Opto 22 delivers robust industrial controllers with Tuxera NitroFS

Opto 22 leveraged Tuxera’s NitroFS file system to eliminate embedded data corruption risks, improving system resilience and development efficiency while enabling long-term use of Linux in industrial environments.

Founded in Southern California, Opto 22 is a long-established manufacturer of industrial automation and control systems. Known for innovations in solid-state relays and Ethernet-based I/O, the company designs hardware and software platforms used globally in critical infrastructure, energy, and manufacturing. Their expertise lies in delivering durable, long-lifecycle devices that operate reliably in harsh, high-demand environments.

Challenge: Frequent data corruption during power loss

While designing the world’s first edge-programmable industrial controller, groov EPIC™, the Opto 22 engineering team encountered a well-known critical challenge associated with Linux-based industrial devices: the risk of data corruption upon unexpected power loss or shutdown during operation. Understanding the critical implications of data corruption in mission-critical environments, the team set out to develop a Linux-based system that would proactively mitigate this vulnerability and deliver greater resilience for their industrial controller.

“These products must work flawlessly in the industrial environments whether the power is lost or switched off abruptly.” said Ken Johnson, VP of Engineering at Opto 22. “This was a major challenge for critical industrial operations.”

Search for a solution: A comprehensive file system evaluation

Opto 22’s engineering team spent months testing widely available file systems under intensive conditions. These included BTRFS, OverlayFS, and in-house modifications to EXT4. Devices were subjected to 20,000 random power interruptions particularly during the vulnerable boot process window.

“None of the file systems passed our internal tests. Even those marketed with resilience features failed to recover consistently,” noted Johnson.

When the team evaluated Tuxera NitroFS, they observed immediate improvements. Initial power-fail tests yielded clean system boot-ups with no file system corruption.

The decision was clear: NitroFS – resilience, longevity, and Linux compatibility

When asked about the possibility of developing to the same level of power fail-safety features that NitroFS has in-house, Ken Johnson replied, “If we had to develop this level of resilience ourselves, it would take at least three man-years. NitroFS gave us the confidence to let customers tweak our Linux software and run their own implementation without any risk.”

Results: Platform for innovation and customer confidence

NitroFS was first included in groov EPIC. A few years later, the edge I/O controller groov RIO was also shipped with the same solution. Both industrial controllers underwent extensive testing, including hundreds of thousands of power-fail events. Across these, NitroFS consistently ensured safe and clean reboots.

Beyond the technical outcome, the file system allowed the engineering team to shift focus toward application-level improvements rather than low-level fault handling. It also enabled the company to continue building on Linux, knowing that NitroFS could withstand the demands of their industrial use cases.

“This level of resilience to power outages is still one of our key differentiators. Our customers want robust and stable devices they can trust for decades,” said Johnson.

What’s next: Continued partnership with Tuxera

Opto 22 plans to rely on NitroFS as a foundational component in its upcoming platforms. The engineering team continues to explore new product developments using Tuxera.

“After years of great experience, we continue to keep the Tuxera file system – NitroFS – as an integral component in our next-gen industrial innovations,” Johnson confirmed.