Re: Re: Main server partitioning strategy

[David Greaves <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Noble wrote:

> liakakos wrote:
>
> > With LVM You can create volumes that sit on a single disk (you
can use
> > the lvcreate command to specify a particular one if required), or
span
> > disks if there isn't enough space on one, or you can stripe
across
> > multiple disks for performance.
>
>
> Yep, been reading the LVM HowTo.
>
> > That's it.
>
>
> So no advantage to putting multiple partitions on a single disc to
keep
> the fsck time manageable? (Because you're not building the filesystem
on
> the partition - you're building it on the volume you create from the
> volume group).

Correct. Just use 1 big partition on each disk.

> > There's your starter course in LVM. Any questions?
>
>
> So, I only have 2 discs, but I can foresee a need for at least 3
> separate volumes - zoneminder, CDs & DVDs, and user data. The
first two
> probably won't be backed up. Do I just create 3 volumes from the
volume
> group? Can I then, for example, block copy the user data volume to a
> separate backup disc on a regular basis?

yep
Personally I'd suggest having a single space and then you either run out
of room or you don't.
I used to hate running out of room for CDs with ton's of video space
left etc...

I have /everything as a base and then:
/everything/music
/everything/video
/everything/user

Then use rsync to backup the data from the .../user/ tree when you need to.
This does mean you can't do 'snapshots' - but I doubt you'd want to :)

>
> Just one more question, Ext3, XFS, or ReiserFS? Or ...?

Just  don't use ext2 (or, IMHO) ext3.
They aren't the best for large filesystems (slow mkfs, mount time fsck
every 30 mounts etc- ugh!)

I only suggest XFS.

Other people like JFS or Rieser.
All these will do a mkfs or fsck in around a second (eg on my 1.2Tb xfs)
Complete filesystem checks take a lot longer but they're the same for
all fs and only needed if you have corruption somehow.

If you're a fiddler and want to resize volumes then you need a resizable
filesystem.
All fs will grow (AFAIK) but some (like XFS) won't shrink.

HTH
David

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