Separate /var /tmp and home partitions. a good idea?

[paulgault]

Hi all,

I'm running ZM v1.34.11 on Debian 10 (Buster) on baremetal. I've used Ubuntu since 2007 on all my desktop PCs but I'm not in the IT industry and not really done much with servers.

I've just done a fresh Debian 10 install and I opted for separate /home, /var and /tmp partitions. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not now as I've only got 3.8 gigs of disk space now in the default storage area. lols!

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sda: 59 GiB
Disk model: CHN 18ZIF001M 06

brian$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0   59G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0 11.1G  0 part /
├─sda2   8:2    0    1K  0 part 
├─sda5   8:5    0    4G  0 part /var
├─sda6   8:6    0    2G  0 part [SWAP]
├─sda7   8:7    0  768M  0 part /tmp
└─sda8   8:8    0 41.2G  0 part /home

I don't mind wiping and re-installing as it was easy enough or having a go at resizing the partitions but my question here is to ask if other people think there is any point in separating out the partitions like this and if other people do this as well?
also, what size partitions make sense for a 60 gig SSD on a 2-3 camera system?

thanks guys.
Paul.

[paulgault]

any opinions on partitioning schemes? anyone?

[bbunge]

Separate partitions seems to be a practice from the past. I can't remember how long ago it was that I set up a system that way. These days one partition, or two if you use UEFI, is the norm with a swap file. I still feel a swap partition is better than a swap file as I've had the swap file corrupted.

[Acewiza]

The way I approach this "issue," as t'were, is to put tmpfs in RAM. You can usually get away with filling up the root filesystem doing that. Conventional wisdom shielding an inadvertently filled root filesystem from excess logging, stupid users, whatever is an issue. But partitioning typically wastes space, unless you are pretty astute about what is using (or needing) how much space. In the case of things like logging (security cam video?) it may be transient or perishable.

That said, I always keep user data physically separate.

[kitkat]

any opinions on partitioning schemes? anyone?

I tend to go for a root partition of about 20 GB, most of the rest of the disk in a second one for /home, and one with a few gigs for swap.

Keeping /home separate makes for easier reinstallations without data loss.