question about partition sizes by new user?

[danbpc]

Question about recommended partition sizes for a small linux server, or hints or rules of thumbs. The information I have recommends 6 partitions for a server, but only recommends a suggested size for one, the swap file.
the partitions are
/usr
/home
/var
/tmp
<swap> equal to ram size of computer (97 mb in my case)
/boot

I have a older pentium 133 I am converting into a print & file server for a Desktop publishing business with a 1.2 gb hard drive in c: and a new 30 gb hard drive I think I need a new ata/eide card to get to work (bios issues) for D: any suggestions are welcome

 

[ifincham]

Hi,


/boot - 10 to 30mb only (depending on how many bootable kernels you want to have at the same time
/ - 100 mb
/tmp - 100 mb
/var - 500+ mb (contains all logs & spool files - but if you are running apache / nntp, etc should be bigger)
/usr - 2+ gb (really depends on how many packages you install - might need bigger or could get away with half without X)
/home - Remainder of space (this is where users would ordinarily store files. Especially if DTP, this may need to be quite generous)

On the swap, I would probably go for twice physical ram - some people recommend three times. This is particularly the case if you are going to use a 2.4 series kernel as they are a bit more demanding in terms of memory.

Hope this helps

 

[MrTom]

i'd say just one big partition for / and then double memory size for swap or 256mb, which ever is bigger.
there are few performance increases in having lots of partitions, i'd only have lots if i was very worried about security or if having different filesystems had an advantage.

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

Re MrTom's post. There are certainly some advantages in having everything in a single root partition vs multiple partitions - in particular you avoid the scenario where if you guess the wrong sizes for partitions you can end up with too little space in one area and wasted space elsewhere.

However, the main disadvantage is that if there is an error/corruption somewhere you are at more risk of losing your entire root partition. Also, its more flexible to have multiple partitions in terms of back-up and swapping media, etc.

There are no absolute rules on this. The simplest you can have is one swap partition and one linux (ext2) partition. In your case, you can't do this simply because you have two physical drives. However, you could make it a bit simpler if you like - e.g. put /boot, /tmp, & /var on the first drive and everything else in '/' on the second drive. Certainly, the modern trend is to use multiple partitions to some degree. Also, its a good idea to split things across physical drives in terms of disk i/o performance.

Regards

 

[marsd]

The posts above are correct:
Either way is fine ; ifinchams is better if you are
worried about security and data integrity; Mr.Toms
if you want ease of use and a low maintenance install.

if you really want flexibility look at the LVM
howto.

 

[danbpc]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will incorporate them in my setup.