Novell OPEN ENTERPRISE SERVER 2 SP2 - LAB GUIDE 01-19-2010 Manual page 108

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108 OES 2 SP2: Lab Guide for Linux and Virtualized NetWare
Explanation
Partitions are physical sections on a hard disk that are managed by a file system.
The most common file systems on Linux servers today are Ext3 and Reiser.
The boot partition on your lab server is managed by the Reiser file system. The files
and configuration data it contains start the server.
The swap partition is managed by a file system that swaps information between
memory and the disk, thus augmenting the RAM installed in the server.
The / (root) partition on your server is managed by Reiser and stores all the lab
server's system and data files, including OES services, eDirectory
OES 2 servers can also include NSS partitions. These are similar to Linux partitions
in that they occupy physical disk space, but they are also significantly different in a
number of ways.
1. You create the Linux partitions shown in this illustration during OES 2
installation.
You always create NSS partitions after the OES installation is completed.
2. You create Linux partitions by allocating an amount of disk space to the
partition and assigning it a mount point, such as /boot, /home, or / (root).
You create NSS partitions by creating an NSS pool (see G) and assigning
space on the server's storage devices (physical or logical disks) to the pool.
The space you assign to a given pool from a specific disk is designated on that
disk as an NSS partition.
3. On Linux, files are stored on a partition.
On NSS, files are stored in an NSS volume—a logical mechanism that can
span multiple NSS partitions and also the devices that contain them.
4. On Linux, a partition is allocated a set amount of disk space on a single device.
The amount of disk space that can be used is limited by the size of the partition.
NSS volumes are not bound by individual partition or device sizes. Rather, they
take disk space from their assigned NSS pool as needed.
1. Additional disk space can be dynamically added to NSS pools as needed, and
NSS volumes can grow dynamically in return as long as there is free space
available in the pool, unless the volume size has been restricted by an
eDirectory Admin user.
IMPORTANT: The illustration shows the NSS pool spanning NSS partitions on both
the server's primary hard disk and a second hard disk, which could be added later.
The NSS pool contains an NSS volume (HOME_NSS in this case) that contains the
NSS volume data (illustrated in red). The NSS pool also has free space that is not
yet allocated to a volume (illustrated in white).
Free space and volume data aren't necessarily distributed across all partitions, or
distributed evenly as the graphic might imply. The NSS file system manages what
each partition contains, independent of any administrative controls.
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