Re: *nix partitioning practices

Ben Scott <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.org.operators.internet-access
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 10:46 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
> Sorry if this is pretty basic ...

  Not so much "basic" as "religious".  It's very subjective and tends
to stir endless debate.  But hey, this is the Internet.  It's what we
do.  :)

  I'm in the "lots of partitions" camp.  My preference (coming from Linux) is:

* LVM.  Partitions are so last century.  Resize easily.  Snapshots.  Etc.
* root = 1 GB; set to fsck every mount
* /boot = 200 MB; set to fsck every mount
* /usr = as big as it needs to be, typically 2 to 8 GB
* /usr/local = as big as it needs to be, typically 2 to 4 GB
* /home = as big as it needs to be
* /sites = websites; as big as it needs to be
* /var = 1 to 3 GB
* /tmp = 1 to 3 GB
* /var/log = sized on predicted demand
* separate LVs for mail/print/whatever spools

  I like /usr and /usr/local separate to have the option of a forklift
upgrades of the distro.

  I like a separate /root partly out of habit, partly to minimize the
area for damage, partly to keep fsck quick, partly to enable the
option of a read-only /usr.  Linux usually puts vi in root so that's
not so bad.

  I keep user home directories separate from websites on general
principles.  noexec on /home can be useful, depending on user
community.

  I like the various spool and log directories on separate filesystems
so one run-away process filling up its filesystem won't screw up the
rest of the system.  This has saved me before.  Less important if
you've got easy hands-on on the machine, or if it's a single-purpose
machine.

  I have a tendency to over-engineer things.

-- Ben
-- 
Eat sushi frequently. - Avi
[email protected] is the human contact address.
[email protected] is the list posting address.
See below URL for subscribe/unsubscribe and list options:
http://inet-access.net/mailman/listinfo/list
lmpx.com only provides a reader for public news (NNTP) servers. It is not affiliated with the servers or forums shown here and is not responsible for the content of articles, which is written by their respective authors.