partitioning new installation

[wattst-dxuVLtCph9gsA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org]

Quoting Tim Writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>:

> John Van Ostrand <john-Da48MpWaEp0CzWx7n4ubxQ at public.gmane.org> writes:
>
> > On Wed, 2006-03-08 at 16:07 -0500, Chris Aitken wrote:
> > > Can anyone suggest a partitioning scheme for a new FC4 installation?
> > > Every time I make a bunch of partitions I end up with too much free
> > > space on some and not enough on others (notably /usr and /home).
> > >
> > > Master is 20 GB and slave is 6 GB. I think I'll partition the slave as
> > > /backupdrive -- that's worked well for me on another machine - .jpg's,
> > > .ogg's et al.
> > >
> > > How about
> > > swap 500 MB (I have 256 MB RAM)
> > > /boot 256 MB
> > > / the remainder
> > > ?
> >
> > For me it's LVM all the way. That way I can put only what I need on
> > partitions and grow them later if need-be.
>
> Agree 100%. I would never install a general purpose Linux box (i.e. desktop
> or laptop) without LVN anymore.
>
> > Even with LVM I tend to be generous with / because it's much harder to
> > grow.
>
> Not really, just boot from any recent KNOPPIX which has mdadm (if needed) and
> all the LVM tools.
>
> > For workstations I go with three logical volumes (partitions):
> >
> >     /boot    100M (or less regardless of what Anaconda warns)
> >     swap    1024M (if you get 1G into swap you're really in trouble)
> >     /            remainder
> >
> > For servers I want to compartmentalize in case one filesystem fills up.
> > I'm also an older UNIX quy who wants dynamic file systems (/tmp, /var,
> > etc) on separate file systems.
>
> I tend to do this with workstations too.
>
> > The file system sizes depend on what you will be installing. For a 20GB
> > you'll be fighting space and I would recommend as a minimum:
> >
> > /boot 64M (or less, how many kernels do you want?)
> > swap 1024M
> > /  1024M (I like space here to make upgrades easy, I'm also a
> > MailScanner fan and this is where rules_du_jour puts rules)
> > /usr 4096M (really depends on what you install)
> > /var 1024M (more for mail servers, etc)
> > /home (depends on user needs)
> > /opt (if you are installing software that wants to go there.
>
> Above is good advice. I'd probably start with 4GB for /home and not bother
> with /opt until needed.
>
> > Then as you know how the space is being used grow the file systems into
> > the 20GB,
> > --
> > John Van Ostrand
> >          Net Direct Inc.
> >
> > Director of Technology
> > 564 Weber St. N. Unit 12
> >    Waterloo, ON N2L 5C6
> >  map
> > john-Da48MpWaEp0CzWx7n4ubxQ at public.gmane.org
> >         Ph: 519-883-1172
> >  ext.5102
> > Linux Solutions / IBM
> > Hardware
> >         Fx: 519-883-8533
> >
>
> --
> tim writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>                                  starnix inc.
> 647.722.5301                                      toronto, ontario, canada
> http://www.starnix.com              professional linux services & products
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I'm curious about LVM as I should be doing a reinstall soon.  I understand that
that LVM maps physical entities to appear as one or many different volumes
which don't neccessarily reflect the geometry of the physical.  What I don't
understand is when you say resizing the volumes is easy.  Does it make in
simpler because you can grow an LVM over existing, formated space?  Or shrink
it and create a new volume on the newly freed space?

What I'm really getting at is what has to happen underneath the LVMs.  Do you
already have to have a fixed chunk formated as an LVM compatible filesystem and
then build on top of only that?  If I have an NTFS partition and then ext3
partitions with LVM on top and I want to give some space from NTFS to ext3, is
that possible?  What steps would be involved in doing that?

Thanks,

Tom Watts
wattst-dxuVLtCph9gsA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org

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