Recommended file systems

Db2® databases run on many file systems that the supported platforms provide.

The file systems that you can use depend on whether you want to use the IBM Db2 pureScale Feature or the HA cluster feature:

Db2 environments without the Db2 pureScale or HA cluster feature
Db2 pureScale environments
Db2 non-pureScale HA cluster environments

Db2 environments without the Db2 pureScale or HA cluster feature

IBM® recommends the file systems that are shown in Table 1 for Db2 environments without the Db2 pureScale or HA cluster feature.

Note: Undocumented limitations might exist for file systems that are not listed in Table 1. Support for unlisted file systems might be limited.

Table 1. File system recommended for Db2¹
Platform	Operating System	File system recommended
Linux®	Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)	IBM General Parallel File System² (GPFS) ext3 ext4 xfs VERITAS file system (VxFS) Network File System (NFS³) with IBM N-series Network File System (NFS³) with Network Appliance filers
Linux®	SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)	GPFS ext3 ext4 xfs VERITAS file system (VxFS) NFS³ with IBM N-series NFS³ with Network Appliance filers B-Tree file system (btrfs)⁴
UNIX	AIX®	GPFS Enhanced Journaled File System (JFS2) NFS³ with IBM N-series NFS³ with Network Appliance filers VxFS
Windows	All Windows products	NTFS

Notes:

¹ For the latest updates to the list of recommended file systems, see File systems recommended for DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows.
²For more information on GPFS, see IBM General Parallel File System documentation
³ For information on which NFS versions are validated for use on various operating systems, see Verified network-attached storage systems for use with DB2 Universal Database Version 8.x, DB2 9.x, DB2 10.x.
⁴ Only installation to the default btrfs root partition is supported. Db2 containers on btrfs are not supported.

Db2 pureScale® environments

The Db2 pureScale Feature requires the IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS). The Db2 pureScale Feature installer installs and configures this file system automatically if it is not already present. Refer to the installation prerequisites for details on the required version of IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS).

Db2 non-pureScale HA cluster environments

The HA cluster includes the Mutual Failover solution that is discussed in db2cm command reference for Mutual-Failover-configured clusters and the DPF solution that is discussed in Configuring a clustered environment using High Availability Instance Configuration Utility (db2haicu). These file system types are supported for Db2 non-pureScale HA cluster environments:

Journaled file system (JFS2 on AIX only)
Second extended file system (ext2)
Third extended file system (ext3)
Fourth extended file system (ext4)
XFS