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Newer page: version 10 Last edited on Sunday, November 28, 2004 10:26:28 am by AristotlePagaltzis
Older page: version 9 Last edited on Sunday, November 28, 2004 1:34:56 am by AristotlePagaltzis Revert
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-If you a looking for a tool to re-partition a drive that is already in use (and you don't want to lose the data on the partitions), you could use the proprietary (but very good) PartitionMagic, or the [Free ] tool parted(8) .  
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-For a thorough explanation of partitioning, read the [Linux Partition HOWTO | http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/].  
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-You may also want to read a [mini howto on swap | http://www.xenotime.net/linux/swap-mini-howto.txt] someone wrote.  
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-Here are some recommendations for your drive partitioning scheme:  
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-__<tt>hda1</tt>: <tt>/boot</tt> (32-64MB)__:  
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- Historically [LILO] could not read past 1024 cylinders, so people created their first or second partition as <tt>/boot</tt>.  
- While this limitation has been lifted, a separate <tt>/boot</tt> is still a good idea.  
- It lets you to mount your <tt>/boot</tt> as read-only, which protects your all-important [Kernel] from being accidentally blown away by careless fingers.  
- It also lets you stick to using [Ext2] for <tt>/boot</tt> while using [Ext3] or some other more advanced FileSystem on your root partition.  
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-__<tt>hda2</tt>: swap (128-256MB)__:  
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- Older [Linux] [Kernel]s could not use more than 128[MB] of swap in a single partition.  
- New kernels do not have this limitation, but you shouldn't have more than about 256MB of swap (128MB is probably enough really).  
- If you find yourself running into swap a lot you should buy more RAM.  
- Swap is not a substitute for RAM, it is a safety zone so that your system doesn't run out of [RAM] and kill running processes.  
- It is also used as a place to swap out rarely used chunks of [RAM] (ie all those getty(8)s you still have running while you're in X).  
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-__<tt>hda3</tt>: <tt>/</tt> (1-4GB)__:  
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- The root partition, which is where everything gets chucked on a workstation.  
- The biggest area of your root partition will be <tt>/usr</tt> or <tt>/opt</tt>.  
- How big you make this partition all depends on what apps and packages you will be installing.  
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-__<tt>hda4</tt>__:  
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- The [PC] [BIOS] only supports 4 primary partions, so your 4th primary becomes an extended partion which covers the entire remaining portion of your disk.  
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-__<tt>hda5</tt>: <tt>/usr/local</tt> (1-2GB)__:  
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- This is where you can build and install [Package]s from source TarBall~s.  
- Everything outside of <tt>/usr/local</tt> should be managed by PackageManagement.  
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-__<tt>hda6</tt>: <tt>/home</tt> (the rest of the drive)__:  
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- All your user accounts, warez, pr0n, mp3s etc. :)  
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-This is a good layout for a personal workstation as it ensures that all your user data is on another partition safe from OperatingSystem upgades. Servers on the other hand should have a slightly different layout. Generally they also have the following partitions:  
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-__<tt>/tmp</tt>, <tt>/var/tmp</tt> (256-512MB, maybe more)__:  
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- Make sure these partitions are large enough, but don't waste too much space on them.  
- Having a separate partition for them is good, because the turnover of files is very fast, which leads to fragmentation.  
- It also helps, because they are problematic since everyone can write there.  
- A separate partition ensures that people cannot overflow important partitions by filling the temp space with crud.  
- It also allows using separate mount(8) options such as <tt>noexec</tt> and <tt>nosuid</tt> which prevent people from creating executable files.  
- Be careful.  
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-__<tt>/var</tt> (512MB-1GB)__  
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- This is the variable data area is where logs and other files important for system auditing and monitoring are stored.  
- __Make sure this partition is large enough__ so there is always enough space on <tt>/var</tt> for your log files to continue being written to.  
- Take as many steps as possible to protect these files: areas like <tt>/var/spool</tt> or <tt>/var/imap</tt> should have their modes/attributes changed to try and ensure there is no data lost on server failures.  
- Investigate the <tt>sync</tt> mount option and the chattr(1) command.  
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-__/usr (whatever your feel is adaquate/sufficient for your situation)__:  
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- To add additional protection to your applications from system crackers you can mount your <tt>/usr</tt> partition readonly.  
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-CategoryDiskNotes  
+Describe [DrivePartitioning ] here