[Gllug] Partition debate

[t.clarke]

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Message from:-
Tim Clarke  (tim at seacon.co.uk)
Seacon Holdings plc Group, London, U.K.
Telephone: +44 (0)1474 320000
      Fax: +44 (0)1474 329946
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Read the various comments somewhat belatedly on partitioning.
This may well be ploughing a few furrows again, but my ha'pence worth:-


1)  If you have something like squid on your system which can gobble disc space
quite happily, giving it its own filesystem in its own partition is a good idea.
Then if it decides to use up the whol 'disc', your system doesn't fall over
because / is full !

2)  I don't know whether this strategy works on linux like it does on SCO, but
I like to backup filesystems on the quick by dd'ing the raw (unmounted) file-
system to another (unmounted) one of exactly the same size.  I can mount the
copy and play with it as I like, including copying off to tape at my leisure.

3)  Rather debatable, but I suspect several smaller filesystems may use discs
more efficiently than one massive one with zillions of inodes.

4)  If you have valuable data on a system on its own partition you can unmount
it overnight and leave the machine running. Then if the power fails you the
filesystem is secure barring a head crash.

5)  Slightly off subject, I am not sure I like the trend towards massive
single-disc systems. I still prefer to spread my data cross several smaller
drives.  That should reduce the problem of latency and head movement.
Also, with copies of various filesystems on other discs, it becomes possible
to carry on fairly quickly if a disc goes down by mounting the alternates.


Tim

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