From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Jan 25 19:40:59 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id TAA27313 for questions-outgoing; Sun, 25 Jan 1998 19:40:59 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from allegro.lemis.com (allegro.lemis.com [192.109.197.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id TAA27304 for ; Sun, 25 Jan 1998 19:40:49 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from grog@lemis.com) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (freebie.lemis.com [192.109.197.137]) by allegro.lemis.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA18832; Mon, 26 Jan 1998 14:10:43 +1030 (CST) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.8/8.8.7) id OAA04475; Mon, 26 Jan 1998 14:10:43 +1030 (CST) (envelope-from grog) Message-ID: <19980126141042.15393@lemis.com> Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 14:10:42 +1030 From: Greg Lehey To: chas Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Filesystem allocation Recommendations. References: <3.0.32.19970126104132.00956210@peace.com.my> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.84e In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19970126104132.00956210@peace.com.my>; from chas on Mon, Jan 26, 1998 at 10:34:35AM +0800 Organization: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk On Mon, Jan 26, 1998 at 10:34:35AM +0800, chas wrote: > Well, I learned the hard way that the default file > system set up with the "(A)utomatic" allocation was > not the most ideal for a mailserver : > > Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on > /dev/wd0a 31775 23647 5586 81% / > /dev/wd0s1f 1801823 66841 1590837 4% /usr > /dev/wd0s1e 29727 13940 13409 51% /var > > > Needless to say, /usr has been pretty unused and /var got > full a lot. So, I'm going to set up a new FBSD machine > and move everything from the one above to the new one. > Since I really would like to only do this once, could I please > seek some advice from experience admins > > 1) My initial thoughts this time are to allocate : > 50 MB to / (my current 81% utilisation seemed a bit too > close for comfort. i've had enough "root filesystem > full" errors on other platforms) > 150 MB to /usr (mail, httpd - and allowing for a few extras in future) > 1.7 GB to /var (ie. everything else in /var since it needs it for all > the mail accounts.) > > Is there any reason not to go with this ? (any better method from > a maintenance standpoint) > My only worry is that in the past, /var sometimes got full because > of over enthusiastic logging (or when system errors were rife). It > would be nice not to disrupt mail in such circumstances. I've always been opposed to creating more slices on a disk than necessary. In a case like this, I would definitely create only two slices: / and /usr. Create a directory /usr/var and a symlink /var to point to it. > 2) Transfering users - simply copy the /etc/passwd file and shadow passwd ? No, /etc/master.passwd is the one you want. Use vipw to create the other ones. > 3) If I remember correctly, on AIX, I could change the size of > filesystems in realtime... yes, even decreasing them. Is > there no way to do this on FBSD ? (i fear that such a > useful feature seems to be unique to AIX) Sorry, there's no way to do this with ufs. It's not unique to aix (the Veritas File System can do it too), but ufs can't. If you allocate all the space to /usr as I suggest above, you won't have much trouble here. About the only advantage I can find in multiple slices is that you can ensure that the usage doesn't take over the whole disk. This doesn't look like your problem, but if it is, the BSD answer is quotas. > 4) Do experienced users actually not allocate all of the space to > filesystems on installation and then allocate on a needs basis, > over the months/years ? Not I, anyway. Greg