Re: /var or /usr for data?
On Fri, 24 Aug 2007, Wojciech Puchar wrote: It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. my favourite proper allocation is to make ONE partition (/) and nothing more. and forget all problems about how to partition your drive right... ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] I've made a quick look-see through my copies of The Complete FreeBSD and Absolute BSD and can't find the reference, but I recall reading somewhere in my 4.x days that FreeBSD used a different algorithm to write to the /var directory, if it was on its own filesystem, because /var was written to a lot (holding logs and all.) Because of this, and all the way up to 6.2 today, I put /var on its own filesystem, after / and swap. Where the old AIX wonks used to call the outer middle of the disk. Was this different algorithm really the case? And, now with UFS2, is it still the case? I still put pgsql/data on /var. r ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: /var or /usr for data?
On Fri, Aug 24, 2007 at 08:20:16PM -0600, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Fri, 24 Aug 2007, Wojciech Puchar wrote: It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. my favourite proper allocation is to make ONE partition (/) and nothing more. and forget all problems about how to partition your drive right... ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] I've made a quick look-see through my copies of The Complete FreeBSD and Absolute BSD and can't find the reference, but I recall reading somewhere in my 4.x days that FreeBSD used a different algorithm to write to the /var directory, if it was on its own filesystem, because /var was written to a lot (holding logs and all.) Because of this, and all the way up to 6.2 today, I put /var on its own filesystem, after / and swap. Where the old AIX wonks used to call the outer middle of the disk. Was this different algorithm really the case? And, now with UFS2, is it still the case? I still put pgsql/data on /var. I think you may be confusing var with swap.A different algorithm is used for managing and writing/reading swap. I haven't heard of any difference with /var. jerry r ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: /var or /usr for data?
When asked his whereabouts on Sat, Aug 25, 2007 at 04:34 , [EMAIL PROTECTED] took the fifth, drank it, and then slurred: Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:35:27 -0400 From: Jerry McAllister [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: /var or /usr for data? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Fri, Aug 24, 2007 at 08:19:43AM +0200, Wojciech Puchar wrote: It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. my favourite proper allocation is to make ONE partition m(/) and nothing ore. and forget all problems about how to mpartition your drive right... That works for some situations. But, there are protections, conveniences and backup efficiencies that thoughtful partitioning provide that all-in-one doesn't. I've been running Unix systems for a long time. I've noted that if a filesystem fails - it almost invariably is /. If you totally trash it then you have to reload ALL the data and programs you have on the system. And with FBSD if you make root a reasonable size. I am running about 250MB for / - in a server only environment. 500MB would be safe however. Then if something happens you can just rebuild / - or totally reinstall the /, while NOT making new file systems on the remaining partitions you have. I will say that drives are more reliable than ever, but having spent hours recovering systems [commercial ones in the past] for someone who thought the best was to put 'all your eggs in one basket - eg /' was the right way, I've avoided strenuously. And applications such as MySQL give you options as to where to store the data. If you didn't do that during install it's quite easy to make symlinks to point the data to an approved place on your HD. And IF you have a program run amock and start filling things up, having everything on / will make recovery much harder. However cleaning up after one of those messes will teach you a lot. A friend of mine has a motto of learn by destroying. Having a system with only / may be one step along that path :-) Bill -- Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: /var or /usr for data?
Wojciech Puchar wrote: It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. my favourite proper allocation is to make ONE partition (/) and nothing more. and forget all problems about how to partition your drive right... With a single, large filesystem on /, you cannot take advantage of things like background fsck, cuz / always needs to be checked fully before the system goes multiuser. A small / partition is quick to fsck, and can be kept mounted sync to ensure consistency without harming system throughput. All the others (/var, /usr, /foo) can be checked after the machine is live, greatly speeding up post-crash recovery. -- Fuzzy love, -CyberLeo Technical Administrator CyberLeo.Net Webhosting http://www.CyberLeo.Net [EMAIL PROTECTED] Furry Peace! - http://.fur.com/peace/ ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: /var or /usr for data?
It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. my favourite proper allocation is to make ONE partition (/) and nothing more. and forget all problems about how to partition your drive right... ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: /var or /usr for data?
On Fri, Aug 24, 2007 at 08:19:43AM +0200, Wojciech Puchar wrote: It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. my favourite proper allocation is to make ONE partition (/) and nothing more. and forget all problems about how to partition your drive right... That works for some situations. But, there are protections, conveniences and backup efficiencies that thoughtful partitioning provide that all-in-one doesn't. jerry ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: /var or /usr for data?
On Wed, Aug 22, 2007 at 09:51:35PM -0500, Andrew Gould wrote: On 8/22/07, Brad Waite [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. However, there's a few issues that keep coming up. A lot of the ports use /var for data dirs. MySQL, Qmail, dspam are a few that I've had issues with. Is there a canonical place to put data files on a modern FreeBSD server? Figuring out the sizes for each partition is an exercise in frustration when I don't know how big /var or /usr are going to grow. For now, I've changed the default config files for MySQL and dspam to use /usr/local for data dirs, but is this the right thing to do? I used to put everything on /, but that created problems when I couldn't fsck the single large partition and I had to boot from CD to fix things. That's an issue when the server's not in the same state. A Solaris associate of mine is of the opinion that /usr should be able to be mounted RO for security purposes. If /var was the default for all add-ons and data, I could see that, but that wouldn't work the ways things are now. I usually move the data directories (/usr/home, /usr/local/pgsql, /var/db/mysql, etc) to a separate, hard drive mounted at /data and create symbolic links back at the default locations. If you run out of space, you can move the data to a larger hard drive and either adjust the links or have the new drive mount at /data (or wherever you choose). Check out man hier for some information on how FreeBSD wants to use the directory structure. Generally /usr and those under it contain utilities and /var stores data that can change a lot. jerry I hope this helps. Andrew ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: /var or /usr for data?
On 22/08/07, Andrew Gould [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 8/22/07, Brad Waite [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. However, there's a few issues that keep coming up. A lot of the ports use /var for data dirs. MySQL, Qmail, dspam are a few that I've had issues with. Is there a canonical place to put data files on a modern FreeBSD server? Figuring out the sizes for each partition is an exercise in frustration when I don't know how big /var or /usr are going to grow. For now, I've changed the default config files for MySQL and dspam to use /usr/local for data dirs, but is this the right thing to do? I used to put everything on /, but that created problems when I couldn't fsck the single large partition and I had to boot from CD to fix things. That's an issue when the server's not in the same state. A Solaris associate of mine is of the opinion that /usr should be able to be mounted RO for security purposes. If /var was the default for all add-ons and data, I could see that, but that wouldn't work the ways things are now. I usually move the data directories (/usr/home, /usr/local/pgsql, /var/db/mysql, etc) to a separate, hard drive mounted at /data and create symbolic links back at the default locations. If you run out of space, you can move the data to a larger hard drive and either adjust the links or have the new drive mount at /data (or wherever you choose). I tend to support the notion of a filesystem seperate from /usr or /var, as if the program goes wild for tequila you won't be stuffing up a filesystem that you need to run the operating system. Quotas, and other such notions might suffice, but why bother on an essentially single- purpose system? -- -- ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: /var or /usr for data?
On 8/22/07, Brad Waite [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. However, there's a few issues that keep coming up. A lot of the ports use /var for data dirs. MySQL, Qmail, dspam are a few that I've had issues with. Is there a canonical place to put data files on a modern FreeBSD server? Figuring out the sizes for each partition is an exercise in frustration when I don't know how big /var or /usr are going to grow. For now, I've changed the default config files for MySQL and dspam to use /usr/local for data dirs, but is this the right thing to do? I used to put everything on /, but that created problems when I couldn't fsck the single large partition and I had to boot from CD to fix things. That's an issue when the server's not in the same state. A Solaris associate of mine is of the opinion that /usr should be able to be mounted RO for security purposes. If /var was the default for all add-ons and data, I could see that, but that wouldn't work the ways things are now. I put all the server-related data such as databases, mail, websites, subversion/mercurial repositories under /srv. It's part of the FHS, but I don't think many people use it. You should not be using /usr for this. I think of /usr as the place where software gets installed to (and from), but there shouldn't be your own data under it with the exception of configuration files. If I had to use something other than /srv I would go for /var, but in my opinion that's also messy. Especially so if you have /var/tmp on the same partition. As far as partition sizes go, I tend to follow a rather simple model. I give 1GB to /, even though that's usually an overkill, 2xRAM for swap, 1-4GB for /var depending on what I plan to use the machine for, 5-20GB for /usr (20 is mostly for workstations where you plan to run an X server with many other apps), and the rest either for /srv or /home. For a server I use /srv, for a workstation I use /home. - Max ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: /var or /usr for data?
On 8/22/07, Brad Waite [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It would appear that the proper allocation of filesystems on FreeBSD is to put all data in /usr. I'm used to this and have been doing it for years. However, there's a few issues that keep coming up. A lot of the ports use /var for data dirs. MySQL, Qmail, dspam are a few that I've had issues with. Is there a canonical place to put data files on a modern FreeBSD server? Figuring out the sizes for each partition is an exercise in frustration when I don't know how big /var or /usr are going to grow. For now, I've changed the default config files for MySQL and dspam to use /usr/local for data dirs, but is this the right thing to do? I used to put everything on /, but that created problems when I couldn't fsck the single large partition and I had to boot from CD to fix things. That's an issue when the server's not in the same state. A Solaris associate of mine is of the opinion that /usr should be able to be mounted RO for security purposes. If /var was the default for all add-ons and data, I could see that, but that wouldn't work the ways things are now. I usually move the data directories (/usr/home, /usr/local/pgsql, /var/db/mysql, etc) to a separate, hard drive mounted at /data and create symbolic links back at the default locations. If you run out of space, you can move the data to a larger hard drive and either adjust the links or have the new drive mount at /data (or wherever you choose). I hope this helps. Andrew ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
