resize /var

[Rick Stevens]

Ted Potter wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-09-19 at 13:30 -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>>Ted Potter wrote:
>>
>>>Greetings,
>>>
>>>
>>>a new IBM Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (v.3 Update 3) X series machine
>>>has the following partitions 
>>>
>>>/dev/sda3   264 gig  /root
>>>/dev/sda2     72 megs /boot
>>>/dev/sda6   243 Megs /var
>>>
>>>we ran out of space on /var running up2date. From what I understand I
>>>think the /var partition is too small.
>>>
>>>My questions are
>>>
>>>1. Is it correct to state the /var partition is to small and we should
>>>have something like 10 - 40 gigs
>>
>>Well, it rather depends on what you're doing.  Remember that the vast
>>number of logs and such go into /var/log.  up2date and yum both keep
>>their downloads there (/var/spool/up2date or /var/cache/yum) and mail
>>usually ends up in /var/mail.
>>
>>Again, it depends on what you're doing.  As a rule, I tend to make /var
>>at least 4GB.  I'd say 2.5 to 5% of your total disk is adequate.  In
>>your case that'd be 6.5 to 13GB.
>>
>>
>>>2. How do I or can I resize the /var partition.
>>
>>It's not easy to do.  Once you've partitioned the drive, you really
>>can't change it unless you used LVM to set it up or really know what
>>you're doing with a tool such as one of the parted variants (gparted,
>>parted, etc.).
>>
>>If you have a later version of Partition Magic or Partition Commander,
>>those can bugger things for you.  If you don't, it might make more sense
>>to reinstall and partition things a bit better.  With your disk, I'd do
>>something like:
>>
>>	/ (root)	512MB-1GB
>>	/boot		64-128MB
>>	/var		6.5-13GB
>>	swap		twice your RAM size
>>	/usr		rest of disk
>>
>>However, to get you over the hump you could tell up2date to use a
>>directory in /usr to store its stuff.  For example,
>>
>>	# mkdir /usr/up2date-stuff
>>	# up2date --tmpdir=/usr/up2date-stuff
>>
>>You can also reconfigure up2date to use that /usr/up2date-stuff
>>directory in the future without having to specify it on the command
>>line.  Use "up2date --configure", go to the second tab
>>("Retrieval/Installation") and change the "package store directory".
> 
> Thanks for the info, I suggested a reinstall since it is a new box with
> nothing on it. Sadly it was a preinstall from IBM and I am sure getting
> them to do it will be something.

You can usually request a specific partitioning from them.  Heck, I even
get boxes from IBM and Dell with MY version of FC4 on them.  Of course,
we buy a LOT of boxes, but still...  Besides, THEY oughta know better!
Logs can get friggin' HUGE.  700MB for the logging partition?  Dumb!

> At least we can all sing the company song
> 
> "IBM, you BM. We ALL BM for IBM"

Ah, based on the book "Everybody Poops", eh?  ;-)
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-   "I was remembering the immortal words of Socrates when he said,  -
-   'I drank what?'"                 -- Val Kilmer in "Real Genius"  -
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