Re: Current thoughts on system partitioning

From: Bill Davidsen (davidsen_at_tmr.com)
Date: 01/20/05

  • Next message: Peter T. Breuer: "Re: Convert from testing/unstable to stable" 
    Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 21:51:18 GMT

    Morris Jones wrote:
    > Used to be the conventional wisdom for a *nix system was to have separate
    > disk partitions for areas like /boot, /var, /home, /usr.
    >
    > I can certainly see the wisdom of a separate partition for a usenet volume,
    > if you're doing that.

    Definitely if you're doing it seriously.
    >
    > My server hosts a handful of domains and email accounts for friends and
    > family. I've run into issues with the mounted /var partition filling up
    > with a runaway log file and causing other problems.

    You can make a good case for a /var/log filesystem. You can also make a
    case that you don't want to lose data if you have a problem, but if you
    run /var out of space you have a BIG problem. You should at the least
    make a consious choice about that one.
    >
    > What's the current advice for partitioning a modern server? What's the
    > downside of using one large partition for the system?

    The downside is that if one thing runs away it can break the system very
    badly. I like a seriously used system to have /tmp by itself. Disk is
    cheap, time isn't. Just make everything larger than you think it needs
    to be by a good bit!
    >
    > One good thing I can think of is to have a small disk partition available
    > as an alternate boot for doing maintenance with the main partition
    > unmounted. That also might be practical with a live CD, saving the disk
    > space.

    Most distros have a live CD capability and will run with no disk at all
    available. Probably not worth it.
    >
    > I'm building a new server and planning to migrate to it over the next few
    > weeks.
    >
    > Mojo 

    -- 
    -bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
  last possible moment - but no longer"  -me
  • Next message: Peter T. Breuer: "Re: Convert from testing/unstable to stable"

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