Re: partitions and groups

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

[Holger Levsen]
> Whats the time difference when fscking three 20gb partitions
> compared to one 60gb partition? Backup also takes exactly the same
> time.

I do not have the numbers, but would expect fsck of the 60 GiB
partition to take up to 9 times longer than the three 20 GiB
partitions.  For backup restore time, the point is not the total time,
but the average time per user.  With smaller partitions and less
users, it is possible to bring some users online after each partition
is restored (all the users on that partition), and this will allow the
system to get at least partly online after a crash.  The point with
smaller partitions to restore is to reduce the average restore time
per user, not to reduce the total restore time.

>> Very large partitions will give you problems in emergencies.
> 
> Which?

Long fsck times and high average restore time per user.

> And then you spent *manual* time/work to (re-)assign different home
> directories to different partitions?

Well, it is not that hard, if you do it before you create the users.
Some schools have stored different user groups (like teachers and
pupils start year) in different partitions to ease administration.
That might be a good idea for larger installations.

> I really fail to see the advantage, but I wouldn't be too surprised
> if you could explain ;-)

Perhaps I managed to make sense to you.  If not, I can try again when
I am less tired. :)

Happy hacking,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen