Gentoo Partitioning Plans

[gentoo-user] Help with new system (discusses partition sizes)

Possible partitions:

/boot ext2 64MB
- handbook says 32MB
- needs to be a primary partition, type "linux native"
- can be mounted read-only

(swap) 512MB / 1GB / 2GB
- some places say 2x physical memory, others say twice what you think you use
- I'm probably going to go with 2GB and put it on the root of the 2nd drive

/ (root) ext3
- 1GB?, should only hold selected trees such as /etc, /dev, /proc, /root, /bin, /sbin, /lib

(rootmirror) ext3
- a mirror of the root partition, typically not mounted, same size as /

Note: /home, /opt, /usr, and /var can be handled with LVM. The LVM doc suggests /usr (10GB), /home (5GB), /opt (5GB), /var (10GB), /tmp (2GB).

/home ext3
- user files, I'll probably go with a default of 5GB as any really large files (e.g. Samba shares or multi-media files) I'll stick in a seperate partition and symlink
- /home will probably end up in a seperate partition by itself, along with the multi-media storage so that I can handle that with regular backups

/opt ext3
- game servers store a bit of stuff here, I don't expect my /opt to use much, so 2GB in LVM

/tmp ext2
- same issues as /var/tmp (not sure if gentoo uses /tmp), probably

/usr ext3
- possibly mounted read-only? suggestions indicate 2-3GB

/usr/portage
- source-code, 6-8GB

/var ext3
- mail servers store mail queues here (/var/mail?), print spools also end up under /var (/var/spool?)

/var/log ext3? 3GB
- log files, good to have in seperate partition so they don't fill the server

/var/tmp ext2 8GB
- temp files, can get away with less space if /var/tmp/portage is in a seperate location (maybe only 1-4GB)
- probably put this on the 2nd drive in the system

/var/tmp/portage ext2 or ext3 5GB
- this is where gentoo compiles, I've seen statements that 5GB is not unreasonable, good candidate for putting on the 2nd drive in the system

Decisions (probably how I'll allocate it):

DISK 1:
/boot ext2 64MB
/ (root) ext3 2GB
LVM #1 24GB
/opt 2GB
/usr 4GB
/var 4GB
LVM #2 (rest of disk)
/home

DISK 2:
(swap) 2GB
/tmp ext2 4GB
/var/tmp ext2 8GB
(root mirror) 2GB
(backup partition)