Centos Partitioning

Please define 'Virtual Shop'...

When it comes to provisioning servers, it's best to know what your environment is going to be intended for. Are you wanting the server to run as a multi-application server -- i.e. Apache webserver, MySQL database server?

A quick and easy way to setup the server would be to have it kickstarted (call a configuration file from a separate web server [see code snippet for example]), thus provisioned with the partitions and packages you need to have installed as well.

install
url --url http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.4/os/x86_64 
lang en_US.UTF-8
keyboard us
text 
network --device eth0 --bootproto static --hostname=myserver --ip 192.168.1.2 --gateway 192.168.1.1 --netmask 255.255.255.0 --nameserver 192.168.1.1 --noipv6 
rootpw password
firewall --disabled
authconfig --enableshadow --enablemd5
selinux --disabled
timezone America/New_York
bootloader --location=mbr 
zerombr yes
clearpart --all
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size=200 --asprimary
part swap --size=2048 --asprimary
part / --fstype ext3 --size=4096 --asprimary
part pv.30 --size=0 --grow
volgroup vg00 --pesize=32768 pv.30
logvol /var --fstype ext3 --name=var --vgname=vg00 --size=2048
logvol /opt --fstype ext3 --name=opt --vgname=vg00 --size=1024
logvol /usr --fstype ext3 --name=usr --vgname=vg00 --size=4096
logvol /home --fstype ext3 --name=home --vgname=vg00 --size=2048
logvol /tmp --fstype ext3 --name=tmp --vgname=vg00 --size=1024
logvol /var/lib/mysql --fstype ext3 --name=mysqldb --vgname=vg00 --size=10000 

%packages
@editors
@text-internet
@core
@base
device-mapper-multipath
xorg-x11-server-Xnest
net-snmp-utils
sysstat
vim-enhanced
xinetd
ntp
screen
net-snmp-utils
-cups
-cups-libs
-irda-utils
-pcmciautils
-wireless-tools
-ypbind
-bluez-libs
-bluez-gnome
-bluez-utils
httpd
mysql
mysql-server
php
php-pear
php-mysql
php-gd
php-cli
php-mbstring
gcc 
%post
SERVERNAME=myserver
SERVERTYPE=`echo $SERVERNAME | cut -c1-3`
                                              

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Choosing a Unix (Linux) partitioning scheme is about like choosing a car maker -- everyone has an opinion and a "favorite"... but there is no single "right" answer, although there are certainly some wrong ones.

With the notation that you have 2 identical 250GB drives, and an SAS RAID Controller, it should go without saying that your first consideration is that you'll want to install your CentOS onto a RAID-1 array (e.g.: a mirror). This will mean that each drive will be a mirror of the other. But it also means that, of the 500GB of storage you bought will yield just 250GB of usable raw storage after the mirror is established.

Never the less, here are some of the criteria you should consider in partitioning your space (and I'll throw in a new variable - filesystem type!).

1) There is no REQUIREMENT that there be more than 1 partition. It is perfectly legal and legitimate to install everything onto a single (root) partition. Old-timers (of which I am admittedly one) might warn you about the system crashing if the filesystem (and there is only 1) gets full. Since there is only 1 partition, this is true -- but it equally true of any system. However, Linux will not CRASH in this occurrence, although its functionality will be greatly curtailed.

2) Reasons for using additional partitions might include:
 - choice of fileystem:
    Linux likes to boot to ext2 or ext3 - the latter being greatly preferred - but you may want to use a more specialized filesystem, like XFS or JFS
    For example, I keep my system files on an ext3 partition, my web & e-mail files on ext3, and my media & database files on XFS
 - backup/archive planning:
    Some admins like to separate "system files" from "user data" - especially for backup or archival purposes
    Also, some backup & archival tools (like dump) work better on whole partitions vs. directory trees
 - Physical location
    Adding additional storage media USUALLY involves creating new partitions. The exception would be if you begin to use some kind of virtual storage management -- like Logical Volumes -- which CAN use multiple physical volumes for single partitions. (NOTE: Your RAID 1 array will be doing this already!)
 - Virtual Environments
    Many admins of VMware and other virtualization packages like to use separate partitions for each virtual environment. This is not usually REQUIRED, but some prefer it.

Now, all of the above being said, when I partition systems for client use, I generally follow the following pattern:

1) Hardware RAID-1 (just like you have)
2) 10GB root partition (/) using ext3 fs
3) 4GB swap space (that's equal to the RAM in most of my servers -- just like yours)
4) ALL REMAINING SPACE allocated to a /home partition formatted to XFS

But again, those are just "my" ways -- and there can be arguments made for and against the decisions I make!

I hope this helps!

Dan
IT4SOHO