Best Partitioning Scheme?

danimaldaisy · 04-16-2003, 06:25 PM

That all depends on what you have and how much money you wan't to spend.
Do you wan't to just work with what you have?
to at least give you an answer
start with a large capacity drive and follow the partitioning scheme as we discussed.
for example if you have a 80 gig drive and install redhat 8.0 with all of the packages, 100 meg fotr the boot partition and lets say 512 me for swap asuming you are using 256 meg of ram you should have a little more that 74 gig left plenty of roo to do whatever you want.

if you have the extra money get 2 identical drives and set 1 up with this scheme.
when you are done mirror it then let it install.(setup of course)
look around. 80 gig maxtors go for around $95 and up.
but size is up to you.
the reason i leave root for the remainder of the drive is because i have all that drive space to work with. if i start partitioning everything off than i hose myself because i run out of room later on.
besides i'm not running a corporation out of my house anyway.
my setup includes a 10 gig partitioned as i mentioned and also a 30 gig drive mounted as /usr/public for a file server and ftp. I'll need a bigger drive soon as you can never have to much drive space. hope that helps and as always someone else will come along and put there 2 cents in.

rivang · 04-16-2003, 10:17 PM

I do some web design on the side so rather than hand off my clients to someone else for hosting... I want to build a server capable of hosting websites using Apache, PHP, MySQL, DJBDNS, ProFTP and qMail.

I have built a box to start with... it has the following specs...

Athlon XP 1800
Shuttle AK31v3 motherboard
256MB DDR PC2100
Diamond Stealth 3D (old I know but should do fine for Fluxbox)
Quantum 40 GB drive
Western Digital 20GB drive
3com NIC

I want to start with adequate partitions to handle a moderately busy Apache, PHP, MySQL, DJBDNS, ProFTP and qMail server. I will split some of these tasks off to other boxes as my hosting venture grows.

Slackware is my distro of choice... cause it ROCKS...

I wish I would have known more about Linux back in 1998. If I had, I would have used Linux instead of Netware 5 to build an ISP. Netware worked very well but I could have certainly saved some $ using Linux.

danimaldaisy · 04-17-2003, 12:11 AM

ok now we are getting somewhere.
what needs to be determined here is what kind of bandwidth you have.
Is it way up there or average.
for example i host a few websites my self

celeron 366 fanless heatsink (peace of mind here knowing the cpu fan won't fail)
128meg of ram
10 gig harddrive
built on spare parts
mpower connection with 3 meg upstream.
no problems and can't tell the difference from this compared to the duron 1.3 i used to run.
serves ftp connections.
check out www.ikwote.com and rbsautomotive.com for examples

also my buddy runs a p1 233 with 128meg of ram at www.vicshouse.com
and also has a public ftp server all with a 160k upspeed.

So far my point is that you have more than enough computing power.
you are looking good

Haven't mess with slackware but obviously it comes with apache anyway.
be aware that the apache.org website doesn't tell you everything and since you wan't to host multiple sites with 1 ip address it won't be easy.
I can get you started just let me know where you start pulling you're hair out and let me know. you need to be familiar with dns to acomplish this. i remember a year ago i did not understand whet dns did now i know exactly what it does. you should have no problems.

Me since i'm cheap as far as maintaining a service am going to upgrade to the mini-itx via m6000 motherboard with a fanless 600 mhz cpu ddr udma 133 all the goodies
read about it here
http://www.viavpsd.com/product/epia_...therboardId=81
and see it here
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage....180-027-02.JPG
and it take about 60-70 watts to run the whole computer which if the monitor is in sleep mode it will cost almost nothing to operate.
i went all out building a performance server and realised that You don't need such a rediculous machine. you will soon realize that by experimenting. i just like the idea of a fanless cpu because i don't have to worry about the whole thing going up in smoke.
anyway let me know.

By the way for dns you wan't to stick with the bind config utility, for ftp go with vsftpd it is really easy to manage, sql ? do you mean ssl using certificates for a secure website? if you only plan on having 1 ip than you won't be able to do this since you are running multiple websites on 1 IP and apache doesn't support that yet. for each secure website you will need an additional ip address and a nic card for that address.(get's expensive) alot of hosting companies out there don't even offer a secure website for sql or ssl anyway.

I'm trying to get qmail installed and it's driving me nuts and as far as disk quota that is another thing driving me nuts as i wan't to limit the size of each ftp account and i can't. but i'll figure it out.

rivang · 04-17-2003, 08:48 AM

Well this is the Internet service provider, which was a full service ISP with Internet access, web hosting, email and FTP.

www.hawksnet.net

They sold their Internet customer base to another local ISP and transitioned to just web hosting.

Like I said, I built HawksNet on Netware 5.0/5.1 from the ground up. I still use Netware 5.1 as the NOS and Netscape Enterprise Webserver for Netware for the web server.

Enterprise Web Server provides several ways to host multiple websites on one server...

1. You can add secondary IP addresses that are bound to the same NIC... these are called hardware virtual servers.

2. You can use software virtual servers by adding config statements in the obj.conf... one of the main config files for Enterprise... by adding multiple document roots.

ie:
<Client urlhost="yourdomain.com">
NameTrans fn="document-root" root="vol1:/host/client"
</Client>
<Client urlhost="*.yourdomain.com">
NameTrans fn="document-root" root="vol1:/host/client"
</Client>

I am looking at replacing HawksNet's Netware server with a Linux box in the future... but just testing and trying to learn how to setup a Linux server capable of performing the needed tasks.

So by what you said about Apache, there is no support for any type of virtual hosts... where you can host multiple websites on one IP address?

So when you setup Apache, it is usually for one website?

danimaldaisy · 04-17-2003, 04:57 PM

no it supports all of that! with the exeption that if you decide to host multiple sites on 1 ip the ssl for secure websites must be disabled. And i know the lines that must be commented out in apache.
i work with apache 2.x and not 1.3 because for the life of me i could not get 1.3 to work but had success with ver. 2.x.
so if slackware comes with that distro you should be fine.
I got everything running in redhat 8.0 though and i'm hoping the same utilities are at least installed in slackware so that you can use that distro and still get the job done.

vamp · 05-18-2003, 11:11 AM

rviang,

How did you manage to partition your drive into so many partitions?

/boot 300MB hda1
/root 1000MB hda2
/swap 240MB hda3
/usr 1000MB hda5
/var 1000MB hda6
/opt 1000MB hda7
/home 1900MB hda8

I thought you can only create up to 4 partitions on any drive!

Thx!

fancypiper · 05-18-2003, 11:31 AM

You can have 4 primarypartitions, or 3 primary and one extended partition which contains several logical partitions.

doublefailure · 05-18-2003, 11:32 AM

mine..

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda8 2.8G 2.0G 713M 75% /
/dev/hda10 10G 6.9G 3.0G 69% /usr/local
/dev/hda6 23M 5.4M 16M 25% /boot
/dev/hda9 3.8G 3.1G 584M 85% /home
/dev/hda5 1.9G 827M 1.1G 42% /mnt/windows

vamp · 05-18-2003, 12:36 PM

fancypiper,

Would it matter which partitions you set as logical? (performance issues/ future upgrading/ expandability/ etc.

I'm guessing you wouldn't want the / and SWAP partitions to be logical...

fancypiper · 05-18-2003, 01:22 PM

I have only had troubles with the Windows 98 install. Sometimes it can see the extended partition and re-do the partitioning table.

As far as Linux is concerned, the modern kernels are happy with their partitions anywhere, either primary or logical.

If you drop back as far as say Redhat 6.2, that kernel had the 1024 cylinder limit that you may have read about.

# Freeware partitioning software
Look for fips20 on your install CD
Ranish Partition Manager
Tom's Root and Boot Floppy has Linux fdisk
Proper Filesystem Layout

My scheme:

Code:

[phil@uilleann phil]$ su -
Password:
[root@uilleann root]# fdisk /dev/hda -l
 
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 
   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         1      1217   9772056    c  Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2          1217      1229     99855   83  Linux
/dev/hda3          1230      1676   3590527+  83  Linux
/dev/hda4          1677      4865  25615642+   5  Extended
/dev/hda5          1677      1742    530113+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda6          1743      2189   3590496   83  Linux
/dev/hda7          2190      2636   3590496   83  Linux
/dev/hda8          2637      3751   8956206   83  Linux
/dev/hda9          3752      4865   8948173+  83  Linux
[root@uilleann root]#
[phil@uilleann phil]$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda6             3.4G  2.6G  620M  82% /
/dev/hda2              95M   11M   79M  12% /boot
/dev/hda8             8.6G  921M  7.7G  11% /home
/dev/hda3             3.5G  1.6G  2.0G  45% /mnt/gentoo
/dev/hda7             3.4G  2.2G  1.1G  69% /mnt/mandrake
/dev/hda1             9.4G  2.6G  6.8G  28% /mnt/winc
none                  251M     0  251M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda9             8.6G  943M  7.7G  11% /snd
/dev/hda2              95M   11M   79M  12% /mnt/gentoo/boot
/dev/hda9             8.6G  943M  7.7G  11% /mnt/gentoo/pub
[phil@uilleann phil]$

rivang · 05-19-2003, 10:24 AM

I have changed my default partitions based on many of the suggestions here.

I am currently using:

/boot 15 - 25MB more than sufficient if you need a /boot. I am not using a /boot at this time.

/ - 2GB - primary
/swap - 128MB - primary
/usr - 4GB - logical
/tmp - 1GB - logical
/var - 1GB - logical
/home - the rest of your space - logical

with this setup and a fresh install of Slackware 9.0... using the command "du -hs /*" my file systems look like:

/bin 6.2M
/boot 2.9M
/dev 293k
/etc 20M
/home 3.1M
/lib 16M
/mnt 2k
/opt 314M
/proc 1k
/root 1.2M
/sbin 6.7M
/tmp 2.4M
/usr 1.5G
/var 19M

fancypiper · 05-19-2003, 10:46 AM

I don't understand your reasoning for a separate /root partition. Could you explain?

Code:

[phil@uilleann phil]$ su -
Password:
[root@uilleann root]# find $1 -type d | xargs du -sm | sort -g
1       ./.elinks
1       ./.gconf
1       ./.gconf/apps
1       ./.gconf/apps/gnome-terminal
1       ./.gconf/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles
1       ./.gconf/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default
1       ./.gconf/apps/nautilus
1       ./.gconf/apps/nautilus/preferences
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets/battstat_applet
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets/clock_applet
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets/clock_applet/prefs
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets/mixer_applet
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets/pager_applet
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets/pager_applet/prefs
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets/tasklist_applet
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets/tasklist_applet/prefs
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/applets/tray_applet
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/general
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects/email_launcher
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects/help_launcher
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects/main_menu
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects/presentations_launcher
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects/print_launcher
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects/spreadsheet_launcher
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects/terminal_launcher
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects/web_browser_launcher
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/objects/wordprocessor_launcher
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/panels
1       ./.gconf/apps/panel/profiles/default/panels/bottom_panel
1       ./.gconfd
1       ./.gconf/desktop
1       ./.gconf/desktop/gnome
1       ./.gconf/desktop/gnome/applications
1       ./.gconf/desktop/gnome/applications/window_manager
1       ./.gconf/desktop/gnome/file_views
1       ./.gnome
1       ./.gnome2
1       ./.gnome2/accels
1       ./.gnome2/panel2.d
1       ./.gnome2/panel2.d/default
1       ./.gnome2/panel2.d/default/launchers
1       ./.gnome2_private
1       ./.gnome2/share
1       ./.gnome2/share/cursor-fonts
1       ./.gnome2/share/fonts
1       ./.gnome/application-info
1       ./.gnome/apps
1       ./.gnome/apps/Multimedia
1       ./.gnome-desktop
1       ./.gnome/gnome-vfs
1       ./.gnome/mime-info
1       ./.gstreamer
1       ./.kde
1       ./.kde/share
1       ./.kde/share/applnk
1       ./.kde/share/applnk/Multimedia
1       ./.kde/share/mimelnk
1       ./.kde/share/mimelnk/application
1       ./.kde/share/mimelnk/audio
1       ./.kde/share/mimelnk/image
1       ./.kde/share/mimelnk/text
1       ./.kde/share/mimelnk/video
1       ./.mc
1       ./.mc/cedit
1       ./.metacity
1       ./.metacity/sessions
1       ./.mozilla/default/3tjl6t5f.slt/chrome
1       ./nano-1.2.1/m4
1       ./.nautilus
1       ./.nautilus/metafiles
1       ./.netscape
1       ./.netscape/plugins
1       ./.realnetworks
1       ./Real/Plugins/ExtResources
1       ./Real/Update_OB/UI
1       ./.synaptic
1       ./.xcdroast
2       ./.mozilla
2       ./.mozilla/default
2       ./.mozilla/default/3tjl6t5f.slt
2       ./.mozilla/default/3tjl6t5f.slt/Cache
2       ./nano-1.2.1/po
2       ./Real/Common
3       ./Real/Codecs
3       ./Real/Update_OB
5       ./nano-1.2.1
5       ./Real/RCAPlugins
8       ./Real/Plugins
18      ./Real
27      .
[root@uilleann root]#

rivang · 05-19-2003, 10:56 AM

that was a type o... should have just been

/

I edited my post above to correct that.

Azmeen · 05-19-2003, 11:24 AM

If you need input from a newbie at using linux as a primary desktop OS... however, I do have some experience in hosting...

/boot is quite overrated, it just holds the kernel and small files such as System.map... You rarely need a /boot partition more than 20 megs, unless of course you have about 15 kernel choices to choose when booting.

As for other partitions, since you already know that you will host two sites, maybe you'd like to hard partition /home/site1 and /home/site2. But it will be problematic should they fully use the apportioned space, and need more in the future.

I would suggest the following schema:
/boot ...... about 20 megs
/ ............. all space available after deducting /boot and swap
swap ....... 2.5 * physical ram (I know it sounds Windows-ish, but it's sound advice

)

Anyway, good luck with your choices!

p/s: Experts, please give opinions on whether my statement here is suitable or otherwise for a hosting environment. Your input is highly appreciated.