Following exFAT improvements last year, Microsoft is adding XFS root file system to Mariner

Following exFAT improvements last year, Microsoft is adding XFS root file system to Mariner

In December last year, Microsoft’s exFAT on Linux received some really hefty gains in terms of performance thanks to Sony. Internal tests showed close to 60% gains in some instances. Speaking of file systems, Microsoft has now added support for XFS as root file system type for CBL-Mariner, which is Microsoft’s Linux OS for Azure 1P services and edge appliances.

The change was introduced with the latest version 2.0.20230426 for CBL-Mariner where the changelog notes “Adding XFS as a root filesystem type”. Over on the pull requests section of the GitHub page, developer AZaugg has provided a summary of the change (via Phoronix):

Summary

Adding XFS support to the installer, as well as allow Mariner to boot XFS filesystems.

Change Log

  • Added XFS option to Mariner Installer
  • Added fsck.xfs to initrd
  • Added XFS module to grub

Does this affect the toolchain?

YES

Test Methodology

  • Build a new VHD and booted, confirmed root filesystem was running XFS

On that note, other file systems on Linux are also getting performance improvements and optimizations. These include F2FS, Btrfs, and EXT4. Besides these, the Linux implementation of Microsoft’s NTFS file system (NTFS3) is also set to receive optimizations.

Here is the full changelog for CBL-Mariner version 2.0.20230426 if anyone is wondering:

You may find more details on its GitHub repository.

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