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I have a CentOS7 installed in a virtual machine. By default, the file system of it was XFS both of the "/" and "/boot". Now I want it to change the file system of the "/boot" to ext3. The reason why I want to change it is I have here a backup server that requires an ext3 file system for it to be able to back up the Linux server. Can I change the XFS to ext3?

Ian
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    ext3 is an old filesystem which should not be used anymore except in specific circumstances. If your backup system *requires* and ext3 filesystem, you need to replace it (rather than the filesystem). – shodanshok Mar 13 '20 at 10:04

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Backup systems that do not support xfs or ext4, only ext3, should be upgraded or replaced. Modern distros will be using xfs or ext4, which have been stable for a long time and bring features.

A safe way to convert file systems is to create new ones and copy files over. If / and /boot are in scope, installing a new host with the desired file system type will be faster, and easier to get booting with permissions correct.

Various tricks like fstransform that do arbitrary conversions like ext to xfs have limitations and big safety disclaimers. Personally, I would not use them. Backup restores to new volumes is safer and more generally useful.

John Mahowald
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