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9.4. Advice on Partitions

Optimal partition setup depends on the usage for the Linux system in question. The following tips may help you decide how to allocate your disk space.

  • If you expect that you or other users will store data on the system, create a separate partition for the /home directory within a volume group. With a separate /home partition, you may upgrade or reinstall Fedora without erasing user data files.

  • Each kernel installed on your system requires approximately 6 MB on the /boot partition. Unless you plan to install a great many kernels, the default partition size of 100 MB for /boot should suffice.

  • The /var directory holds content for a number of applications, including the Apache web server. It also is used to store downloaded update packages on a temporary basis. Ensure that the partition containing the /var directory has enough space to download pending updates and hold your other content.

    [Important] Pending Updates

    Because Fedora is a rapidly progressing collection of software, many updates may be available late in a release cycle. You can add an update repository to the sources for installation later to minimize this issue. Refer to Section 14.1, “Installing from Additional Repositories” for more information.

  • The /usr directory holds the majority of software content on a Fedora system. For an installation of the default set of software, allocate at least 4 GB of space. If you are a software developer or plan to use your Fedora system to learn software development skills, you may want to at least double this allocation.

  • Consider leaving a portion of the space in an LVM volume group unallocated. This unallocated space gives you flexibility if your space requirements change but you do not wish to remove data from other partitions to reallocate storage.

  • If you separate subdirectories into partitions, you can retain content in those subdirectories if you decide to install a new version of Fedora over your current system. For instance, if you intend to run a MySQL database in /var/lib/mysql, make a separate partition for that directory in case you need to reinstall later.

The following table is a possible partition setup for a system with a single, new 80 GB hard disk and 1 GB of RAM. Note that approximately 10 GB of the volume group is unallocated to allow for future growth.

[Note] Example Usage

This setup is not optimal for all use cases.

Partition Size and type
/boot 100 MB ext3 partition
swap 2 GB swap
LVM physical volume Remaining space, as one LVM volume group

The physical volume is assigned to the default volume group and divided into the following logical volumes:

Partition Size and type
/ 3 GB ext3
/usr 8 GB ext3
/usr/local 2 GB ext3
/var 4 GB ext3
/home 50 GB ext3

Example 9.1. Example Partition Setup


 
 

 
 
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