Disk partitioning and swap

[warlord at MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)]

Really, the only advantage of having multiple, small partitions is if
you have multiple disks (spindles).  The e2fsck program can work in
parallel across multiple disks.  But it can only split up after it
finishes the root paritition.  So, if you have, say, two 18G drives,
it would be faster to have a 'small' root on one drive and then more
partitions on both.

If you only have one drive, it really doesn't matter.  IMHO.

-derek

Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org> writes:

> 
> I would like to see some discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of
> allocating 1 large file system in contrast to having some small ones. 
> One restriction is the location of the kernel, but a small /boot partition
> could be allocated for this. In the olden days of small disks, root, usr,
> var, and home would be allocated on separate disks. But today with
> multi-GB drives in the pocket money range, does it make sense to follow
> the old Unix model. 
> 
> Also, what is the cost of swapping to the root file system rather than
> allocating a separate swap partition. 
> 
> I am asking this question more in context of the new Linux users who are
> migrating from the Windoz environment rather than from the experienced
> Linux user. Also, we have an Installfest coming up on May 1, and I would
> like to use some guidelines. 
> Let's take an example:
> We have 4GB available for Linux on a drive which may be shared with
> Windoz. 
> Question 1, what is the cost of an extended partition vs. a primary
> partition. (You can only allocate 4 primary partitions on a physical
> drive). 
> 
> Question 2. Using this scenario:
> Partition 1: /boot 100MB (for vmlinux, and modules) Linux Native
> Partition 2: swap (depends on memory size. I normally allocate maximum, 
>                    but I think that the newer kernels have eliminated that
>                    restriction).
> Partition 3: Root - Rest of disk.
> 
> What are the main advantages/disadvantages of this allocation scheme in
> contrast to (something similar to ):
> Partition 1: root+usr (500 MB)
> Partition 2: swap
> Partition 3: /var (Depends on intended use)
> Partition 4: /home (Depends on intended use). 
> 
> If the intended use is a mail server, I would probably have a large /var
> for spool and logs. If this is used as a multi-user platform with a number
> of users, then the /home would be rather large.
> 
> Question 3: If we use extended partitions, should swap be in a primary or
> is there no significant performance issue.   
> 
> Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
> Boston Linux and Unix
> http://www.blu.org
> 
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-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/      PP-ASEL      N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
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