Re: Partitioning

["John Abreau-2" <user=184@nabble.blu.org>]

 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 
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