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Just wanted to get some suggestions on a partition layout.
I am setting up a Samba PDC on our network. It will obviously, be where all of our users authenticate against. We are planning on storing applications on the Samba PDC as well as documents on the PDC. Users will be using applications that will look to the PDC for it's database information.
I have a server currently with 4 SCSI 36gb drives setup in a RAID 5 array.
I wanted to get some suggestions on a partition scheme that I will not have to alter in the future.
Under raid 5 I think that should give you 108GB. Remember I said that I was setting up a samba server but not as a PDC - this was my config (roughly - I aint at the server just now).
/boot = 100MB
/ = 1024MB
/var = 1024MB
/usr = 5120MB
/home = 100000MB
I felt that our main goal was users file backup so I made the home partition biggest. We are using 2x120GB drives in a raid array and 2 machines running as failover (well they will be when ldap is ready). We will also be using the system for network authentication but that is irrelevant.
Yep. That is about right. I should have about 108GB on RAID 5.
I should mention that this server has a ServRAID card in it. Very nice card and setup. I have the ability to use hot swap and spare drives, in case a drive goes down.
I was thinking of just setting up the RAID 5 array as basic as possible, as I think it would be fine.
Thoughts on that?
I then need to do the partition layout. I was thinking of adding a /tmp directory of about 50-100mb, just to have.
One thing I keep thinking about is, the fact that this server will be holding some application data that our users will be continuously using on a regular basis. Not only does it hold the application, but the data as well.
Should I create a seperate partition for applications?
I should mention that this server has a ServRAID card in it. Very nice card and setup. I have the ability to use hot swap and spare drives, in case a drive goes down.
I was thinking of just setting up the RAID 5 array as basic as possible, as I think it would be fine.
Thoughts on that?
If they are hot swapable and checked as part of a daily (or more often) system check then I think you should be OK. I have a script on ours that runs every 15mins and will send out an alert if a drive is down.
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I then need to do the partition layout. I was thinking of adding a /tmp directory of about 50-100mb, just to have.
I would have thought "/tmp" would be ok under "/" unless your apps use it a lot for file swapping. Talking of which, I forgot to include a swap in the layout I posted earlier.
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One thing I keep thinking about is, the fact that this server will be holding some application data that our users will be continuously using on a regular basis. Not only does it hold the application, but the data as well.
Should I create a seperate partition for applications?
I usually use "/home" as a data partition for user and system data - ie any websites etc are in a subdirectory of home.
If you are using a large database application for instance (or any other app that writes and deletes losts of data - ie is likely to fragment a disk) then - yes I would probably create a seperate partition data.
If at all possible though I would keep the programs them self in "/usr". This should stop them from becoming so fragmented and you can also put the "/usr" partiton at the front of the drive to increase performance yet again.
Good points there david_ross. I have a lot to consider.
I have been reviewing my documentation that will go onto this server in particular. Here is a quick list of some things that will be on here. (Maybe we can brain storm additional ideas...)
-Samba PDC
User files (my documents essentially)
-Miscellaneous files and documents to be used
-A major application program that 30+ users will be using...holds all the templates and data files
-A second, but not as major application..
That is about it for now.
Basically, we have one major application that will be holding data and templates that all users will be using on a daily basis.
Let's see:
/boot = 100mb
/ = I go back and forth here...1-2gb
/var =
/usr =
/home =
/swap = (Machine has 2gigs of RAM...1-2 gig swap?)
/tmp = 100mb (Maybe)
I am trying to decide where I am going to put the major application. I should mention, that this specific application holds data in many different directories. For example, on our current Windows Server, there is a wide range of directories that hold data and additional stuff for this app.
Probably in excess of 8+ directories on the Windows server.
If at all possible though I would keep the programs them self in "/usr". This should stop them from becoming so fragmented and you can also put the "/usr" partiton at the front of the drive to increase performance yet again.
The actual programs themself, are windows based really. They will just have a bunch of directories that need to be setup to hold data. Basically, it can start in one of two folders, then possibly move to any of a couple of other folders that the program will use.
As far as increasing performance, you mean setting up a particular partition first, such as /usr, right?
-Samba PDC
User files (my documents essentially)
-Miscellaneous files and documents to be used
I would say that that is pretty conclusively "/home" and not much else.[/B][/QUOTE]
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-A major application program that 30+ users will be using...holds all the templates and data files
I assume this is just accessed via samba. I don't know if you will see much performance increase by puting it on a seperate partition. It may be slightly tidier but there is the downside that if you don't have an extremely clear idea of how much space will be consumed by users and data fro the app then it may be difficult to choose partion sizers.
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-A second, but not as major application..
ditto - assuming it is a similar app.
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Let's see:
/boot = 100mb
/ = I go back and forth here...1-2gb
/var =
/usr =
/home =
/swap = (Machine has 2gigs of RAM...1-2 gig swap?)
/tmp = 100mb (Maybe)
I would go with:
/boot = 100mb
/ = 2gb is the safest unless you think your apps will need all the space available.
/var = 1GB (Assuming you don't want to keep logs indefinitely)
/usr = 5GB (roughly - that is enough for a full install with most os's and should give you spavce for the future)
DATA = the rest (may be just /home or /home and /data)
swap = 500MB (the server's performance sounds like it is likely to be hit by performance on drives rather than memory)
/tmp = I would tend to put it on / unless there is an app on the server that needs a lot of temporary swap space.
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I am trying to decide where I am going to put the major application. I should mention, that this specific application holds data in many different directories. For example, on our current Windows Server, there is a wide range of directories that hold data and additional stuff for this app.
Probably in excess of 8+ directories on the Windows server.
I assume the will be OK to put under one root directory though. Lookign at you setup - you may want to make the data partions at the front of the drive if they are likely to be under 5GB as it may increase the performance and you don't really need server apps to be readilly available as they are generally loaded into memory anyway.
I'm heading out for the night - I'll check back tomorrow to see if you've got any more ideas. It is a good exercise to do before you build the systems - have you seen the number of questions here about parted lately?
I'm heading out for the night - I'll check back tomorrow to see if you've got any more ideas. It is a good exercise to do before you build the systems - have you seen the number of questions here about parted lately?
Yes, that is exactly why I am doing as much research as I can. I do not, I repeat, do not want to use parted on this system once it is up and running. This is mission critical stuff, so I need to get everything up and running correctly the first time.
I should learn parted, just to learn though.
I will definitely post more stuff/questions when I have them.
Once I have a good idea on my layout, I will post it here.
This next part is where I keep going back and forth.
/home = rest?
Reason: I was planning on putting our user documents in here as well as our application and data. For instance, make a directory called:
/home/application(s)
Since this server will have about 3 applications that will be used by the clients (Just accessing data really) I figured, I could make a directories for specific apps:
/home/point = inside here would be all the folders that work with point
/home/docutech = same as point
I should also mention that I was planning on putting the /home partition at the beginning of the disk, for better performance.
Also, put the /home partition at the beginning of the disk, thus create the /home partition first correct? This will give the best performance.
Yes. It is the fastest part of the disk and from the use of the server that you are describing I would anticipate that your most limiting factors in this case would be disk performance and network performance.
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I have 70gb to work with, which should be more than enough.
Fair enough. Only you know how much data you have
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Also, any thoughts on the Swap partition? The server has 2.5gb of RAM. I'm not sure what to set this to. Suggestions? 500mb? 1gb?
I can't really see the server using much RAM at all* so I wouldn't think you would need more than a 500MB swap partition. I would always create one regardless of the amount of RAM as it is a good fallback if the server starts to run away.
* This is only an estimate but:
Assuming that you only really need samba, ftp, ssh and maybe webmin then you shouldn't really use more than a few hundred meg. If you had been running user applications on the server then it may have been different though.
Last edited by david_ross; 05-08-2003 at 12:52 PM.
Yep - you'll need to wait till I get to work tomorrow though.
It is just a perl script run by cron that checks a file in /proc. I'm not sure how much use it will be to you unless you have a promise controller. I suppose you could modify it though.
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