From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Tue Sep 8 20:51:41 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 33A029CC014 for ; Tue, 8 Sep 2015 20:51:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id EF59A1617 for ; Tue, 8 Sep 2015 20:51:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-125-111.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.125.111]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7119D24EF4; Tue, 8 Sep 2015 22:51:32 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id t88KpVHH003486; Tue, 8 Sep 2015 22:51:31 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2015 22:51:31 +0200 From: Polytropon To: "William A. Mahaffey III" Cc: FreeBSD Questions !!!! Subject: Re: Storage question Message-Id: <20150908225131.21e610aa.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <55EF3D23.5060009@hiwaay.net> References: <55EF3D23.5060009@hiwaay.net> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2015 20:51:41 -0000 On Tue, 8 Sep 2015 15:00:45 -0453.75, William A. Mahaffey III wrote: > I am prepping to bring 2 new FreeBSD 9.3R boxen online. I am trying to > figure out how large to make root & usr partitions to make most > effective use of storage. > [...] > I'm pretty sure the last few can't be deleted, but what about the stuff > in '/var/backups' & '/rescue' ? I am trying to figure out a reasonable > minimum I can size the root directory & still have safe, reliable > operations. Any clues appreciated. TIA & have a good one. It depends on your intended use. For example, when you're rinning heavy databases or other things that occupy space in /var, then make /var a separate partition with a reasonable size. This way, / (the root partition) can stay small. Here is an example from one of my systems: / is 1 GB (I'd go for 2 GB) swap is 2 GB (machine has 2 GB RAM it hardly uses) /tmp is 1 GB /var is 1 GB /usr is 50 GB /opt is 5 GB /home is 1.8 TB (separate disk) Note that you can similarly "offload" /usr/local to a separate partition if you like. The advantage is that you can install as many software from ports as you want, leaving the OS aside. On the other hand, why not put everything into one big / and see how things develop? Especially if you aren't sure how the required disk space will be in the future, fixed size partitioning can become an "interesting" game, and it's not even a funny game. :-) Both approaches ("big partition" vs. "many partitions") have their advantages and disadvantages. If you're using ZFS, things get more comfortable as you can more easily resize partitions. However, / should contain /rescue. It's important to have this directory accessible in single user mode. In this maintenance mode (or emergency mode), only / will be accessible after boot, mounted r/o. Make sure all parts needed for a SUM boot are accessible _without_ mounting anything in addition to the root partition. The OS should still be operational in this state. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...