Invitation to Participate Linux File Systems Workshop June 15-17, 2006 Portland, Oregon Organizers Val Henson, Intel Zach Brown, Oracle Arjan van de Ven, Intel Overview The Linux File Systems Workshop will be an extremely technical brain-storming session on the future of on-disk file systems in Linux. The goals of this workshop are to discuss new file system concepts, share relevant data and experiences, and produce multiple competing designs for a new community-developed and supported file system. Motivation Linux has a plethora of file systems, seemingly enough variety and choice to satisfy anyone. However, the majority of these file systems were developed outside the Linux community and never attracted a significant community support base; these file systems were "thrown over the fence" and eventually abandoned by their original creators. JFS has been end-of-lifed by IBM, XFS is supported mainly by SGI, and the future of Reiserfs is uncertain. The only viable file system in terms of long-term support is ext3. However, ext3 has hard limits on its longevity - most notably a limit of 8-32 TB on file system size, already too small for a significant number of Linux users. A straight-forward extension of the ext2/3 on-disk format beyond 32-bit block addresses does not solve higher-level scalability issues, such as file system repair time and existing journal-related performance limitations. In addition, fundamental hardware changes (track buffers, write caches, growing random vs. sequential bandwidth ratio) have invalidated many design assumptions. In short, Linux file systems are rapidly approaching a crisis point. Linux needs a community supported file system which can grow into the next decade. Incremental improvements on existing file systems are unlikely to fill this gap. This workshop is the first step in designing and implementing a new file system to fill the needs of the Linux community in the coming years. Participants will have the opportunity to shape the design and implementation of the next generation of Linux file systems. Topics Topics for discussion include but are not limited to: * Novel file system designs * Detecting and repairing disk corruption * Breaking the 32-bit block address barrier * New methods for maintaining on-disk consistency * Scaling file system repair to terabyte file systems * Changes in design assumptions caused by hardware trends * Customer/user needs and requests * Typical workloads and usage cases * Useful benchmarks, existing and proposed Format and schedule As creative thinking is best done in small groups working in an informal atmosphere, the workshop is invitation-only and limited to about 15 participants. The workshop will be structured in order to encourage new and risky ideas, and discussion will be conducted in a polite and professional manner. The workshop is three days long, beginning with an opening reception and dinner Wednesday evening and ending with an optional wrap-up session on Saturday morning. Each day will have a different theme. Themes: Thursday: Data - Hardware trends, known problems Friday: Wild ideas - Discuss crazy new design notions Saturday: Weeding out - Narrow down candidates, plan future work Tentative schedule: Wednesday: 7pm-9pm Opening reception and dinner, sponsored by Intel Thursday and Friday: 10am-12pm Structured talks with 50% Q&A 12pm-2pm Lunch 2pm-6pm Split up for whiteboard discussions 6pm-8pm Dinner 8pm-9pm Summary of discussion, agree on next day's talks Saturday: 10am-11am Final discussion on which designs to pursue 11am-12pm Wrap up Only the first day's talks will be planned in advance; the second day's will be planned during the evening sessions and given by workshop participants. Slideware other than high-density graphical information is discouraged. We strongly encourage participants to remain in Portland until Sunday afternoon, as other Linux-related activities will be occurring in the Portland area during the weekend. Contact the organizers for details. Location The workshop will be held in the center of downtown Portland, Oregon, in conference space courtesy of Oracle. It is located within easy walking distance of hotels, fine restaurants, brew pubs, museums, and a large portion of the Linux developer community. Portland weather in June is usually mild and sunny. Travel Information The workshop is about a 20 minute drive from the Portland International Airport (public transportation available). More information on recommended hotels and transportation will be forthcoming. We will provide a formal invitation letter for entry/exit requirements. Fees There will be no fee for attending the workshop. Attendees will need to pay their own travel and lodging, and some but not all meals will be provided. We may have funds available to pay for travel for some attendees; please inquire if you will need this. Sponsorship Contact the organizers if your company wishes to sponsor food, receptions, travel for participants, or other items for this workshop. Registration You are invited to attend this workshop. To confirm whether or not you are attending, please email: Val Henson If you are not certain whether you can attend, please tell us that as well.