6.16. Filestreams Allocator

A new allocation algorithm was added to XFS that associates a parent directory with an AG until a preset inactivity timeout elapses.

A stream that moves to a new AG will cause that AG to be locked, so other streams looking for a new AG will not use the same AG

The new algorithm is called the Filestreams allocator and it is enabled in one of two ways:

the filesystem is mounted with the -o filestreams option, or
the filestreams chattr flag is applied to a directory to indicate that all allocations beneath that point in the directory hierarchy should use the filestreams allocator

Filestreams will have a negative impact on workloads that continue to grow files in the same directory, causing more fragmentation than the default allocator