2.8.4. Recommended Partitioning Scheme
Unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, we recommend that you create the following partitions:
A swap partition (at least 256 MB) — swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other words, data is written to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing.
If you are unsure about what size swap partition to create, make it twice the amount of RAM on your machine. It must be of type swap.
Creation of the proper amount of swap space varies depending on a number of factors including the following (in descending order of importance):
The applications running on the machine.
The amount of physical RAM installed on the machine.
The version of the OS.
Swap should equal 2x physical RAM for up to 2 GB of physical RAM, and then 1x physical RAM for any amount above 2 GB, but never less than 32 MB.
Using this formula, a system with 2 GB of physical RAM would have 4 GB of swap, while one with 3 GB of physical RAM would have 5 GB of swap. Creating a large swap space partition can be especially helpful if you plan to upgrade your RAM at a later time.
For systems with really large amounts of RAM (more than 32 GB) you can likely get away with a smaller swap partition (around 1x, or less, of physical RAM).
A PPC PReP boot partition on the first partition of the hard drive — the PPC PReP boot partition contains the operating system kernel (on iSeries systems) or the YABOOT boot loader (which allows other POWER systems to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux). For POWER systems excluding iSeries systems: Unless you plan to boot from a floppy or network source, you must have a PPC PReP boot partition to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
For OpenPower, p5, i5, and pSeries users: The PPC PReP boot partition should be between 4-8 MB, not to exceed 10 MB.
For iSeries users: It is recommended to setup a PPC PReP boot partition, either as your primary or backup boot method. The size range of a PPC PReP boot partition should be between 16 and 32 MB (but not to exceed 32 MB). The PPC PReP boot partition must be a primary partition, marked active.
For non-iSeries users: A /boot/ partition (100 MB) (/boot/ is not needed on iSeries systems) — the partition mounted on /boot/ contains the operating system kernel (which allows your system to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux), along with files used during the bootstrap process. Due to the limitations of most PC BIOSes and firmware, creating a small partition to hold these is a good idea. For most users, a 100 MB boot partition is sufficient.
If you have a RAID card, be aware that some BIOSes and firmware do not support booting from the RAID card. In cases such as these, the /boot/ partition must be created on a partition outside of the RAID array, such as on a separate hard drive. This is the case PReP on iSeries systems.
A root partition (500 MB - 5.0 GB) — this is where "/" (the root directory) is located. In this setup, all files (except those stored in /boot) are on the root partition.
A 500 MB partition allows you to install a minimal installation, while a 5.0 GB root partition lets you perform a full installation, choosing all package groups.