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Old 08-17-2012, 08:55 AM   #31
Aunnix
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sjreilly View Post
Their "download" is your "upload".
External viewers won't be able to dowload from your site faster than you can upload content.
Within your home network you are, of course, only limited by your home network speed - wireless, 100M or 1G LAN.
Ah, ok.. makes sense. I will ask my ISP what my upload speed is to see if I need to increase it. What would be recommended as an upload speed? Starting out and in terms of long run (say for the next year or so)?
 
Old 08-17-2012, 09:02 AM   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ks8 View Post
Yes, /root is for the system files. 20GB is plenty. You can back up the image with GParted-Clonzilla easily and fast (clonzilla is a package inside GParted). /home is where the user data are. You can back it up with grsync which can do incremental backup(come as debian package).

I also use ext3 (partition type) for /root, and ext4 for /home. You can read about them in aboutdebian.com
erm, /root is for USER root's files, it should be the same partition as /

as for partitions, i would stick with as few as possible
say
/
/home
/var
/etc

that covers user accounts, most global config files, and many common daemon's files such as mysql, and apache etc..
 
Old 08-17-2012, 09:03 AM   #33
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No need to call the ISP, just stop all Internet traffic and run a bandwidth test (google "bandwidth test" and run any of the top 5 results). That'll tell you what your actual upload speed is, not what the ISP says it should be.
 
Old 08-17-2012, 09:14 AM   #34
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frieza View Post
erm, /root is for USER root's files, it should be the same partition as /

as for partitions, i would stick with as few as possible
say
/
/home
/var
/etc

that covers user accounts, most global config files, and many common daemon's files such as mysql, and apache etc..

Yeah, I'd like to use a few as possible. It seems like it would be easier to keep organized, and since it's going to be basically a "storage" server, I don't want to have to search through several partitions to access some data.

So / (or /root) will house the OS and packages installed?
/home will house my data being stored?
what will /var and /etc be used for?
Where does this "swap" partition (mentioned earlier in the thread) come into play?
 
Old 08-17-2012, 09:18 AM   #35
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Originally Posted by suicidaleggroll View Post
No need to call the ISP, just stop all Internet traffic and run a bandwidth test (google "bandwidth test" and run any of the top 5 results). That'll tell you what your actual upload speed is, not what the ISP says it should be.

How do I stop all internet traffic? Am I just making sure that no one is accessing the internet while the test is performed? Thanks for the info. I do hate talking to the ISP because they'll say I have the 8M connection but they don't tell me what my connection speed actually runs at and that the 8M is the cap for my connection, not my actual connection... lol
 
Old 08-17-2012, 09:50 AM   #36
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Just make sure nobody is downloading/uploading anything, shut off the web server, ftp server, stop all torrents, etc. You don't have to do anything special, just make sure the bandwidth tester has as much bandwidth as possible so you get the best reading, otherwise it'll read lower than actual.
 
Old 08-17-2012, 09:51 AM   #37
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You might want to check what your ISP has already published regarding terms of use. My ISP says 'No servers allowed', but this is not enforced unless they have a reason to. I've been running a web server on my home internet connection for years, and never had an issue with my ISP about it, but then, I never told them I was doing so. I would think that if you keep your overall throughput within your quota, and possibly some ratio of upload/download reasonable (my ISP does monitor this, apparently to monitor torrent servers violating copyright infringement), you should be able to fly under the radar. If you ask them about the spec's related to running a server, they will probably tell you that you need to pay for a commercial service.

--- rod.
 
Old 08-17-2012, 09:54 AM   #38
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aunnix View Post
Yeah, I'd like to use a few as possible. It seems like it would be easier to keep organized, and since it's going to be basically a "storage" server, I don't want to have to search through several partitions to access some data.

So / (or /root) will house the OS and packages installed?
/home will house my data being stored?
what will /var and /etc be used for?
Where does this "swap" partition (mentioned earlier in the thread) come into play?
/ holds the OS and packages

/root is the root user's home directory, and looks pretty much like any regular user's home directory.

/home holds the home directory for all users (except root), along with all of the data they place in their home directory, their preferences/settings for web browsers and email, any files they have on their desktop, their desktop settings, etc.

/var holds misc OS log files and some other things

/etc holds misc OS settings files

swap is used when your RAM fills up, it's like Windows' page file. When you max out the RAM, the OS starts transferring data from RAM to swap to keep the OS from locking up. It's used a bit here and there for some RAM optimization as well, but the big purpose is to give yourself some breathing room if you run out of RAM, so the computer doesn't come to a screeching halt.

"data" can be placed anywhere you like.

Last edited by suicidaleggroll; 08-17-2012 at 09:56 AM.
 
Old 08-17-2012, 10:28 AM   #39
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Originally Posted by theNbomr View Post
You might want to check what your ISP has already published regarding terms of use. My ISP says 'No servers allowed', but this is not enforced unless they have a reason to. I've been running a web server on my home internet connection for years, and never had an issue with my ISP about it, but then, I never told them I was doing so. I would think that if you keep your overall throughput within your quota, and possibly some ratio of upload/download reasonable (my ISP does monitor this, apparently to monitor torrent servers violating copyright infringement), you should be able to fly under the radar. If you ask them about the spec's related to running a server, they will probably tell you that you need to pay for a commercial service.

--- rod.

When you say "keep your overall throughput within your quota..." what exactly do you mean? My quota of what? Connection speed(s)? Since I'm not much of a file sharer, I would think that I can keep within this "quota" of whatever it is for... And the websites hosted will basically be portfolio/resume type websites.. maybe a blog or something.. I mainly want a web server where I can test PHP and mySQL development without having to login to godaddy and then login to five other admin areas to complete some testing. I doubt I'll be offering very many files for users/viewers to download.

When I called my ISP a week ago, they understood I wanted to setup a server and didn't say anything about needing to upgrade my service. They transferred me to their tech team, who apparently couldn't understand what I was wanting to do. I told him I wanted to run a small server to host a personal website or two and wanted to make sure I was allowed to do so and asked about them scanning for open ports and closing them on me. He sounded confused and basically told me to call them back when I set it up and they will help me as much as they can.. haha.
 
Old 08-17-2012, 10:35 AM   #40
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Originally Posted by suicidaleggroll View Post
/ holds the OS and packages

/root is the root user's home directory, and looks pretty much like any regular user's home directory.

/home holds the home directory for all users (except root), along with all of the data they place in their home directory, their preferences/settings for web browsers and email, any files they have on their desktop, their desktop settings, etc.

/var holds misc OS log files and some other things

/etc holds misc OS settings files

swap is used when your RAM fills up, it's like Windows' page file. When you max out the RAM, the OS starts transferring data from RAM to swap to keep the OS from locking up. It's used a bit here and there for some RAM optimization as well, but the big purpose is to give yourself some breathing room if you run out of RAM, so the computer doesn't come to a screeching halt.

"data" can be placed anywhere you like.
Ok, got ya. So, I'll end up with 4 or 5 partitions, but everyone is recommending that I only use or two partitions.. are they referring to the partitions outstide of the OS partitions (/, /root, /var, /etc)? So only have like 1 or 2 "/home" partitions where I will be storing my data?

How difficult will it be to setup the 3rd HDD for the OS files so I can leave the 2 750GB completely intact for the /home partition/data storage?
 
Old 08-17-2012, 10:49 AM   #41
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aunnix View Post
When you say "keep your overall throughput within your quota..." what exactly do you mean?
Many ISP's limit your data throughput to some number. My ISP has different levels of service with different speeds and different
monthly GB transfer limits, for different prices, of course. I once had my service cut off temporarily for exceeding my quota. My provider currently has limits of 125, 200, 400, 500 & 1000 GB per month for their various plans. These numbers were originally much smaller (I think as low as 2GB per month). Now that I've checked those numbers, I see that they also publish both their upload and download speeds, so maybe they've changed their policies regarding servers.
--- rod.
 
Old 08-17-2012, 10:51 AM   #42
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You need to remember that partitions in Linux are not like partitions in Windows. In Windows, every drive/partition is completely separate from the rest. You have your C: drive, you have your D: drive, E:, F:, G:, and so on. Each drive/partition is completely independent, and the kicker is, each one has its own directory structure. If your OS is on C:, it will only ever be on C:. Getting your C:\Program Files to actually live on D: is not exactly easy, for example.

Linux is different in that there is ONE directory structure, which can be distributed across multiple drives if you so desire. The root of the directory structure is "/", EVERYTHING, no matter what physical device/partition it lives on, is in a subdirectory of "/" (or a subdirectory of a subdirectory, etc). You will always have an /etc directory, you will always have a /var directory, /home directory, /root directory, and many others. It is up to you whether you want these directories to lie on their OWN partition, or to simply be subdirectories of / on /'s partition.

What the above people are saying is that you might want to place /home on its own drive, separate from everything else in /. Whether you want to do the same with /etc or /var is up to you. If you don't put them on their own partition, they will still exist, they will just live on the same partition as / rather than their own, separate partition.

Setting up the OS on a third drive outside the RAID is quite easy, and in many ways it's actually easier than trying to install everything on the RAID. The reason is if in the future you decide you want to wipe the OS and install a new one, getting the new OS to recognize and correctly configure the RAID DURING the installation process can often be tricky. However, you can easily install the OS on the single drive, and then rebuild the RAID once you're in the OS and re-mount it where it's supposed to be.

I did this exact thing recently. I had a Fedora 10 system, OS on one drive, /home on a 4-drive 3TB RAID 10. I wiped the OS and installed CentOS 6.3 in its place. CentOS did NOT recognize or configure the RAID properly during install. When I was up and running everything was on the one boot drive, and fdisk told me I had four 1.5TB drives just sitting there. However, once I was in the OS I was able to use mdadm to scan and rebuild the RAID 10, edit /etc/fstab to mount it back in /home, rebooted, and my home directory, all of its contents, and all of its settings was exactly how I had left them on Fedora 10.

This is the advantage of separating parts of the filesystem onto other partitions. /home is usually the first one to make it onto its own partition, and depending on what you do with the system you may decide to move others as well.

Last edited by suicidaleggroll; 08-17-2012 at 11:03 AM.
 
Old 08-17-2012, 10:51 AM   #43
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I would go with grabbing a download ISO of parted magic (http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=downloads), boot from the burned CD with all the drives fitted then you can use gparted to partion each drive before installing the OS. Parted Magic also has Clonzilla on the CD so that you can image your OS drive to provide a backup once you are happy with your setup.
 
Old 08-17-2012, 11:03 AM   #44
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Yes, these are all just our own ways of doing things - serving suggestions.

Like I said before - Have a play. Make mistakes (I've made plenty) but you can start again and learn from the experience.
 
Old 08-17-2012, 11:11 AM   #45
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a standard desktop install can get away with 2 partitions, / and swap, though keeping separate partitions for /home, /var and /etc, although not necessary can make any persistent changes to OS settings, personal files, and logs and home directories able to survive a wipe and reinstall of the OS in case something gets hosed. this is why separate partitions is often seen, though a bare minimum of / and swap is all that is technically necessary on modern hardware, on older units a separate /boot partition was needed at the beginning of the drive to hold the kernel and second stage boot loader in a section of hard drive accessible by the BIOS, but that is irrelevant nowadays.
 
  


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