[SPAM?] Re: [sclug] hot drives

[Alex Butcher]

On Tue, 20 Jun 2006, Keith Edmunds wrote:

>> Given how large modern discs are, an allocation error at install
>> time by the administrator of, say 10%, can represent a significant amount of
>> wasted space that would be useful if allocated to a different filesystem.
>
> Yes and no. I typically allocate 5Gb for everything except /tmp, /var
> and /home (and swap of course).

How do you share out the remaining space between /tmp, /var and /home? As
you've realised, the answer to that question will be application-dependent
(is it a multi-user dev box? or a database server? or something that
inexplicably creates huge files in /tmp now and then?)

> Also typically, that sits at about 40% full. You could argue that I've
> "wasted" 3Gb of space, but having 3Gb spare is no bad thing and, these
> days, 3Gb wasted on a modern HDD is frankly insignificant.

My desktop has 400GB of disc, my MythTV box has 300GB (and if it wasn't for
performance concerns, I'd wish I'd used LVM there, as I don't think the
MySQL database it maintains has a maximum size). At work, I have machines
with upto 3.2TB of disc. LVM becomes kinda essential as you have larger
amounts of disc to manage.

> It does depend on what one wants to achieve. Some may want a system that
> they can tweak to get the very last bit of performance, disk space, etc.
> That's valid, and LVM may well be appropriate there. My aim is to
> produce a system that requires absolutely minimal management.

Me too. I find adding some more space to a LV to be much less work than
repartitioning or following a twisty maze of non-standard symlinks (e.g.
/var/tmp -> /home/var/tmp and the like).

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher, Bristol UK.                           PGP/GnuPG ID:0x5010dbff

"[T]he whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for
identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and
abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look
it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much."
  - Tony Blair, 6 June 2006 <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp>