentOS this is the file system that you are very
commonly going
to see.
Now the utility that we can use in order to create a file system is something WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Now the utility that we can use in order to create a file system is something
known as
MKFS.
As per the convention in Linux this is actually quite handy MK is for make and
FS is for file
system really really easy to remember.
So if I happen to go to my directory here the S-band directory and do an LS we
can see we
have all of the particular binaries if I happen to grep for let's say MKFS.
Check what we actually have here we have the general tool MKFS which ultimately
acts as
a front end for all of these more specific tools we can see we have MKFS.exe WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
a front end for all of these more specific tools we can see we have MKFS.exe
too.
You can quite reasonably guess this is going to make a file system using the
EXT2 format
whereas if you happen to use MKFS.exe 4 you will create a file system using the
EXT4 file
system and again if you happen to be on let's maybe say a Red Hat based system
MKFS.XFS allows
you to create that XFS based file system.
So those are some of the bare bones basics around our file systems we want to
now take
that information and apply it to our automation system.
Now before we actually do that what we want to do is to ensure that we do have WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Now before we actually do that what we want to do is to ensure that we do have
some additional
disks in place just to make your labbing a little bit smoother.
After all we don't want to be formatting disks that we happen to be operating
on so
it just makes sense to do such a thing.
So all I will do here is I will go to my devices.
So if I go to my blue box right here I will go to settings.
I'm going to go to hard disk and then I will choose add a device.
I will choose your new hard disk then select add and now I'll just add a disk
or let's
maybe just say oh I don't know let's go with one gig okay. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
maybe just say oh I don't know let's go with one gig okay.
I will then choose apply and then click X similarly let's go to the yellow box
as well.
Go to settings same process let's add a device for a hard disk new hard disk
right here let's
add it and again let's just add this one for one gig if we choose apply now
what I'll
do is start up both of those machines.
So whilst the machines boot let's pause this video and we'll return back where
we discuss
the plan to automate our file systems.