Convert Ext File Systems to Btrfs with this handy guide from Bobcares.

At Bobcares, we offer solutions for every query, big and small, as a part of our Server Management Service.

Let’s take a look at how our Support Team recently helped a customer out with converting an ext file system to BTRFS.

About converting Ext File Systems to BTRFS

Butter FS, also known as BTRFS is a file system that offers a boatload of interesting features like:

• It is an extent-based file system. In other words, there are no lists of pointers since BTRFS tracks contiguous blocks.
• BTRFS detects errors in real-time by making checksums of data as well as metadata.
• It offers filesystem snapshots option.
• BTRFS allows us to switch from ext3/4 to BTRFS.

If you are using an ext2 or ext3 or ext4 filesystem, you can easily convert to the BTRFS file system with this handy guide.

How to Convert Ext File Systems to BTRFS

1. We will start the conversion by mounting the ext file system as seen below:

   # df -hP /data
   Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
   /dev/sda        9.8G   37M  9.2G   1% /data
   # umount /data

2. Then, we will use fsck to verify the integrity of the ext file system as seen in the example below:

   # fsck /dev/sda 
   fsck from util-linux 2.23.2
   e2fsck 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
   /dev/sda: clean, 11/655360 files, 83137/2621440 blocks

3. After that, we will use the btrfs-convert tool to convert the file system:

   # btrfs-convert /dev/sda
   create btrfs filesystem:
   	blocksize: 4096
   	nodesize:  16284
   	features:  extref, skinny-metadata (default)
   creating ext2 image file
   creating btrfs metadatacopy inodes [o] [         2/        11]
   conversion complete

4. Next, we will edit the /etc/fstab file in order to modify the file system type to BTRFS.

   # vi /etc/fstab
   UUID=e5b5c118-fb56-4fad-a45d-ff5fad9a649d /data           btrfs   defaults      0  0
5. Then, we have to mount the newly converted file system on the original mount point with this command:

   # mount /dev/sda /data

6. Finally, we will check the new file system type with the mount command.

   # df -hP /data
   Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
   /dev/sda         10G  342M  9.7G   4% /data
   # mount | grep data
   /dev/sda on /data type btrfs (rw,relatime,seclabel,space_cache,subvolid=5,subvol=/)

Our Support Techs would like to point out that we cannot convert a bootable partition or root file system to BTRFS.

[Stuck with another query? We are available 24/7.]

Conclusion

In brief, the skilled Support Engineers at Bobcares demonstrated how to convert an ext file system to BTRFS with ease.