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Date:      Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:30:05 +0100
From:      Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk>
To:        Tadimeti Keshav <keshav_tadimeti@yahoo.co.uk>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: partition deletion and creation
Message-ID:  <20040408163005.GB26470@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <20040408152347.24355.qmail@web25003.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
References:  <20040408152347.24355.qmail@web25003.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

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On Thu, Apr 08, 2004 at 04:23:47PM +0100, Tadimeti Keshav wrote:
> Hi list,
> I have freeBSD installed on my 40 GB HDD with the
> foll. layout:
> / =3D 512MB
> swap=3D1GB
> /var=3D512MB
> /tmp=3D512MB
> /usr=3D8GB
> /home=3D26GB
> (It should roughly total to the max available ~37GB)
> I want to have /home resized to 20GB and then create 4
> mount points /u01=3D3GB,/u02=3D2GB,/u03=3D512MB,/u04=3D512MB.

That's feasible, except you can only have 8 partitions per slice.
Actually 7, since the 'c' partition is special and you shouldn't use
it to put filesystems on.
=20
> I have 2 options:
> 1. using /stand/sysinstall-->fdisk to delete /home,
> create the new partitions, and then mount the
> mount-points. Q=3Dwill this format all older partitions
> (/usr,/...), forcing me to reinstall FreeBSD again?
> Clearly I don't want this. I have spent quite a while
> to get the setup running.

Don't use /stand/sysinstall to do this: use disklabel(8) [if you're
running 4.x] or bsdlabel(8) [if you're running 5.x]. Run whichever of
those commands with the '-e' flag, and it will put you in an editor
window with the partition table data that you can modify to your
hearts content.  Remember to unmount any partitions you're going to
modify before starting.  Any partition you create, or change the size
of will need a new filesystem created on it (newfs(8)) and will end up
empty. The partitions you don't modify will be left alone.

However, this question is academic given that you need more partitions
than you can have in a single slice.
=20
> 2. create links to /home/u01 from /u01, /home/u02 from
> /u02..
> ln -s /home/u01 /u01
> Can I install Oracle this way?

Sounds like a plan.  It's certainly worth trying.

If Oracle insists on having real filesystems then there's several
other possibilities you might want to consider:

    * mount_null(8) -- you can create a loopback mount of some other
                       directory on your filesystem.  Despite the
                       awful warnings in the man page, this actually
                       works fairly well although it would be safer to
                       use it for data that is mostly read-only.

    * vnconfig(8) [4.x] or mdconfig(8) [5.x]
                    -- Create a filesystem image on a vnode device
                       backed by a file, and mount that wherever you
                       need to.  Works pretty smoothly

	Cheers,

	Matthew

--=20
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK

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