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.
|
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.
|
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