If I am a junior admin starting out and am asked to setup servers, how do I know what partitioning layout to use? Do different companies/organizations use different schemes? Also can someone give me an example of a typical partition setup? Apologies if this is a dumb question.

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

This almost sounds like a homework question.

I would ask my senior admin.

Most likely, yes.

Not really because it depends.

Must be homework. In real life one would ask also about the size of partitions. But then again, in real life a person who needs help with partitioning wouldn't be asked to "set up servers".

Sorry I won't be visiting this site again - full of sarcasm and insinuations from you folk.

For business/enterprise use, you can fully expect different partition setup. For example, database server disk needs would be different from web server to mail server.

Then there is Information Security, if you have to deal with applying NIST controls, there are specific set of requirements for disk partitions.

So, as others have said, ask senior admin. There is no "default partition scheme" that everyone can use/apply.

This DOES sound like a homework question. And you wouldn't GET a job as an admin if you didn't know this.
The question was answered in post #2. And if you don't LIKE the answers, or want someone to do your homework for you, then you need to ask a better question that shows your own efforts.

That is mostly due to the policy of not answering homework questions, which this really looks like.

Without requirements we cannot specify any particular partitioning other than make one to separate non-system files from system files.

This is one of the reasons it looks like homework (that and your use of "If I am a junior admin...").

Many of the requirements would be things like "how many users? How much storage are they going to be allowed to use? How much disk space is available? Is the storage going to be RAID 2/5 or 6? RAID 10? How many disks? Is it allowed to use mdraid? Is the server to support multiple departments? Is quota control going to be used? Does /tmp have to be on a separate disk from the system? Is there enough room for logging? How long are logs to be kept? What backup policy is there? What security policy is required (as that may dictate how departments get partitioned).

This is why post #2 ended with "Not really because it depends".

One last thing - A junior admin SHOULD have a document called "Stanard Operating Procedures" prepared by one or more senior administrators and managers that would contain most of (if not all) of the missing information.

I wrote one for that purpose, passed it around the other senior administrators, and could give it to new admins when they were hired along with "If you find ANYTHING missing that you need, let me know and we will get it added".

And that manual saved my butt several times - not even senior administrators can remember everything all the time, and such a manual provides guidance on what worked in the past, and could be adapted to unusual new things.

I had a customer contracting officer ask me how I did something... and on the spot, I couldn't. So I reached for the SOP doument in a notebook, and told him that I couldn't remember, but that I did have it in the book.

His response: "That was all I wanted to know. Thanks."

And that in turn made it more likely that my recommendations to the customer were listened to.

1 members found this post helpful.

@ JPollard thanks for your reply, it's what I was looking for.