Fwd: Filesystem and Disk Partitioning for New Server Setup

1) I'd go with xfs. zfs might be a good alternative, but the last time I
tried it, it was really unstable (on Linux). I may have gotten a lot
better, but xfs is a safe bet and well understood.

2) An LVM is just an extra couple of commands. These days that is not a
lot of complexity given what you gain. The main advantage is that you can
extend or grow the file system on the fly. Over the life of the database
it is quite possible you'll find yourself pressed for disk space - either
to drop in more csv files to load with the 'copy' command, to store more
logs (because you need to turn up logging verbosity, etc...), you need more
transaction logs live on the system, you need to take a quick database
dump, or simply you collect more data than you expected. It is not always
convenient to change the log location, or move tablespaces around to make
room. In the cloud you might provision more volumes and attach them to the
server. On a SAN you might attach more disk, and with a stand alone
server, you might stick more disks on the server. In all those scenarios,
being able to simply merge them into your existing volume can be really
handy.

3) The main advantage of partitioning a single volume (these days) is
simply that if one partition fills up, it doesn't impact the rest of the
system. Putting things that are likely to fill up the disk on their own
partition is generally a good practice. User home directories is one
example. System logs. That sort of thing. Isolating them on their own
partition will improve the long term reliability of your database. The
main disadvantage is those things get boxed into a much smaller amount of
space than they would normally have if they could share a partition with
the whole system.

On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 11:28 PM, dstibrany <dstibrany(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> I'm about to install a new production server and wanted some advice
> regarding
> filesystems and disk partitioning.
>
> The server is:
> - Dell PowerEdge R430
> - 1 x Intel Xeon E5-2620 2.4GHz
> - 32 GB RAM
> - 4 x 600GB 10k SAS
> - PERC H730P Raid Controller with 2GB cache
>
> The drives will be set up in one RAID-10 volume and I'll be installing
> Ubuntu 14.04 LTS as the OS. The server will be dedicated to running
> PostgreSQL.
>
> I'm trying to decide:
>
> 1) Which filesystem to use (most people seem to suggest xfs).
> 2) Whether to use LVM (I'm leaning against it because it seems like it adds
> additional complexity).
> 3) How to partition the volume. Should I just create one partition on / and
> create a 16-32GB swap partition? Any reason to get fancy with additional
> partitions given it's all on one volume?
>
> I'd like to keep things simple to start, but not shoot myself in the foot
> at
> the same time.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dave
>
>
>
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