Setting root partition size

[Rupert Bullard]

I cannot figure out how to set the root partition size when installing HP-UX 11.0. Can someone walk me through that from the point after I enter 'bo b4 install'?

[Chuck J]

Do you not get a screen that asks you for the size you want to allocate to each partition? You need to modify the entry for

"/"

Chuck J

[Carlos Fernandez Riera]

The root partition should not be very big, 100-200 Mb is enought.

The standard tool for instalation will choose automaticaly a fixed size or a percentage of disk. You are able to change it in the system tab.

Also, in taht tab you can create new partitions to be mounted, and so , avoid the use of large partitions.

[Steven E. Protter]

If you need to increase root, there are a few ways.

make a make_tape_recovery tape.

Boot off tape. There is a prompt early installation that lets you change filesizes in restores.

As far as root fs size, I go larger. Not that its truly needed, but there are some long range issues.

Every once in a while, someone dumps something large and instead of going to /dev/rm/0m it goes to some variation of that which is in the root system.

I really hate when such mistakes bring down my system or clobber /etc/passwd or /etc/group. Ruins my day.

I run our systems in trusted mode and as a default, they store audit logs in the /.secure folder, also part of root fs.

These files amount to several hundred megabytes when full, and although you can move them, I want room to accomodate them in case a configuration get clobbered and they start collecting in the root fs.

You'll find the majority philosphy is small root fs. I know I'm a minority, but I've not been a sysadmin for 20 years, and having 500-1000 MB reserved for the reasons above and others hardly seems to be a hefty price.

Steve

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Choose "Install HP-UX/Media Only" -> "Advanced Installation". The "Filesystems" tab allosw you to choose the filesystem sizes. Make sure to a fixed size instead of a percentage of the whole disk. Depending on the physical size of your disk, Ignite will round filesystem sizes in increments of 4MB or 8MB.

Regards!

...JRF...

[John Bolene]

Also the size of your root partition is dependant on if you have separate /var and /opt and /tmp volumes.

These are the large ones.

[fg_1]

Boot your system from an Ignite/ux Make_Recovery tape and then choose

Install Media/Advanced Options.

Under the Advanced Options screen there is a
tab for setting up file system sizes.

When you set up / make it for no more than 160MB as it does not need alot of room.

Traditionally there isnt alot of data that
needs to go to this filesystem after its initial creation.

Thru this method is the only way to set the size of root since it cannot be modified after
the build is complete due to contiguous disk
requirements for the 1st 3 lvols: / , /stand, and Swap.

Gl

[Wodisch]

Hi,

actually I do prefer my root file systems to be larger than 100MB!
Think of tools like NNM (~20MB in "/etc/opt/OV"), so you see why...
And you CAN increase the size of your root file systems, since I have done this, and even described somewhere on the forums ;-)
Care about something else, too:
the "Volume Group" parameters of your root&boot VG! Use, e.g. 16MB as your "PE size", permit something like 4096 of those PEs, so that you can replace a broken boot-disk (you do mirror your root&boot, don't you?) in a year or two...
And with today's haddisk sizes, there is no need to save that much space on your root&boot disk!
So I usually use something like 1GB for /, primary swap, /tmp, /usr, /opt, /home, and /var (at least) each.

FWIW,
Wodisch (who remembers the days of 200MB boot disks, but does not use those any more)

[Rajeev Shukla]

Thats right, any form of installation you choose. After you boot and get a install menu and asks for the type of installation you choose guided advanced installation. And then you get the filesystem layout as an option where you can change the root size.

[Michael Tully]

The changes to partition sizes are made in the advance area. Look at all your partitions not just "/" or lvol3. If you have plenty of disk installed, particularly the internal ones, and you don't have Online JFS then try to look to the future. When you install patch bundles later one /usr and /var will need to be able to hold the old binaries. Here's a list of suggested sizes for an 18Gb internal disk. /opt needs to be a good size, as you may not know what your going to install later.

/stand 300Mb
/ 200Mb
/tmp 500
/var 2048
/usr 2048
primary swap - lvol2 512
/opt 2048

my 2 cents worth... (or megabytes worth)