How should I divvy up my HDDs? Suggestions Please.

Emanuel Strobl Emanuel.strobl at gmx.net
Thu May 5 11:32:32 PDT 2005


Am Donnerstag, 5. Mai 2005 17:43 schrieb freebsd.org at donnacha.com:
> Hi Harald, thanks.
>
> GPT sounds great but the quick search I did turned up a lot of
> references to 64-bit chips i.e. FreeBSD.org said "The GPT partitioning
> scheme was introduced with the ia64 architecture as an MBR replacement".
>
> Can GPT be also be used on 32-bit chips?  My server has a single P4 2.8
> 533FSB.

Yes, you cannot boot from GPT disks without IA64 (EFI), so you have to use 
MBR/bsdlabel for the first disk on x86 (which includes AMD64 and EMT-64) 
systems and the root mountpoint must be a bsdlabel, but you can also use 
GPT additionally on the first disk by creating a GPT inside a slice.
On non-booting disks you don't need any MBR etc., just GPT works fine on 
any architecture FreeBSD supports

> Also, is it easy to implement and commonly know about?  I ask because I
> won't be the one doing the initial installation.

It's rarely known, but no problem to "implement" since FreeBSD has GPT 
support in the generic kernel. Sysinstall can't handle GPT, so you should 
be quiet familar with FreeBSD to make the boot-disk GPT extended. To 
create GPT on the second disk is quiet easy (gpt create ad2) and the man 
page of the gpt (8) tool describes the easy steps to add partitions. Then 
you need to newfs them and add them to /etc/fstab, just like with 
slice/labels, but you have to do it manually, like mentioned sysinstall 
can't manage GPT.

-Harry

>
> Thanks,
>
> Donnacha
>
> Harald Schmalzbauer wrote:
> > Am Donnerstag, 5. Mai 2005 14:56 schrieb Jerry McAllister:
> >>>Hello, I'm new to FreeBSD and this list, my name is Donnacha, I'm an
> >>>Irishman living in Edinburgh, Scotland.
> >>>
> >>>I have read The Complete FreeBSD's section on disk partioning but
> >>>would very much appreciate some advice on how to divide up the 2 HDDs
> >>>I'm getting on my new server.
> >>>
> >>>The server is located in a facility in the US and will be used as a
> >>>Web and email server.  It has an 80GB HDD and a 200GB HDD, both IDE
> >>>but I'm asking for them to be placed on seperate buses.
> >>>
> >>>I was thinking of using the 80GB as the primary and placing / on it,
> >>>while putting /var, /usr and /home on the 200GB.
> >>>
> >>>I'll have 2GB of RAM, so, I was thinking about putting 2GB of swap on
> >>>each HDD.
> >>>
> >>>How does that sound.  I would be very grateful for any advice you can
> >>>give me before I relay my instructions to the guys doing the
> >>>installation.
> >>
> >>It depends a lot on what you leave in /usr and /var and /home.
> >>It kind of looks like you will leave the 80GB drive mostly empty
> >>the way you are doing things.  If all your accounts and web pages
> >>are really in /home and you have no databases, I would be inclined
> >>to put both /usr and /var in the 80GB drive and leave the other one
> >>for home directories and web pages.   Since the default place for
> >>databases is in /var that can make a big difference on where you put
> >>it or if you take the db directory out of /var and put it somewhere
> >>else, etc.
> >>
> >>Putting some of your swap on each drive as you have indicated
> >>is a good idea.
> >
> > Ack! I just wanted to point you to GPT. I always use my second drive
> > without MBR/slices/labels, just GPT. You can create up to 128
> > Pratitions and together with either growfs ( if you leave unassigned
> > space between the partitions) or gconcat I have a very flexible
> > storage solution (of course gvinum is another option).
> > It's also possible to create a GPT inside a slice (so even on the
> > first HD), just / must be on a bsdlabel.
> > I use such a configuration for jails or virtual hosts, where every
> > jail or virthos has its own mountpoint. Initially with not too much
> > space (1G), increased on demand.
> >
> > -Harry
> >
> >>////jerry
> >>
> >>>Thanks and I look forward to participating in this community,
> >>>
> >>>Donnacha
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
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> >>
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