Linux Community to remove reiserfs from the kernel in 2025

[Frank1940]

In the release notes for version 6.11.0-rc3

 

Quote

 

Version 6.11.0-rc3 2022-08-06

Important: The Linux Community has deprecated reiserfs, and has scheduled it to be removed from the kernel in 2025.

 

 

Anyone who is still using reiserfs as the format for their disk drives should be planning how to handle this situation.  Here is a link to the conversion procedure:

      

This procedure will also work if you want to move to btrfs rather than XFS.

 

EDIT: October 19, 2022---   There have been several instances where users have attempted to convert from reiserfs to another file system by thinking that they could simply reformat a existing data drive and rebuild the data on the newly formatted drive using the parity information.  This does NOT work!!!  You will lose all of the data that is on the drive!  Repeat, you will lose all of the data on the drive!!!

 

You have been warned.  

 

EDIT: June 11, 2023:

The link to the Documentation in @SSD's link above has been changed with the New Documentation setup.  You can now find it here:

 

     https://legacy.wiki.unraid.net/index.php/File_System_Conversion

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by Frank1940

[aaronwt]

Wow! I completely forgot I was still using the ancient reiserfs file system.

I'm glad I recently decided to move the data from my older three unRAID setups to new ones. I am still using reiserfs, with sixty plus drives, in those three old setups. So with the three new unRAID systems, I setup last week, I am using XFS for the array drives and btrfs for the cache drives.

Edited May 1, 2023 by aaronwt

[dchamb]

I have 3 drives that are still reiserfs and need to convert to xfs. My primary parity drive is 22TB (sdg) and second parity is 18TB (sdc). No data drive is larger than 18TB. 

My preference is to leave the dockers running while making the conversion. I would like for some feedback on the approach to convert the drives:

 

1. Take the second parity disk (18TB) offline and move to Unassigned Devices.

2. Format this drive for xfs.

3. rcopy the largest data drive (14TB) known as sdb to the newly formatted xfs drive in UD.

4. After the rcopy completes, shutdown the dockers long enough to the rcopy again to verify any changes are transferred to the new xfs drive. 

5. Shutdown the array and add the new xsf drive to the array and remove the sdb drive from the array.

6. Restart the array. Parity should rebuild. (?)

7. Restart the dockers

8. Do same procedure for the remaining reiserfs drives using the drive left behind in UD as the target drive for rcopy.

 

I am not very familiar with rcopy so if someone could provide the correct command syntax I would appreciate it.

 

Thank you,

 

Dale 

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by dchamb

[JonathanM]

2 hours ago, dchamb said:

I have 3 drives that are still reiserfs and need to convert to xfs.

There is an entire sticky thread on the topic of file system conversions that answers most if not all of your questions.

[dchamb]

On 5/8/2023 at 2:20 PM, JonathanM said:

There is an entire sticky thread on the topic of file system conversions that answers most if not all of your questions.

Hi JonathanM,

 

I've been looking but maybe I'm not looking in the right place. The instructions I find all say to shutdown the Dockers during the transfer and I really can't keep them down that long. Also looking to verify if parity rebuild will start automatically if I remove a data drive and add a new data drive to the array.

[JonathanM]

50 minutes ago, dchamb said:

I've been looking but maybe I'm not looking in the right place.

 

[dchamb]

On 5/10/2023 at 9:08 AM, JonathanM said:

 

Thanks JonathanM,

 

This is very helpful. I am still trying to decide which of the scenarios apply to my case. I am leaning toward eliminating both parity drives, but I am not sure as to the difference between "Share based no inclusions" and "Share based with inclusions". I thought I could start with moving the current parity 2 drive to UD, formatting it as XFS, use Rsync to copy the larges reiserfs data drive to the new XFS drive and wrap up with deleting the old reiserfs drive from the array and adding the new XFS drive to the array (not swapping reiserfs for XFS). Would this not work? and can I just build the parity drive from scratch?

[dchamb]

On 5/11/2023 at 6:53 PM, dchamb said:

Thanks JonathanM,

 

This is very helpful. I am still trying to decide which of the scenarios apply to my case. I am leaning toward eliminating both parity drives, but I am not sure as to the difference between "Share based no inclusions" and "Share based with inclusions". I thought I could start with moving the current parity 2 drive to UD, formatting it as XFS, use Rsync to copy the larges reiserfs data drive to the new XFS drive and wrap up with deleting the old reiserfs drive from the array and adding the new XFS drive to the array (not swapping reiserfs for XFS). Would this not work? and can I just build the parity drive from scratch?

Thoughts, anyone?

[Frank1940]

50 minutes ago, dchamb said:

Thoughts, anyone?

 

Probably because no one has the time to fully follow what you propose to do.  (Doing the conversions without losing data is the real issue.  One miscue can result an entire disk of data!  Most people are reluctant to make any recommendations that could result if data loss if they miss some little detail!) 

 

Most people use this method:

 

      https://wiki.unraid.net/index.php/File_System_Conversion#Mirroring_procedure_to_convert_drives

 

It does take one extra disk to get started (or emptying one of the current data disk of all files by transferring the files to the remaining data disks) but you seem to be willing to sacrifice your current Parity2 disk for the required extra disk.  So just unassigning Parity2 and have at it.  As I remember (from two plus years ago), it takes about two hours per TB of data-- actual speed is dependent on file count.   When you finish up (and, with a bit of planning), the last disk cleared could be large enough to be used as Parity2!

[dchamb]

1 hour ago, Frank1940 said:

 

Probably because no one has the time to fully follow what you propose to do.  (Doing the conversions without losing data is the real issue.  One miscue can result an entire disk of data!  Most people are reluctant to make any recommendations that could result if data loss if they miss some little detail!) 

 

Most people use this method:

 

      https://wiki.unraid.net/index.php/File_System_Conversion#Mirroring_procedure_to_convert_drives

 

It does take one extra disk to get started (or emptying one of the current data disk of all files by transferring the files to the remaining data disks) but you seem to be willing to sacrifice your current Parity2 disk for the required extra disk.  So just unassigning Parity2 and have at it.  As I remember (from two plus years ago), it takes about two hours per TB of data-- actual speed is dependent on file count.   When you finish up (and, with a bit of planning), the last disk cleared could be large enough to be used as Parity2!

Thanks for the response. My willingness to give up parity 2 was out of necessity, at least it was my understanding that parity 2 would be invalid if the disk position were changed. Mainly I want to know if I copy a disk from the array to UD (reiserfs drive is 14TB and current parity 2 drive is 18TB), can I add that disk (18TB) to the array while deleting the original source disk (14TB). I will have a new disk to add as the replacement parity 2 drive which will be the same size as the main parity drive.

[Frank1940]

2 hours ago, dchamb said:

Thanks for the response. My willingness to give up parity 2 was out of necessity, at least it was my understanding that parity 2 would be invalid if the disk position were changed. Mainly I want to know if I copy a disk from the array to UD (reiserfs drive is 14TB and current parity 2 drive is 18TB), can I add that disk (18TB) to the array while deleting the original source disk (14TB). I will have a new disk to add as the replacement parity 2 drive which will be the same size as the main parity drive.

You are making too much of a production of this...

 

The parity2 drive will work fine in the data array since Parity1 is 22TB drive.  You just have to unassign it from being Parity2.  It then becomes an unassigned drive that you can add to array which is what the instruction call for.  It may temporarily show up in the Unassigned Device plugin but ignore that fact!  Just follow the File System Conversion WIKI. 

 

Just start with Step 1 and verify parity.  Note the serial number of Parity2 drive and then unassign Parity2.  Now do Step 2.  The do Step 3, assigning the drive with the serial number you noted earlier.  You will have to format the drive.  Finish up the remaining steps. Repeat until all drives are converted.  (There is not a shorter procedure!!!!)

 

EDIT:  You should actually be posting your questions about the actual conversion in this thread:

 

             https://forums.unraid.net/topic/35815-re-format-xfs-on-replacement-drive-convert-from-rfs-to-xfs-discussion-only/

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by Frank1940

[Blackwhite123]

So long story short, ReiserFS is set to be deprecated and should be removed from the kernel in 2025. That gives three years for users to migrate to another modern file-system or otherwise if still using ReiserFS in some odd way, you can always stick to running a pre-2025 Linux LTS kernel

[Frank1940]

I just checked today and the procedure to do the conversion is found here:

 

https://legacy.wiki.unraid.net/index.php/File_System_Conversion

 

Many folks have used the "Mirroring procedure to convert drives" to do the actual conversion.  The advantage to this method is that parity is preserved through out the procedure.  As I recall, it took about 4 hours per TB.  (You could probably reduce this time by turning on the 'Turbo write' mode (AKA, 'write reconstruct' found) in the SETTINGS  >>>  Disk Settings. )

 

The instructions to do this is found here:

 

https://legacy.wiki.unraid.net/File_System_Conversion#Mirroring_procedure_to_convert_drives