Object Storage works on any file system that supports Extended Attributes (XATTRS). XFS shows the best overall performance for the swift use case after considerable testing and benchmarking at Rackspace. It is also the only file system that has been thoroughly tested. See the OpenStack Configuration Reference for additional recommendations. Install storage node packages: # apt-get install swift swift-account swift-container swift-object xfsprogs # yum install openstack-swift-account openstack-swift-container \ openstack-swift-object xfsprogs xinetd # zypper install openstack-swift-account openstack-swift-container \ openstack-swift-object python-xml xfsprogs xinetd For each device on the node that you want to use for storage, set up the XFS volume (/dev/sdb is used as an example). Use a single partition per drive. For example, in a server with 12 disks you may use one or two disks for the operating system which should not be touched in this step. The other 10 or 11 disks should be partitioned with a single partition, then formatted in XFS. # fdisk /dev/sdb # mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb1 # echo "/dev/sdb1 /srv/node/sdb1 xfs noatime,nodiratime,nobarrier,logbufs=8 0 0" >> /etc/fstab # mkdir -p /srv/node/sdb1 # mount /srv/node/sdb1 # chown -R swift:swift /srv/node Create /etc/rsyncd.conf: Replace the content of /etc/rsyncd.conf with: uid = swift gid = swift log file = /var/log/rsyncd.log pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid address = STORAGE_LOCAL_NET_IP [account] max connections = 2 path = /srv/node/ read only = false lock file = /var/lock/account.lock [container] max connections = 2 path = /srv/node/ read only = false lock file = /var/lock/container.lock [object] max connections = 2 path = /srv/node/ read only = false lock file = /var/lock/object.lock (Optional) If you want to separate rsync and replication traffic to replication network, set STORAGE_REPLICATION_NET_IP instead of STORAGE_LOCAL_NET_IP: address = STORAGE_REPLICATION_NET_IP Edit the following line in /etc/default/rsync: RSYNC_ENABLE=true Edit the following line in /etc/xinetd.d/rsync: disable = no Start the rsync service: # service rsync start Start the xinetd service: # service xinetd start Start the xinetd service and configure it to start when the system boots: # service xinetd start # chkconfig xinetd on The rsync service requires no authentication, so run it on a local, private network. Create the swift recon cache directory and set its permissions: # mkdir -p /var/swift/recon # chown -R swift:swift /var/swift/recon