Questions on partitions and the necessary directories within them
Hello,
I am a recent college graduate and one of the tasks given to me was to install and maintain mysql on our development server. Not knowing much of anything about the filesystem setup of our development machine, I followed the directions for installing mysql which said to install it into the /usr directory. After doing so, mysql seemed to run great for a few weeks, but then abruptly crashed and would not accept any new insertions. I've managed to trace down the problem, and it led me back to the discovery that we ran out of room on our root partition.
Being a newbie at system administration, I've come here for help!
Our development machine, which is running Solaris 9, currently has three partitions on it, the root partition, a data partition, and a dev partition. The root partition is 2.5G and currently running at 93% capacity. The data partition is 3.9G and is running at 54% capacity, and the dev partition is 4.9G and running at 6%.
Since our root partition is close to capacity, I am going to need to clean out our root partition, and move things around into our other partitions. I began looking through the directories and noticed quite a few files and directories that I am not sure are necessary to our machine. With that in mind, I have quite a few questions that hopefully someone with more experience in system administration can help me with.
1. How can I determine which directories and/or files in my root partition are appropriate for that space?
2. Are there any special considerations or procedures that I need to follow in order to locate, delete, and/or move directories and files that should not belong in the root partition?
3. Does it seem that the space allocatted to each partition (2.5G for the root partition, 3.9 for the data partition, and 4.9 for the development partition) is appropriate or should they be resized, and maybe enlarged?
4. Since this is a development server, we will be including some major applications that need to be executed. For example, we are currently running a Sun Web App Server from the data partition, and will be moving the mysql server away from the root partition and onto the dev partition. Are these the appropriate partitions for each these types of applications, or should they be put somewhere else?
5. What type of routine maintenance can you recommend to us so that we can keep similar issues from happening again.
Any pointers or direction would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Tracie
[2550 byte] By [
tracielya] at [2007-11-26 17:02:20]
# 1
Start with the Solaris Install guides on docs.sun.com. They will tell you what to expect for space allocation on different slices.
I like the idea of loading up the OS on a bare drive and then leaving it alone.
IMO mysql and your Web server should be on a separate slice such as the /dev slice that you mentioned.
Are you willing to blow up what you got and start all over again?
> 1. How can I determine which directories and/or files
> in my root partition are appropriate for that space?
/
/var/
/etc/
/usr
for starters, see the install guides and basic admin guides for examples.
> 2. Are there any special considerations or procedures
> that I need to follow in order to locate, delete,
> and/or move directories and files that should not
> belong in the root partition?
Depends!? Without knowing what's there, its just a shot in the dark.
> 3. Does it seem that the space allocatted to each
> partition (2.5G for the root partition, 3.9 for the
> data partition, and 4.9 for the development
> partition) is appropriate or should they be resized,
> and maybe enlarged?
I would make / bigger. As for /data and /dev that depends on what you think that you will need.
> 4. Since this is a development server, we will be
> including some major applications that need to be
> executed. For example, we are currently running a Sun
> Web App Server from the data partition, and will be
> moving the mysql server away from the root partition
> and onto the dev partition. Are these the
> appropriate partitions for each these types of
> applications, or should they be put somewhere else?
Why are you putting a Web Server in a DATA directory and not a DEV directory? Data means data and should mean dev only.
> 5. What type of routine maintenance can you recommend
> to us so that we can keep similar issues from
> happening again.
Administer the box.
alan
# 2
Hi Alan,
I've borrowed a couple books on Solaris 9, so I'm going through them as well hoping that it will help me better understand how everything is set up. I'll make sure to look through the install guides as well.
I'm assuming when you say blow up what I have and start all over again, you mean basically reinstalling Solaris 9 and re-partitioning everything. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do that or not, but it might be easier than trying to figure out what should and should not be in each partition.
As for what is currently in our root partition, there are about 15 directories just in the / directory, and they include: bin, dev, devices, doe, etc, export, home, import, java, kernel, lib, lost+found, mnt, net, nsr, opt, platform, proc, sbin, scde, set, shared, src, tmp, usr, var, ws, and xfn. I know what a few of them are such as the export, and home folders are since this connects to the network, but other than that, I'm not sure what the other directories are and whether or not they are necessary.
As for having the web server on the data partition, I was told to put it there since at the time we were not sure how much actual development was going to happen on the machine and we did not want to fill up the dev partition if we were going to need the space to run multiple applications and test cases, etc.
Finally, when you say administer the box to ensure that this does not happen again, what exactly do you mean by this? Besides running regular backups, I'm not sure how else to administer the machine.
Thanks,
Tracie
# 3
> Hi Alan,
>
> I've borrowed a couple books on Solaris 9, so I'm
> going through them as well hoping that it will help
> me better understand how everything is set up. I'll
> make sure to look through the install guides as
> well.
It's a start. I also have a slightly dated "new to unix" guide on http://www.ilkda.com. Look under new to unix.
> I'm assuming when you say blow up what I have and
> start all over again, you mean basically reinstalling
> Solaris 9 and re-partitioning everything.
If you're not familiar with what a stock installation looks like, then you have nothing to compare the current installation to mentally. If you can't re-install on this machine, maybe you can find something to install a base system on just so you can compare the two of them.
> sure if I'm allowed to do that or not, but it might
:-)
> be easier than trying to figure out what should and
> should not be in each partition.
>
> As for what is currently in our root partition, there
> are about 15 directories just in the / directory, and
> they include: bin, dev, devices, doe, etc, export,
> home, import, java, kernel, lib, lost+found, mnt,
> net, nsr, opt, platform, proc, sbin, scde, set,
> shared, src, tmp, usr, var, ws, and xfn. I know what
> a few of them are such as the export, and home
doe, java, nsr, scde, set, shared, src, ws and maybe a couple of others are there to probably sort things out, but are not part of the initial install.
> folders are since this connects to the network, but
> other than that, I'm not sure what the other
> directories are and whether or not they are
> necessary.
That's why for you, you need to see a clean system so you have something to compare it to.
> As for having the web server on the data partition, I
> was told to put it there since at the time we were
> not sure how much actual development was going to
> happen on the machine and we did not want to fill up
> the dev partition if we were going to need the space
> to run multiple applications and test cases, etc.
A band aid approach. We all know what happens in those cases. It usually becomes permanent.
> Finally, when you say administer the box to ensure
> that this does not happen again, what exactly do you
> mean by this? Besides running regular backups, I'm
> not sure how else to administer the machine.
Make someone responsible for the box. Changes, patches, user adds, the usual b.s.. See the Basic and Advanced ADMIN Guides for ideas.
http://docs.sun.com
alan
