Hi,
When storing DICOM images in the filesystem on Linux, is there a recommended filesystem type for optimal performance? Ie xfs vs ext4?
Hi, Josh!
I’ve recently came across this question in a similar context. Here’s a couple of links to help you:
https://computingforgeeks.com/ext4-vs-xfs-complete-comparison/
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/33552/htg-explains-which-linux-file-system-should-you-choose/
Personal Opinion:
I’d gravitate towards XFS because of online defragmentation alone. Also, as a strong point to consider is delayed allocation. That can cause issues when the disk begin to fail. But it allows for a much better allocation management; also, get RAID 1 and you should be good to go.
Another point is that ext4 is better suited for smaller files, whilst xfs is better for larger files. The articles don’t mention a parameter to decide what is a large file and what is not, though.
Last but not least, there’s the partition size limitation. ext4 maximum size is 16T while XFS’ is 500TB. Is that’s an issue, you might want to consider LVM.
So if you implement both LVM and RAID 1, then they become more of the same save for the sheer speed. But then again, it makes the setup much more complex quite easily.
In Closing:
If you want sheer speed above all else and your DICOM files are not large, you’ll want to choose ext4. If that is not the case, then you’ll want xfs.
Orthanc stores both the DCM file and a JSON version of its non-image tags. They can be considered small, but I don’t believe they’ll make much of a difference in the end.
Hope that helps!
Best,