Partition Fields; Recommended Partitioning Scheme - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - INSTALLATION GUIDE FOR IBM S-390 AND IBM ESERVER ZSERIES Installation Manual

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2.12.3. Partition Fields

Above the partition hierarchy are labels which present information about the partitions you are creat-
ing. The labels are defined as follows:
Device: This field displays the partition's device name.
•
Mount Point/RAID/Volume: A mount point is the location within the directory hierarchy at which
•
a volume exists; the volume is "mounted" at this location. This field indicates where the partition is
mounted. If a partition exists, but is not set, then you need to define its mount point. Double-click
on the partition or click the Edit button.
Type: This field shows the partition's type (for example, ext2 or ext3).
•
Format: This field shows if the partition being created will be formatted.
•
Size (MB): This field shows the partition's size (in MB).
•
Start: This field shows the cylinder on your hard drive where the partition begins.
•
End: This field shows the cylinder on your hard drive where the partition ends.
•
Hide RAID device/LVM Volume Group members: Select this option if you do not want to view
any RAID device or LVM Volume Group members that have been created.

2.12.4. Recommended Partitioning Scheme

Unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, we recommend that you create the following partitions:
A swap partition (at least 256 MB) — swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other
•
words, data is written to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your
system is processing. The size of your swap partition should be equal to twice your computer's
RAM, or 256 MB, whichever amount is larger, but no more than 2048 MB (or 2 GB).
For example, if you have 1 GB of RAM or less, your swap partition should be at least equal to the
amount of RAM on your system, up to two times the RAM. For more than 1 GB of RAM, 2 GB of
swap is recommended. Creating a large swap space partition can be especially helpful if you plan
to upgrade your RAM at a later time.
Tip
If your partitioning scheme requires a swap partition that is larger than 2 GB, you should create
an additional swap partition. For example, if you have 4 GB of RAM, you may want to create two 2
GB swap partitions.
A partition (100 MB) — the partition mounted on
• /boot/
kernel (which allows your system to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux), along with files used during
the bootstrap process. Due to the limitations of most PC BIOSes, creating a small partition to hold
these files is a good idea. For most users, a 100 MB boot partition is sufficient.
A partition (1.2 - 5.0 GB) — this is where "
• root
files (except those stored in
equivalent of a basic installation (with very little free space), while a 5.0 GB root partition lets you
install all package groups.
A partition (3.0 GB or larger) — the
• /var/
ten. This includes spool directories and files, administrative and logging data, and transient and
temporary files. Updates that are applied to Red Hat Enterprise Linux are written to the
partition.
Chapter 2. Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux
) are on the root partition. A 1.2 GB root partition permits the
/boot
/var/
contains the operating system
/boot/
" (the root directory) is located. In this setup, all
/
partition is where variable data files are writ-
/var/