[CentOS] Swap Considerations

Tue Feb 27 01:07:35 UTC 2007
John Summerfield <debian at herakles.homelinux.org>

Jim Perrin wrote:

> Using swap by itself is generally a speed penalty. Using a file for it
> can be done, but it's not really something I'd do.

Why not?

> 
>>
>> I'm also interested in whether it be reasonable/desirable to
>> make /home, /tmp, and /var be on a separate partition. I have heard
>> arguments on both sides, some claiming that with ext3 the system
>> won't become unbootable because of /tmp filling up.
> 
> This depends entirely on the tasks required of the box.
> Putting /tmp on a separate partition can allow you to mount it noexec,
> which can help with security, and filling up /tmp won't fill the rest
> of the disk.

OTOH anything bad you can do with /tmp you can do better with /var/tmp, 
and making that noexec is not a realistic proposition.

> 
> /home on a separate partition can be a good thing for major upgrades
> or re-installs, as you can do a completely clean install and format
> the system without nuking user data.
> 
> /var is the most task dependent because this is where the webroot and
> database files live by default. Splitting /var and subdirs out based
> on task can be beneficial.

For a personal system, I go with one big partition (well, maybe plus a 
little one for /boot).

For a small server, same deal. If you don't know what you're doing, you 
don't have any chance of getting it right for you.

With Xen, I'm now contemplating several small systems under Xen, with 
shared storage (via NFS maybe, NFS should be fairly quick over virtual 
wire) where sensible, extra virtual disk where they need more private 
space. This is about what the Big Boys do with their zSeries.



-- 

Cheers
John

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