Remote re-installation of current FreeBSD system.

[Manolis Kiagias]

Polytropon wrote:
> A little sidenote:
>
> On Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:28:04 -0500, Roger <rnodal at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> The reason for wanting to re-install is because I only have on big
>> slice that covers the
>> entire harddrive and I don't want that. Primarily I would like to have
>> /usr/local
>> in a separate slice.
>>     
>
> In most cases, you set up one slice covering the whole disk,
> and then partition it, giving functional parts an own
> partition, such as /, /var, /tmp, /usr (including or intendedly
> excluding /usr/local) and /home. Those are partitions, not
> slices.
>
> As far as I know, there's no advantage in adding additional slices
> to that concept.
>
> A slice is a "DOS primary partition", while a partition is
> just a subdivision (i. e. an own file system) inside a slice.
>
>
>   

It seems however that some dedicated servers are setup using a single
slice and a single partition, i.e. having /usr /var and /tmp as
subdirectories in / instead of separate filesystems. I was once
administering a server setup in this way - the hosting company would
only perform this kind of install (they probably had a ready image or
dump and would not change it).
If the OP cares to share his /etc/fstab, it will become obvious if this
is the case.
If there are already separate partitions inside the slice, I'd agree
there is no compelling reason to move to a multiple slice system.