Re: Partitioning of new machine

On Fri, 8 Aug 2014 12:14:31 +0200
"B. M." <b-misc@gmx.ch> wrote:

Hi all,

While I'm waiting for the components of my new machine

(testing/jessie) I'm thinking about the optimal partitioning scheme

which should last for the next 10 years :-)

The system looks like:

Haswell 3.4 GHz

8 GB RAM (later upgradeable up to 32 GB)

250 GB SSD

2 TB HDD

What do you think about the following:

=== SSD: ===

/boot unencrypted, 300 MB

/ ext4, encrypted, 25-30 GB

/home ext4, encrypted, keyfile, 220-225 GB

User data for two users

=== HDD (in this order for performance reasons): ===

/var HDD, ext4, encrypted, keyfile, 25 GB

It's so large because I want to add a directory /var/src below /var

to compile a kernel on the HDD if necessary

/databases HDD, ext4, encrypted, keyfile, barrier=0, 10 GB

Used for the db's of digikam (1 user), akonadi and amarok

(2 users each)

swap HDD, swapfs, encrypted, 5 GB (not hibernation)

/video HDD, btrfs, 560 GB

Subvolumes:

/video/editing

/video/series

=> for video editing or series, no backup, not encrypted

/data HDD, btrfs, encrypted, keyfile, RAID1 (2 x 700 GB).

With subvolumes for digikam archive, movie archive and music

What do you think (sizes, file systems, number of partitions, ...)?

Is it still a good idea to put /var on an HDD, not a SSD?

Video editing is currently not required, it's more like an option for

the future (1y or so) and might require a second HDD (source and

target drive for rendering to increase r/w performance).

To keep it simple and usable I'll use keyfiles for all partitions

except /.

Thanks for your inputs and all the best.

Hi BM,

If you really want your partitioning scheme to last 10 years, in my
opinion you need to:

1: Work from LVM

2: Use a rolling release distro (Gentoo, for instance)

3: Do bare metal backups often so a disk crash doesn't lose your
partitioning.

And now some answers to your other questions. From what I've heard and
seen, you're still best off moving directories regularly written off
your SSD. I strongly suggest you take /home *off* your SSD.

My desktop's SSD is mainly there to hold /usr. All the rest of the
usual suspects are mounted on my two spinning disks:

=====================================================
slitt@mydesq2:~$ mount | grep "^/dev/" | sort | sed -e"s/(.*//"
/dev/disk/by-uuid/2598ea36-258d-480f-b1a7-eae244962526 on / type ext4
/dev/sdb1 on /home type ext4
/dev/sdb2 on /s type ext4
/dev/sdb3 on /d type ext4
/dev/sdb4 on /inst type ext4
/dev/sdb5 on /classic/a type ext4
/dev/sdb6 on /classic/b type ext4
/dev/sdb7 on /classic/c type ext4
/dev/sdb8 on /home/slitt/mail/Maildir type ext4
/dev/sdb9 on /scratch type ext4
/dev/sdc1 on /boot type ext4
/dev/sdc6 on /var type ext4
/dev/sdc7 on /tmp type ext4
/dev/sdc8 on /run type ext4
slitt@mydesq2:~$
=====================================================

The philosophy of the preceding is:

/dev/sdb is meant to hold my data, stuff I must not lose, stuff that
must be backed up.

/dev/sdc is meant to hold stuff written by the OS.

/dev/by-uuid/yada_yada_yada is my SSD, mounted as /, and its purpose is
to hold /usr, so programs load faster. Also, by booting to a small SSD,
I can avoid guid and all that stuff, and boot from LILO. I've decided
that, from now on, on desktops, I'll exclusively use LILO with a small
boot disk (SSD). I'm sooooo over grub2.

One more thing I can say. IMHO, a partitioning scheme isn't a 10 year
decision. You're lucky if it's a 4 year decision. I guarantee you that
4 years from now, you data will have grown in ways you never would have
guessed.

I'm an elder in the Church of the Known State, so I *never* upgrade
from one Linux version to the next (wheezy to jessie, for instance).
Instead, I wipe all drives used by the OS (and now you know why I have
all my data, and only my data, on a separate physical disk), and
install the new version (Jessie for instance) from scratch. More work?
Maybe, depending on how well the upgrade would have gone if I'd done
it. But my way avoids all those nasty ghosts of operating systems past,
and brings my computer back to a known state, for easier
troubleshooting.

So every time I change versions, I have a chance to adjust my
partitioning.

HTH,

SteveT

Steve Litt * http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training * Human Performance