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+=================
+ Storage Devices
+=================
+
+There are several Ceph daemons in a storage cluster:
+
+.. _rados_configuration_storage-devices_ceph_osd:
+
+* **Ceph OSDs** (Object Storage Daemons) store most of the data
+ in Ceph. Usually each OSD is backed by a single storage device.
+ This can be a traditional hard disk (HDD) or a solid state disk
+ (SSD). OSDs can also be backed by a combination of devices: for
+ example, a HDD for most data and an SSD (or partition of an
+ SSD) for some metadata. The number of OSDs in a cluster is
+ usually a function of the amount of data to be stored, the size
+ of each storage device, and the level and type of redundancy
+ specified (replication or erasure coding).
+* **Ceph Monitor** daemons manage critical cluster state. This
+ includes cluster membership and authentication information.
+ Small clusters require only a few gigabytes of storage to hold
+ the monitor database. In large clusters, however, the monitor
+ database can reach sizes of tens of gigabytes to hundreds of
+ gigabytes.
+* **Ceph Manager** daemons run alongside monitor daemons, providing
+ additional monitoring and providing interfaces to external
+ monitoring and management systems.
+
+.. _rados_config_storage_devices_osd_backends:
+
+OSD Back Ends
+=============
+
+There are two ways that OSDs manage the data they store. As of the Luminous
+12.2.z release, the default (and recommended) back end is *BlueStore*. Prior
+to the Luminous release, the default (and only) back end was *Filestore*.
+
+.. _rados_config_storage_devices_bluestore:
+
+BlueStore
+---------
+
+BlueStore is a special-purpose storage back end designed specifically for
+managing data on disk for Ceph OSD workloads. BlueStore's design is based on
+a decade of experience of supporting and managing Filestore OSDs.
+
+Key BlueStore features include:
+
+* Direct management of storage devices. BlueStore consumes raw block devices or
+ partitions. This avoids intervening layers of abstraction (such as local file
+ systems like XFS) that can limit performance or add complexity.
+* Metadata management with RocksDB. RocksDB's key/value database is embedded
+ in order to manage internal metadata, including the mapping of object
+ names to block locations on disk.
+* Full data and metadata checksumming. By default, all data and
+ metadata written to BlueStore is protected by one or more
+ checksums. No data or metadata is read from disk or returned
+ to the user without being verified.
+* Inline compression. Data can be optionally compressed before being written
+ to disk.
+* Multi-device metadata tiering. BlueStore allows its internal
+ journal (write-ahead log) to be written to a separate, high-speed
+ device (like an SSD, NVMe, or NVDIMM) for increased performance. If
+ a significant amount of faster storage is available, internal
+ metadata can be stored on the faster device.
+* Efficient copy-on-write. RBD and CephFS snapshots rely on a
+ copy-on-write *clone* mechanism that is implemented efficiently in
+ BlueStore. This results in efficient I/O both for regular snapshots
+ and for erasure-coded pools (which rely on cloning to implement
+ efficient two-phase commits).
+
+For more information, see :doc:`bluestore-config-ref` and :doc:`/rados/operations/bluestore-migration`.
+
+FileStore
+---------
+.. warning:: Filestore has been deprecated in the Reef release and is no longer supported.
+
+
+FileStore is the legacy approach to storing objects in Ceph. It
+relies on a standard file system (normally XFS) in combination with a
+key/value database (traditionally LevelDB, now RocksDB) for some
+metadata.
+
+FileStore is well-tested and widely used in production. However, it
+suffers from many performance deficiencies due to its overall design
+and its reliance on a traditional file system for object data storage.
+
+Although FileStore is capable of functioning on most POSIX-compatible
+file systems (including btrfs and ext4), we recommend that only the
+XFS file system be used with Ceph. Both btrfs and ext4 have known bugs and
+deficiencies and their use may lead to data loss. By default, all Ceph
+provisioning tools use XFS.
+
+For more information, see :doc:`filestore-config-ref`.