Installation

Recommendation for Disk Partition

Recommendation for Disk Partition

by Bart Van Steirteghem -
Number of replies: 7
Disclaimer: I have no experience with setting up or administering a server.

We want to install Ubuntu + WeBWorK on a machine with the following specifications: Pentium 4, 3.8 Ghz, 3Gb RAM, 500Gb hard drive

We plan to install from a Live DvD, and in particular to follow these instructions:
http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installing_from_WW2.4_Ubuntu9.10_Vanilla_LiveDVD

We would like the same machine to also be a server where faculty can store files remotely and have personal webpages (not email). We estimate about 2Gb of disk space per person, for about 20 people.

Our plan is to have daily backups of the WeBWorK data files, and of faculty files; and less frequent backups of other components.

Could someone recommend a partitioning scheme for our hard drive? If possible, please also indicate how to modify the instructions in
http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installation_Manual_for_2.4_on_Ubuntu_9.10#Partition_disks
to implement the scheme.

I have tried looking online, but what I've found has not been so useful for the novice that I am.

Many thanks.
In reply to Bart Van Steirteghem

Re: Recommendation for Disk Partition

by Lars Jensen -
Hi Bart,

You may need some more RAM depending on the number of students and the frequency by which they will access faculty web pages. It would probably be better to have two servers, one for webwork, and one for faculty web pages. 

This may work fine for a start-up webwork server:

6 GB for swap 
20 GB for / (where the OS goes)
20 GB for /opt (where webwork goes)
100 GB for /home (where your faculty dirs go)

since you have so much more space, you could do:

20 GB for swap
50 GB for /
100 GB for /opt
200 GB for /home

That's still gives you some extra space you probably won't benefit from unless you have a large number of students. You could leave the rest available for later, to extend partitions as needed.

Lars.
In reply to Lars Jensen

Re: Recommendation for Disk Partition

by Bart Van Steirteghem -
Hi Lars,

Does WeBWorK automatically go into /opt when we install it

(say following
http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installing_from_WW2.4.9_Ubuntu10.04.2LTS_Vanilla_LiveDVD )

or do we have to put it there somehow?

Thanks,

-Bart

In reply to Bart Van Steirteghem

Re: Recommendation for Disk Partition

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi,

First of all I would recommend you use the current LiveDVD: http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installing_from_WW2.4.9_Ubuntu10.04.2LTS_Vanilla_LiveDVD

There are some instructions on partitioning at http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installation_Manual_for_2.4_on_Ubuntu_10.04#Partition_disks

Finally I would suggest you use wwtmp:  http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installation_Manual_for_2.4_on_Ubuntu_10.04#Implement_Optional_A_.28wwtmp.29

Arnie