Maximum (efficient) partition sizes for various filesystem types...

Maximum (efficient) partition sizes for various filesystem types...

[Joel Beach]

Hi everyone,

Have just put a new 30GB hard drive for my server at home, and am wondering
what the optimal sizes for partitioning are.

For instance, the Debian guide says that, due to Ext2 efficiency, partitions
greater than 6-7GB shouldn't be created. Is this true for Ext3/ReiserFS.

Am also not sure which file systems to choose. I'm planning on having a 3GB
parition for the actual system, and formatting this using ReiserFS
(generally smaller files). However, is Reiser also a good choice for
download archives (where average file size is about 5-10MB) still a good
choice?

Joel

Re: Maximum (efficient) partition sizes for various filesystem types...

[Alan Cox]

> For instance, the Debian guide says that, due to Ext2 efficiency, partitions
> greater than 6-7GB shouldn't be created. Is this true for Ext3/ReiserFS.

I've run several 45-200Gb ext2 and ext3 partitions with no problem. I'm not
sure what the origin of the Debian guide comemnt is but I've never heard
it from an ext2 developer

Obviously pick a journalled fs for big partitions 8)

Re: Maximum (efficient) partition sizes for various filesystem types...

[Joel Beach]

I think I'll fix up that bit in the Debian manual myself then if they let
me....

For what it's worth, here's the paragraph from the "Woody" installation
manual:

"For new users, personal Debian boxes, home systems, and other single-user
setups, a single / partition (plus swap) is probably the easiest, simplest
way to go. It is possible to have problems with this idea, though, with
larger (20GB) disks. Based on limitations in how ext2 works, avoid any
single partition greater than 6GB or so."

Joel

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Cox" <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
To: "Joel Beach" <joelbeach@optushome.com.au>
Cc: <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 8:58 PM
Subject: Re: Maximum (efficient) partition sizes for various filesystem
types...


> > For instance, the Debian guide says that, due to Ext2 efficiency,
partitions
> > greater than 6-7GB shouldn't be created. Is this true for Ext3/ReiserFS.
>
> I've run several 45-200Gb ext2 and ext3 partitions with no problem. I'm
not
> sure what the origin of the Debian guide comemnt is but I've never heard
> it from an ext2 developer
>
> Obviously pick a journalled fs for big partitions 8)

Re: Maximum (efficient) partition sizes for various filesystem types...

[Mike Fedyk]

On Mon, Nov 19, 2001 at 09:22:38PM +1100, Joel Beach wrote:
> I think I'll fix up that bit in the Debian manual myself then if they let
> me....
> 
> For what it's worth, here's the paragraph from the "Woody" installation
> manual:
> 
> "For new users, personal Debian boxes, home systems, and other single-user
> setups, a single / partition (plus swap) is probably the easiest, simplest
> way to go. It is possible to have problems with this idea, though, with
> larger (20GB) disks. Based on limitations in how ext2 works, avoid any
> single partition greater than 6GB or so."
> 

No.  They mean limitations of relatively old IDE hardware...

Re: Maximum (efficient) partition sizes for various filesystem types...

[Stephen C. Tweedie]

Hi,

On Mon, Nov 19, 2001 at 09:58:43AM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> > For instance, the Debian guide says that, due to Ext2 efficiency, partitions
> > greater than 6-7GB shouldn't be created. Is this true for Ext3/ReiserFS.
> 
> I've run several 45-200Gb ext2 and ext3 partitions with no problem. I'm not
> sure what the origin of the Debian guide comemnt is but I've never heard
> it from an ext2 developer

The largest filesystem I use with ext3 at the moment is 40GB, and it
is 98% full and is used *constantly* (it contains my main build
trees).  I'm not sure where the 6-7GB limit idea comes from but I've
got very few filesystems smaller than that, and they are still all
ext3.

Cheers,
 Stephen

Re: Maximum (efficient) partition sizes for various filesystem types...

[Hans Reiser]

Stephen C. Tweedie wrote:

>Hi,
>
>On Mon, Nov 19, 2001 at 09:58:43AM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
>
>>>For instance, the Debian guide says that, due to Ext2 efficiency, partitions
>>>greater than 6-7GB shouldn't be created. Is this true for Ext3/ReiserFS.
>>>
>>I've run several 45-200Gb ext2 and ext3 partitions with no problem. I'm not
>>sure what the origin of the Debian guide comemnt is but I've never heard
>>it from an ext2 developer
>>
>
>The largest filesystem I use with ext3 at the moment is 40GB, and it
>is 98% full and is used *constantly* (it contains my main build
>trees).  I'm not sure where the 6-7GB limit idea comes from but I've
>got very few filesystems smaller than that, and they are still all
>ext3.
>
>Cheers,
> Stephen
>-
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>

I bet the origin is the time it takes to run fsck.  If so, run any 
journaling filesystem and you'll be okay.  We have 2 terabyte systems 
out there, I bet ext3 does also.

hans

Re: Maximum (efficient) partition sizes for various filesystem types...

[Dan Merillat]

Joel Beach writes:

> I think I'll fix up that bit in the Debian manual myself then if they let
> me....
> 
> For what it's worth, here's the paragraph from the "Woody" installation
> manual:
> 
> "For new users, personal Debian boxes, home systems, and other single-user
> setups, a single / partition (plus swap) is probably the easiest, simplest
> way to go. It is possible to have problems with this idea, though, with
> larger (20GB) disks. Based on limitations in how ext2 works, avoid any
> single partition greater than 6GB or so."

They're right... for home users, with unreliable power or lots of reboots.

when you have to fsck an 18 gig /home partition you really feel it.
One of the reasons all my large drives are running reiserfs now.

And I don't even like to think about how long it takes to check my 56 gig
RAID5 on one server.  Hell, it takes a long time just to mount it read/write
when it's clean!   Thank god for 2-year uptimes.

So yes, the guide is accurate.  And hopefully there will be a reiserfs/ext3
version of the debian install set out in the near future (There's one listed
as "try at your own risk", havn't done it yet.)

(as an aside, woody install is broken: pppoe requires libpcap, which dosn't get
installed initially, so the post-setup fails.  It can be worked around, but
not by newbies.  Lots of vi required)

--Dan