[opensuse] Separate /srv partition for a home file server?
I am preparing a small server for my house hold with openSUSE 10.2. It will primarily work as a file server (samba) with each users own ~home, as well as some shares for mp3s etc. Maybe I will also install Apache if I can find a nice web based "jukebox" for accessing mp3s to various client computers. My disk drive is 250 GB. I am thinking about something like: swap 1 GB / 10 GB /home 240 GB 1) Is is OK with one 10 GB / for both software, logs etc? Or should I give e.g. /var its own partition? 2) Should I consider a separate /srv partition for mp3s etc, or will I do just fine but placing shared folders in a sparate home directory which everybody in my household can access? I am asking because YaST suggest placering https docs in /src/web/ (which would be the same as my /) Janus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 11 February 2007 18:07, Janus wrote:
I am preparing a small server for my house hold with openSUSE 10.2. It will primarily work as a file server (samba) with each users own ~home, as well as some shares for mp3s etc. Maybe I will also install Apache if I can find a nice web based "jukebox" for accessing mp3s to various client computers.
My disk drive is 250 GB. I am thinking about something like:
swap 1 GB / 10 GB /home 240 GB
1) Is is OK with one 10 GB / for both software, logs etc? Or should I give e.g. /var its own partition?
2) Should I consider a separate /srv partition for mp3s etc, or will I do just fine but placing shared folders in a sparate home directory which everybody in my household can access? I am asking because YaST suggest placering https docs in /src/web/ (which would be the same as my /)
Regarding whether we should separate certain directory from /, the rule of thumb is that if we want to be able to format/reinstall Linux without having the hassle of backing up/moving data to other machine first, then we should separate it. Your partition plan is OK. Regarding the web directory we can always change it into /home/www (whichever). On a side note, it's even better if we use LVM, so that when in the future we run out of space, we can "expand" it into another disk seamlessly. HTH, -- Fajar Priyanto | Reg'd Linux User #327841 | Linux tutorial http://linux2.arinet.org 8:21pm up 0:21, 2.6.16.21-0.8-default GNU/Linux Let's use OpenOffice. http://www.openoffice.org
On Sunday 11 February 2007 14:21, Fajar Priyanto wrote:
Regarding whether we should separate certain directory from /, the rule of thumb is that if we want to be able to format/reinstall Linux without having the hassle of backing up/moving data to other machine first, then we should separate it.
As security updates for openSUSE 10.2 is scheduled to be discontinued by ultimo 2008 (thanks, Kai!), I'll need to update some day. That's why I want a separate /home. Considering my simple setup, I guess config files from /etc etc is someting I can easily backup manually (if not easier to setup again using YaST). /Srv is new to me. Having to separate /srv and /home would almost certainly give me problems some day with the wrong partition running out of space. Should I consider other separate partitions - /tmp etc?
Your partition plan is OK. Regarding the web directory we can always change it into /home/www (whichever).
So what's the point of /srv? Does it mean a more secure system, or is it more a question of making a logical and clear devision between what's private and whats public on a server?
On a side note, it's even better if we use LVM, so that when in the future we run out of space, we can "expand" it into another disk seamlessly. HTH,
hmmm... very tempting concept, but I guess I am too conservative and short sighted to play with it at the moment. :-) Thanks! Janus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sun, 2007-02-11 at 15:00 +0100, Janus wrote:
/Srv is new to me. Having to separate /srv and /home would almost certainly give me problems some day with the wrong partition running out of space.
Should I consider other separate partitions - /tmp etc?
Give root ('/') a small partition of its own. Make a large partition and manage it with LVM. Put /home or /srv and anything else you wish within their own LV. Then you can change their sizes whenever you need to without worrying about partitions at all. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 11 February 2007 11:39, Dave Howorth wrote:
On Sun, 2007-02-11 at 15:00 +0100, Janus wrote:
/Srv is new to me. Having to separate /srv and /home would almost certainly give me problems some day with the wrong partition running out of space.
Should I consider other separate partitions - /tmp etc?
Give root ('/') a small partition of its own. Make a large partition and manage it with LVM. Put /home or /srv and anything else you wish within their own LV. Then you can change their sizes whenever you need to without worrying about partitions at all.
That's Ok if you are only using one hard drive. Here is the problem I ran into, and if anyone can show me wrong, please do. I am running 3 hard drives. hda which contains windows and some ext3 partitions which I use for backup for SuSE 10.0, hdb for SuSE 10.0 which I set up with an LVM, and a 3rd drive a sata, which is sda for SuSE 10.2. I was going to use LVM on that also but when I saw that it wanted to combine with the LVM on hdb, I changed my mind. I was afraid of a drive failure which could take down the data of the other drive. I also didn't think that I could upgrade either os at a future date wihout effecting the other drive. I guess the concept of being able to resize partitions is good, but IMHO it also raises questions about usability in other ways. I may be right or may be wrong, but didn't want to take any chances. Bob S. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Monday 12 February 2007 11:31, Bob S wrote:
That's Ok if you are only using one hard drive. Here is the problem I ran into, and if anyone can show me wrong, please do. I am running 3 hard drives. hda which contains windows and some ext3 partitions which I use for backup for SuSE 10.0, hdb for SuSE 10.0 which I set up with an LVM, and a 3rd drive a sata, which is sda for SuSE 10.2. I was going to use LVM on that also but when I saw that it wanted to combine with the LVM on hdb, I changed my mind. I was afraid of a drive failure which could take down the data of the other drive. I also didn't think that I could upgrade either os at a future date wihout effecting the other drive.
I guess the concept of being able to resize partitions is good, but IMHO it also raises questions about usability in other ways. I may be right or may be wrong, but didn't want to take any chances.
Hello Bob, Data protection and LVM is a different story. As the result, the best combination is to combine LVM with RAID (either software/hardware). LVM has reach it's mature status to the extend that if we install RHEL/Fedora/Ubuntu/(I believe Suse too), with DEFAULT settings (by clicking Next and Next through out the installation process) we would have a partition with LVM. Of course it's best if we try something for the first time (including LVM) on a testbed machine. I wrote a tutorial on how I "expand" my /home from /dev/hda5 to /dev/hda6 using LVM in my site http://linux2.arinet.org. However, it's still in Indonesian. I'll translate it into english if someone wants it. HTH, -- Fajar Priyanto | Reg'd Linux User #327841 | Linux tutorial http://linux2.arinet.org 1:02pm up 4:09, 2.6.16.21-0.8-default GNU/Linux Let's use OpenOffice. http://www.openoffice.org
Bob S wrote:
On Sunday 11 February 2007 11:39, Dave Howorth wrote:
Make a large partition and manage it with LVM.
That's Ok if you are only using one hard drive. Here is the problem I ran into, and if anyone can show me wrong, please do. I am running 3 hard drives. hda which contains windows and some ext3 partitions which I use for backup for SuSE 10.0, hdb for SuSE 10.0 which I set up with an LVM, and a 3rd drive a sata, which is sda for SuSE 10.2. I was going to use LVM on that also but when I saw that it wanted to combine with the LVM on hdb, I changed my mind. I was afraid of a drive failure which could take down the data of the other drive. I also didn't think that I could upgrade either os at a future date wihout effecting the other drive.
If you don't want data shared across PVs (~ partitions), then just put the PVs in different volume groups. YaST has easy facilities for this. Again see the LVM howto for more explanations. But then you have to allocate each filesystem to an LV in one or other of the VGs, so you lose some of the flexibility. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 11 February 2007, Fajar Priyanto wrote:
On a side note, it's even better if we use LVM, so that when in the future we run out of space, we can "expand" it into another disk seamlessly. HTH,
LVM has some serious risk involved. Let us assume that in any give day you have a 1 in 3,000 chance of a drive failure. Now assume LVM is in use, and the LVM is made up of 3 drives. You now have 3 in 3000 chance of failure, and any single failure may take out your entire file system, since you can never predict where a file or portions of a file will reside. -- _____________________________________ John Andersen
John Andersen wrote:
On Sunday 11 February 2007, Fajar Priyanto wrote:
On a side note, it's even better if we use LVM, so that when in the future we run out of space, we can "expand" it into another disk seamlessly. HTH,
LVM has some serious risk involved.
I think you're confusing issues.
Let us assume that in any give day you have a 1 in 3,000 chance of a drive failure.
Now assume LVM is in use, and the LVM is made up of 3 drives. You now have 3 in 3000 chance of failure,
The 3 in 3000 is because you have changed from one drive to three drives. It has nothing to do with using LVM.
and any single failure may take out your entire file system,
If you're using multiple drives and don't want single failures to cause errors, then run RAID :) That's what it's for! Again, that is a separate issue to whether or not you run LVM on the RAID.
since you can never predict where a file or portions of a file will reside.
You can't predict where a file will live in a conventional partition either (well you can but only by emulating the particular filesystem's allocation method and you use the same filesystems within logical volumes so the issue is exactly the same). I guess you're confusing file position with logical volume position. You might want to read: <http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/> particularly about volume groups and about mapping modes. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
If reliability is the major issue, then use the mirroring or stripping options of LVM. Of course, it always helps if the disks are on different controllers. Bill Anderson John Andersen wrote:
On Sunday 11 February 2007, Fajar Priyanto wrote:
On a side note, it's even better if we use LVM, so that when in the future we run out of space, we can "expand" it into another disk seamlessly. HTH,
LVM has some serious risk involved. Let us assume that in any give day you have a 1 in 3,000 chance of a drive failure.
Now assume LVM is in use, and the LVM is made up of 3 drives. You now have 3 in 3000 chance of failure, and any single failure may take out your entire file system, since you can never predict where a file or portions of a file will reside.
-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (7)
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Bill Anderson -
Bob S -
Dave Howorth -
Dave Howorth -
Fajar Priyanto -
Janus -
John Andersen