Are /home partitions worth it?


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Operating Systems Linux Are /home partitions worth it?
# 8  
Old 10-15-2013
I'm inclined to disagree. Do you have any such experiences that you can tell us about, or post links to any references which support your recommendations?
# 9  
Old 10-15-2013
Enterprise use: No, just read so in another forum.
Personal use: Yes, several first hand experiences, though, half of them were because encryption was included, but not the cause for the trouble in the first place.

Either way, for anyone coming from a Windows world, i dont want to make their first Linux experience more challenging than necessary.
Specialy in a thread asking for help with plain partitions.

EDIT:
Edited previous post to state that that statement is ment for personal use.
I do have to admit, i do feel more save with an encrypted LVM than with an encrypted plain partition - but then again, its harder to get my own data back too. (backups aside)

EDIT:
Eg: http://lwn.net/Articles/522073/
https://www.unix.com/unix-dummies-que...lvm-issue.html
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=288770

Last edited by sea; 10-16-2013 at 07:09 AM..
# 10  
Old 10-16-2013
Following on from post 4.

I've been given a pre-installed RHEL 6.3 server that has just the root filesystem fairly empty, but filling the boot disk except for a small slice off for /boot. It's under VMWare, so using a clone I practised shrinking the root filesystem and splitting off /tmp, /var & /usr.

Oh dear. Smilie Splitting off /usr gave a few issues. The server did boot, but very slowly and none of the /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S* scripts had run. Fortunately I could log on at the console and just run them and everything then was just fine.

My thought is that the filesystem /usr was not mounted so it just failed to run most of the boot - and I've been very lucky too.

I added the lines in blue to /etc/fstab is as follows:-
Code:
/dev/mapper/vg_rhel63x64-lv_root /                       ext4    defaults        1 1
/dev/mapper/vg_rhel63x64-lv_tmp /tmp                     ext4    defaults        1 1
/dev/mapper/vg_rhel63x64-lv_var /var                     ext4    defaults        1 1
/dev/mapper/vg_rhel63x64-lv_usr /usr                     ext4    defaults        1 1
UUID=7be417ee-faf2-4c33-80b3-eb3a8348fd3a /boot                   ext4    defaults        1 2
/dev/mapper/vg_rhel63x64-lv_swap swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0

Have I correctly identified the problem? What did I do wrong?

Eventually I moved /usr back within the root filesystem and commented out it's entry in /etc/fstab and the next boot was better. I guess I was a little too aggressive. The boot is still rather slow, so perhaps I've messed up something else too.


Good thing that this is a test machine! Smilie



Robin

Last edited by rbatte1; 10-16-2013 at 07:15 AM..
# 11  
Old 10-16-2013
Just adding my 2 cents here.
maerlyngb, when I was a noob myself, I wish I could have come across this great book to help me get started - it would have made things a whole lot easier, especially with new concepts for someone coming from the Windows world. I don't know if that is your case, but I'd highly recommend that you download The Linux Command Line (which is available for free as in free pizza Smilie) here. The last edition was published 2 months ago. Hope you find it useful.
# 12  
Old 10-22-2013
For home use, don't bother with LVM, and create three partitions on your hard drive. One for /, one for /home, and one for swap.

I recommend:

/, 32 GB
swap, 2 GB
/home, everything else

For a server, it makes sense to use separate partitions or volumes for /var and /opt and others, but not for home use.
# 13  
Old 10-22-2013
One really good reason to use partitions, not just /home but beyond -- is if you don't store /home/, /var/, and /log/ inside /, then your root partition almost never needs writing to. And it's the one you actually need to boot. If / is okay, it can fsck the other partitions, but if root gets corrupted, it can't fix itself. And disk corruption lands wherever you've been writing to...

Imagine your machine's been forcibly powered off for some reason. With partitions, the system is able to start booting, mount /, and fsck the other filesystems, go through a few scary reboots and probably work again, minus whatever files inside /home/ the corruption hit.

Without partitions, you'd need a rescue CD to get it working again when / fails to mount. And when you check it with a rescue CD, you'd better hope the corruption hit nothing vital.

When I was experimenting with bleeding-edge Linux kernels this is mostly what kept me from trashing my system repeatedly.

Last edited by Corona688; 10-22-2013 at 07:14 PM..
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

9 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. What is on Your Mind?

Are certifications worth it?

I have just been on RedHat SA 3 training course (4 days) and sat exams EX200 (RHCSA) and EX300 (RHCE) The daft thing was that politics meant I wasn't allowed to take courses SA 1 or 2. So I learnt about stuff I would never use (SELinux; iSCSI; NFS Kerberos encrypted with user specific access... (22 Replies)
Discussion started by: rbatte1
22 Replies

2. Programming

Is C worth the effort?

Hello guys, I have a little question. I think about learning c or c++ because im very interessted in low Level programming. And because i love Unix Too i thought C would be the better choice since Most it Done in c. Or should i learn c++? Because C++ has all this nice Features like oop and... (9 Replies)
Discussion started by: dryPants
9 Replies

3. What is on Your Mind?

Is M.Sc (FOSS) worth doing?

Recently while reading an linux magazine I understood that FOSS (Free or open source software) is gaining momentum.. And in my home town there is an reputed university which offers M.Sc online program on FOSS. The course covers: INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING, PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FOSS,... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: Arun_Linux
4 Replies

4. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

What is this system worth?

So my family is cleaning out our house and my dad stumbled on a Unix system with Unigraphix installed on it, and he remembers that it was 1 of 6 computers in a set that he used at a tool and dye machine shop where he worked. He said that the computer by itself with the monitor was $20,000! I was... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: NVOtosReborn
8 Replies

5. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Make another set of root(/), /boot, /home and other partitions?

Hello, As a purely learning purpose I am trying to make another set of partitions along my existing Ubuntu11.10 box. The reason to do this partition is to try a new Linux system by myself following "Linux From Scratch" (LFS). Because the instruction of LFS seems for very advanced user (I am... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: yifangt
3 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

How do i get only last 5 minute worth of data

I have a text file called 'tomcat_temp_out'. I want to get only last 5 minute worth of data from this file and redirect those data into another fule. Could you please help to work on this? (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: shivanete
2 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Is Unix Worth it?

I have been wanting to get much deaper into the world of computers for quite some time. I know a lot of c++, and plenty of website programming, and decided that the next step should be Unix. But here's the thing - I know nothing about Unix. I installed it and everything, but it just seemed like... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: GuyWithAPen
3 Replies

8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Is learning Unix worth it?

Hello. I am a comp sci major and am forced to take a intro to Unix class. So far i am loving it. I was wondering is it useful to learn more off on my own? Will it have any use to me when i get a job after school is done? Same applies to Perl Sed and Awk? (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: smiledk1
5 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Java - is it worth learning?

I have the opportunituy of learning basics/intermediate jave for 600 Euro. Is this worth learning?? (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: frustrated1
4 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question