Re: [tlug] Partition sizes

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "Matt" == Matt Gushee <mgushee@example.com> writes:

    Matt> If there's one thing I'd change, I'd make /var bigger -- not
    Matt> long ago I found my PostGres database getting too big, and
    Matt> had to move it under /opt/postgres.

I've taken to mounting separate partitions for those big monolithic
things (Coda FS data and client cache, RDMBS data) that aren't
usefully accessible as files, even though they often are split up into
files.  (Eg, Coda keeps file data in container files.  It actually
keeps the inodes in a special virtual memory manager; the only purpose
of the directories is to keep fsck from putting all your coda data in
/lost+found.)  Typically in "the usual place" (eg, /var/lib/postgresql
or whatever).

This means that expanding is typically a matter of (1) stopping the
server, (2) copying to a new mounted fs (often requires special tools,
though), and (3) swapping mount points.  Sometimes (eg for backup) (2)
can be done by dd partition-partition.

With Coda it's even easier, actually (as long as no single volume
needs to be bigger than its current partition), as you just add new
partitions to a list and kill -HUP the server.

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