What Is NVFS? Red Hat’s High‑Performance DAX File System Explained

Led by Red Hat engineers, a team is researching a Linux/open‑source file system called NVFS. NVFS aims to become a high‑speed file system similar to Intel Optane DCPMM. It targets DAX‑based devices (direct access) and maps the entire device into a linear address space, bypassing the Linux kernel’s block layer and buffer cache.

Before NVFS, the open‑source community had the NOVA file system for persistent memory, but that project unexpectedly ended last year. Without another Linux file system for high‑performance persistent‑memory devices, Red Hat’s Mikulas Patocka has been leading the NVFS effort.

Although NVFS targets DAX‑based devices, it adopts a design similar to EXT4 and integrates well with Linux’s VFS code. On persistent memory, NVFS delivers excellent performance, generally far surpassing EXT2/EXT4/XFS (with or without DAX) and the earlier NOVA file system.

More information about NVFS can be found at: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/alpine.LRH.2.02.2009140852030.22422@file01.intranet.prod.int.rdu2.redhat.com/

Performance benchmarks for NVFS are available at: http://people.redhat.com/~mpatocka/nvfs/BENCHMARKS