OCFS2
Clustered file system
title: "OCFS2" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["shared-disk-file-systems", "oracle-software", "distributed-file-systems-supported-by-the-linux-kernel"] description: "Clustered file system" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCFS2" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Clustered file system ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox filesystem"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | OCFS2 |
| full_name | Oracle Cluster file System |
| developer | Oracle Corporation |
| introduction_os | Linux 2.6.16 |
| introduction_date | March 2006 |
| max_filename_size | 255 bytes |
| max_volume_size | 4 PB (OCFS2) |
| max_file_size | 4 PB (OCFS2) |
| filename_character_set | All bytes except NUL and '/' |
| dates_recorded | modification (mtime), attribute modification (ctime), access (atime) |
| file_system_permissions | Unix permissions, ACLs and arbitrary security attributes (Linux 2.6 and later) |
| compression | No |
| encryption | No |
| single_instance_storage | No |
| copy_on_write | Yes |
| OS | Linux |
| :: |
| name = OCFS2 | full_name = Oracle Cluster file System | developer = Oracle Corporation | introduction_os = Linux 2.6.16 | introduction_date = March 2006 | partition_id = | directory_struct = | file_struct = | bad_blocks_struct = | max_filename_size = 255 bytes | max_files_no = | max_volume_size= 4 PB (OCFS2) | max_file_size= 4 PB (OCFS2) | filename_character_set = All bytes except NUL and '/' | dates_recorded = modification (mtime), attribute modification (ctime), access (atime) | date_range = | date_resolution = | forks_streams = | attributes = | file_system_permissions = Unix permissions, ACLs and arbitrary security attributes (Linux 2.6 and later) | compression = No | encryption = No | single_instance_storage = No | copy_on_write = Yes | OS = Linux
The Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS, in its second version OCFS2) is a shared disk file system developed by Oracle Corporation and released under the GNU General Public License. The first version of OCFS was developed with the main focus to accommodate Oracle's database management system that used cluster computing. Because of that it was not a POSIX-compliant file system. With version 2 the POSIX features were included.
OCFS2 (version 2) was integrated into the version 2.6.16 of Linux kernel. Initially, it was marked as "experimental" (Alpha-test) code. This restriction was removed in Linux version 2.6.19. With kernel version 2.6.29 in late 2008, more features were included into ocfs2, such as access control lists and quotas.
OCFS2 used a distributed lock manager which resembles the OpenVMS DLM but is much simpler. Oracle announced version 1.6 in November 2010 which included a copy on write feature called reflink.
References
- Limited to 16TiB before 2.6.28 since it used the Linux [[Journaling block device. JBD]]. JBD2 removes the limit.
- Mark Fasheh. (December 19, 2008). "Ocfs2 patches for merge window batch 1/3". Linux Kernel Mailing List.
- Mark Fasheh. (December 22, 2008). "Ocfs2 patches for merge window batch 2/3". Linux Kernel Mailing List.
- Jonathan Corbet. (May 24, 2005). "The OCFS2 filesystem". [[LWN.net]].
- John Margaglione. (November 30, 2010). "What's new in Oracle Linux Part 1: OCFS2 1.6 REFLINKs". Oracle.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::