Filesystem/Partitions for new Linux system

[Andrew Hammond]

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Pavel Zaitsev wrote:
> Lennart Sorensen wrote:
>> On Mon, Apr 25, 2005 at 05:08:31PM -0400, Pavel Zaitsev wrote:
>>
>>> /tmp -> 1gig (again maybe up to 2 gigs) this directory is used alot
>>> so you can minimize fragmentation this way.
>>
>> Most unix filesystems have avoided fragmentation almost entirely by good
>> design, as long as you avoid over filling them (usually 80 to 90% is the
>> limit for good performance).
>>
> Regardless of how good technology is, it is a good practice to separate
> then
> aggregate, for elimination of single point of failure. Just in general.

Uh... what you're describing actually creates more SPoFs. There are
three reasons to spread stuff over multiple filesystems.

1) Performance, clearly not an issue here.

2) Because you had to add more disk but aren't using LVM. Again, not an
issue.

3) Protecting critical filesystems running out of space (this is an
argument for segregating /tmp, /var and /home from the rest for example)

I doubt that it's worth the time and effort involved, but if you're
determined, here's a way to achieve point 3 with minimal pain.

6 partitions:

1) primary /boot (100MB is plenty)
2) primary windows (5GB or whatever)
3) primary /dos (FAT32, maybe 500MB, for sharing files between windows
and Linux boots)
4) primary (extended)
4.1) extended / (5GB approx)
4.2) extended /rw (the remainder, more on this later)
4.3) extended swap (2 x system RAM or 1GB max)


once you've got the box to boot in single user mode,

mv /home /rw
ln -s /rw/home /home

And the same for other stuff you want to move off /. The usual suspects
include /var/log and /tmp. If you want to get really careful about it,
then du --one-file-system / every couple of weeks and look for stuff
that changes enough to care about.

- --
Andrew Hammond    416-673-4138    ahammond-swQf4SbcV9C7WVzo/KQ3Mw at public.gmane.org
Database Administrator, Afilias Canada Corp.
CB83 2838 4B67 D40F D086 3568 81FC E7E5 27AF 4A9A
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