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Date:      Wed, 11 May 2005 16:19:33 +0100
From:      freebsd.org@donnacha.com
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   I need further HDD advice before submitting order.
Message-ID:  <42822285.9050402@donnacha.com>

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Hi again,

I posted a question here last week, asking for advice on how I should 
ask my datacenter to divide up the HDDs in my new server.  Thank you to 
everyone who responded.

I have tried to understand all the advice given and, since then, have 
tried to get myself up to speed by reading the relevant sections in The 
Complete FreeBSD, FreeBSD Unleashed, Absolute BSD and Teach Yourself 
FreeBSD in 24 Hours (it didn't).

I understand a little more than I did but am still unsure as to how I 
should divide the HDDs and would very much appreciate reactions to my 
current proposal.

----------

Server purpose: Initially just forums, later sundry other Web apps i.e. 
ecommerce, ticket bookings etc.  Will possibly become a heavy-duty email 
server at some stage.

2GB RAM

80GB HDD IDE:
/ = 1GB
/usr = 15GB
/local = 15GB
Swap = 4GB
Unallocated = 40GB

200GB HDD IDE:

/tmp = 2GB (is that enough?)
/home = 28GB
/var = 100GB (will inclube the forum databases etc)
Unallocated = 70GB

I'll be asking them to put the both disks in dangerously dedicated mode, 
with each on a different IDE bus.


----------

Is it a good idea leaving so much unallocated space?  My research 
suggests that this may be useful for moving directories around or giving 
specific subdirectories their own partition at a later date when I have 
a better idea of usage, does that sound right?

The only problem about creating partitions at a later date is that I 
will have command line access only, I'm not even sure if I can create 
partitions at a later date, I think that for sysinstall I might actually 
have to be there.  Can anyone advise me on this?

Swap: As the second disk will have the presumably quite busy /tmp and 
/var, placing all the swap on this the first disk, rather than shared 
between both, could help to balance the load a bit (thanks to Henry 
Miller for that suggestion).  With 2GB of RAM, I'm hoping the Swap won't 
be needed very often anyway; if it is, I may simply add more memory.

I decided not to use GPT because, although it sounds great, it seems a 
little complicated for a newbie like me.

Apologies for seeking your help once again, I just need to get this 
straight before submitting the order, I would be very grateful for any 
and all advice.

Thanks,

Donnacha




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