spreading partitions over multiple drivers

[Geert Hendrickx]

Erich Dollansky wrote: 
> Hi,
> 
> Geert Hendrickx wrote:
> > Hi tuners, 
> > 
> > apart from using RAID, what would be the best way to spread load over
> > multiple drives?  
> > 
> It depends very much on the use of the machine.
> 
> > I was thinking about a partition layout like this: 
> > disk1:	/, swap, /var, /usr, /usr/src, /usr/ports
> > disk2:  /tmp, swap, /home, /var/www, /usr/obj (+ ports-workdirs)
> > 
> You must spread the directories with a high usage evenly over the
> drives.

That's why I worked this out.  For example when compiling sources or
ports, a "make build" would essentially be reading from /usrc/src|ports,
writing to /usr/obj, and "make install" would be reading from /usr/obj
and writing to /usr.  

For the rest, the most essential (IMO) is the separation of system (/,
/usr) and data (/home, /var/www), and of course spreading of swap.  

Any other thoughts about this?  

> > And would it make sense (if the disks are large enough) to split /usr
> > into seperate /usr, /usr/local, /usr/X11R6, etc partitions to reduce
> > fragmentation?  
> > 
> Fragmentation is not a problem for FreeBSD.

Fragmentation may be LESS of a problem with UFS, but a moving target
like one big /usr (incl src, obj, ports) will get fragmented as well.
Splitting up partitions would reduce this fragmentation (as you are
essentially defining some "super large blocks"), and may increase
filesystem stability in case of crashes etc.  

Just my 0.02 of course.  

> Erich

GH

PS: please CC me as I'm not subscribed.