Re: Web server Partitions
"Braxton Neate" <braxtonn@hitechtooling.com.au> writes:
> I know this is a question that gets asked a lot, but googling around
> I can't seem to find a good answer. I'm re-installing a web/sql
> server which currently has one large root partition and a swap
> partition. This is obviously not the best setup.
>
> I'm wondering what other people would recommend in the way of
> partitioning?
>
> The server is a 2x 800mhz PIII with 512MB RAM and a 40GB hard drive.
It depends on your exact needs. Assuming you have no normal
interactive users, I'd probably set it up as
/var/www -- "big enough", maybe 10-15 GB
/var/lib/postgres (or whever) -- "big enough", maybe 10-15 GB
swap -- 0.5-1 GB
/ -- Whatever's left
On this sort of system, the main benefits you get from partitioning
are fault isolation: if something gets confused on your root
filesystem, and fsck can't recover it, you haven't lost your data.
Alternatively, if you decide to reinstall the system, this
partitioning scheme lets you reinstall software but keep data. If you
have a substantial amount of built-from-source software, you might
also consider a partition for /usr/local for similar reasons.
Adding more partitions, in my experience, doesn't make the system more
manageable; a common thing to happen is to install the system with a
small /var partition and then later realize that using APT is painful
because it wants lots of space in /var/cache/apt. Or you make /usr
too small, or /tmp too small, and run into problems later on.
--
David Maze dmaze@debian.org http://people.debian.org/~dmaze/
"Theoretical politics is interesting. Politicking should be illegal."
-- Abra Mitchell
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