Re: Partitioning

["Jerry Feldman-2" <user=4@nabble.blu.org>]

 This is similar to how I set up my servers in my office where I have 2 
300GB and 5 72GB SCSI drives.  Your comment about naming the volume 
groups is well taken. When I first set things up, I didn't do that and 
it created a bunch of problems for me when I wanted to move things 
around. However, you can easily rename volume groups and logical 
volumes but not while mounted. The way I have things set up now is: 
/dev/sda1 
/dev/sda2 LVM  Root and swap are on a dedicated 72GB on all my 
servers. This allows me to physically move everything to any of the 6 
X86_64 servers we have. it also makes it a lot easier for us to upgrade 
to the current version of the OS supported by our company for 
development. 

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:05:56 -0400 
John Abreau <[hidden email]> wrote: 

> My preferred partitioning, without Windows, is 
> 
>     /dev/md0     /boot 
>     /dev/md1     LVM 
> 
> where both md devices are RAID-1 devices spanning two 
> identical drives. Then when I create the volume group, 
> I give it a unique name based on the server's hostname, 
> to avoid naming conflicts if I ever need to put the disks 
> in a different machine for emergency maintenance, 
> and name each volume for its purpose, e.g. "root' for /, 
> "var' for /var, "swap" for the swap volume, etc. 
> 
> When I create the volumes, I set their sizes failry small, 
> and then grow them as needed, so i don't end up wasting 
> space in one filesystem while running out on another. 
> 
> As the system's storage needs grow, I can add additional 
> RAID-1 sets to the volume group, or I can upgrade to 
> larger drives by adding the larger RAID-1 volume, 
> pvmove'ing everything off the smaller volume, and 
> removing the smaller volume from the volume group. 
> I did this a few months ago to upgrade one of the BLU 
> servers from a single 80 GB drive to a RAID-1 pair of 
> 750 GB drives, and the process went smoothly. 
> 
> 
> 
> Jerry Feldman wrote: 
> > The subject of partitioning comes up every once in a while. 
> > Generally on my systems at home, I create an extended partition in the 
> > first primary, and create root, home, and possibly /usr/local. At work, 
> > I've been using LVM.  For installfests, I generally shrink down the 
> > Windows partition and create an extended in one of the remaining 
> > primaries. (Windows usually takes up 2 partitions one for Windows, and 
> > another for restores). 
> > 
> > I generally don't bother with a dedicated /boot partition, but thee are 
> > some pros and cons. The /boot partition cannot be part of LVM so on LVM 
> > installations you need /boot as a separate partition.  In any cases 
> > there are a number of pros and cons regarding the use of a separate 
> > partition for /boot. One of the major reasons for /boot is that the 
> > GRUB stage 2 must be within the first 1024 cylinders because of the 
> > limitations of the MBR. 
> > 
> > Currently, as technology moves forward and disks become faster and more 
> > dense we are still locked to the old technology: 
> > 
> > 4 Primary partitions - this is a physical limitation of the partition 
> > table. 
> > 
> > A maximum of 16 logical partitions. I'm not sure if this is a 
> > limitation imposed by libata or by Windows. I've never been constrained 
> > by this. 
> > 
> > At this time, I'm just starting another discussion of how people 
> > partition their home systems. There are a lot of other factors that 
> > affect how systems are going to be used at work and is beyond the scope 
> > here. 
> > 
> > So, here is my preferred partitioning scheme with no Windows(either 
> > sda or hda: 
> > /dev/sda1 Extended 
> > /dev/sda5      Logical / (root) 
> > /dev/sda6 Swap 
> > /dev/sda7 Logical /home 
> > On my 160G HD I also have an additional partition whee I keep 
> > downloads, and ISOs. Currently, I don't use a separate /usr/local since 
> > I would prefer to rebuild or reinstall the stuff I use in /usr/local. 
> > 
> > In a typical Windows XP or Vista installation at installfests. 
> > Additionally, I either use the Windows resize utility to resize the 
> > partition, QTPated or GNU Parted. I do not use the Distribution's 
> > partitioning. My procedure is to first reduce the size of the Windows 
> > C: partition, then immediately boot into Windows to make sure 
> > everything works.  This way I have a reasonably good chance that the 
> > Linux install does not damage Windows. I then edit /boot/menu.lst to 
> > delete the second Windows boot entry pointing to the D: partition. 
> > 
> > /dev/sda1 Primary NTFS Windows C: 
> > Defragged and 
> > reduced. 
> > /dev/sda2 Primary NTFS Windows D: 
> > Normally hidden 
> > /dev/sda3 Extended 
> > /dev/sda5 Logical / (root) 
> > /dev/sda6 Swap 
> > /dev/sda7 Logical /home 
> > These days I generally use ext3 since SuSE has pretty much forsaken 
> > ReiserFS.   
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Jerry Feldman <[hidden email]> 
> > Boston Linux and Unix 
> > PGP key id: 537C5846 
> > PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 
> >   
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
> > 
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> >   
> 
> -- 
> John Abreau 
> IT Manager 
> Zuken USA 
> 238 Littleton Rd., Suite 100 
> Westford, MA 01886 
> T: 978-392-1777            F: 978-692-4725 
> M: 978-764-8934 
> E: [hidden email]  W: www.zuken.com 
> 
> 
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