Partitioning and a couple other new user questions

[roskopfj]

Can anyone give me some advice on how to partition a new server that has 596GB useable disk space for cpanel? It will be running RedHat EL3 ES and has 2 x 3ghz cpu's and 4gigs of memory.

By default, which partition do the MySQL databases and web content get installed to? We're expecting up to several hundred domains and subdomains that could each consist of a MySQL database of up to 1gb, some web content and a bunch of email accounts accessed via squirrelmail.

I've never used cpanel before, so I don't know where it puts stuff by default. Also which antivirus and antispam programs for email are the easiest to integrate with cpanel, and will cpanel autoinstall any of them?

Should I install VNC and let RedHat EL3 install it's 3.x version of MySQL first? Unfortunately I'm not able to experiment with it in a test environment because the O/S is being installed in a NAT'ed environment, prior to sending it to where it's being co-located across the country, so I really need to get it right the first time, as it won't be easy to reformat and start over if I screw up the initial installation of cpanel.

Thanks

[chirpy]

Well, this isn't a recommendation, but it works for me:

The largest partition should be for your users websites and email data which is stored, by default, in /home

Next comes backups depending on how you're gong to store them, though it would be best to put them on a separate physical drive called /backup

Then, you're looking at MySQL data, server log files and cPanel user configuration data which is all stored in /var

Then, you're looking at the cPanel applications themselves, which are mostly stored under the /usr tree

You'll want the usual /boot partition and / partition.

Lastly, a /tmp partition that you can mount noexec,nosuid.

On a 120GB disk, this is how I have it split:

/home 93GB
/usr 10GB
/var 7GB
/tmp 1GB
/ 1GB
/boot 46MB

With a spare disk for /backup

[roskopfj]

Thanks! Is there any way to combine the /home and /var partitions into one so I don't for example run out of disk space on one partition and the other has too much? It's going to be hosting hundreds of installations of the same MySQL/PHP application, and I'm not sure exactly how large the MySQL databases are going to grow.

Generally speaking, if I remove a 149GB drive from the Raid5 array and use it for /backup how would you recommend partitioning the remaining 447GB of useable disk space?

What about /swap? Do I really need 2x RAM or 8gb as the cpanel installation instructions suggest?

[PeteC]

Is there any way to combine the /home and /var partitions into one so I don't for example run out of disk space on one partition and the other has too much? It's going to be hosting hundreds of installations of the same MySQL/PHP application, and I'm not sure exactly how large the MySQL databases are going to grow.

This is probably an obvious suggestion, but you could avoid making separate partitions for /home and /var and just create these as subdirectories of /. That's not at all uncommon in cPanel installations.

[chirpy]

Indeed.

Btw, you do should indeed have your swap partition/swapfile as twice the size of your physical RAM, yes.

[roskopfj]

Here is how I've got it partitioned right now.

4 149GB drives in a Raid 5 array with

1gb /
100mb /boot
1gb /tmp
10gb /usr
8gb /swap (2x RAM)
200gb /var
200gb /home

1 149gb drive thats not in the array
/backup

The problem is that by default, redhat puts the web sites in /var/www/html and not in /home like I expected it would... will cpanel change that or do I need to repartition and give all the disk space to /home? MySQL on this server is going to be huge, so I need to give it just as much disk space as the web sites and email. I'd hate to ship this thing across the country only to find out I wasted 200gb on a partition that isn't being used.

PeteC, I'd love to combine /home and /var on the / partition, but the Dell ServerIntall assistant CD won't let me do that, and I don't know how to compile a kernel as well as they do, so I need to use that as opposed to the original redhat discs which are more flexible with configurations. Plus if I ever call Dell for support they probably won't talk to me unless I used their media.

[chirpy]

You specify where the cPanel user accounts will be created within WHM. By default this will be the /home partition, but you could justas easily put them on a different partition.