[SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-17 15:46:19

I'm Arch user for two weeks now but Linux user for two years and never had Windows installation since then but I still feel like a newb and feel like it will be the case for a lot of time to come - so much to learn! Well, my problem with which I came here is about partitioning. My desired partition table is going to look like this:
1. /boot, ext2?, 125MB;
2. /, jfs, 35GB;
3. /var, reiser3, 25GB
4. /tmp, xfs, 35GB (video editing);
swap, 6GB (hibernation);
/home, jfs, 95GB (default);
/home/1st, jfs, 95GB (storage);
/home/2nd, jfs, 95GB (backup);
/home/3rd, jfs, 100GB (defragmenting).

Now, about some stuff I need to ask you:
a) as I understood, I don't need to implement jfs support as it's in the Arch kernel by default, right? What about xfs which I used for /tmp?
b) Deadline I/O Scheduler. I just don't get the instructions I found here. I tried to use the first method but I feel like it's not good idea as I'm using ext2, reiser3 and xfs partitions as well (I didn't make the method work anyway)... I would use second method but just don't get the syntax; could you type me what I need to type into /boot/grub/menu.lst and when I need to do so: before or after the partitioning?

# (0) Arch 2.6.22
title   Arch Linux
root    (hd0,0) #what's that?
kernel  /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 elevator=deadline #should I retype all the jfs partitions? 
#Should I retype no-jfs partitions somewhere else?
initrd /kernel26.img

c) is the scheduler enabled for the system, the device or the partition? If the answer is not "the partition": how would it affect other partitions?
d) what file system is best for /boot? Should I use jfs or ext2?

Thaink for any kind of help! You know, now I'm typing via my netbook and have the installation proccess of Arch left on "Disk usage" point so it would be great if the help will come quick and clear!

Last edited by Włóczymyśl (2011-03-21 22:11:15)

Inxsible · 2011-03-17 15:55:11

a) Correct.
bi) Simply add the elevator=deadline to your kernel line as you have. You should NOT put all your jfs partitions here or you will have problems booting up. This will probably do it only for /root -- but I am not a 100% sure.
bii) or do a

echo deadline > /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

c) System (only the sda drive) once you do bii
d) ext2 should be fine. It doesn't have journaling, so fsck might take more time, but on the other hand that partition is only 125MB so its not gonna take very long anyway.

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-17 16:01:09

b/c) how can I do it only for desired partitions? Wouldn't it be better then?
d) how about xfc and reiser3? I used them too and they are 35 and 25GB of size!
also, is it bad that /boot has only 125MB? should it be bigger in some cases?

thanks for fast reply!

Last edited by Włóczymyśl (2011-03-17 16:03:32)

Inxsible · 2011-03-17 16:06:24

b/c) It could be better, but unfortunately I don't know how to do that
d) I am not sure what you are asking here. They are supported by the kernel so you don't need anything additional.
no 125MB /boot is more than sufficient. I only had a 16MB boot in my old machine. Useful if you are planning on using the same /boot partition for different distros. Then I stopped distro hopping, so I don't see the need for a separate boot, These days, I have my /boot under / (root) itself.

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-17 16:14:56

well, so maybe I will left the boot under root as you do because when I'm hopping - I'm erasing everything anyway... I just thought that the boot will prefor faster (I read somewhere that the base file system for grub is ext2 so it has to change their type every time you boot and it's quite fast but still... is that even correct?).

about d) I misstyped "c" as "d", sorry . I asked if using deadline I/O scheduler for all the system will affect my xfc and reiser3 partitions in a bad way and that's my main question for this topic now, next to "how to change scheduler for only certain partitions?". I already know that you dunno how to do that so I'm awaiting for some other person to answer... but you resolved most of my thoughts so thanks a lot!!

Inxsible · 2011-03-17 16:42:43

While you are waiting .. I thought I'd throw this into the mix.

http://mindplusplus.wordpress.com/2011/ … 1-edition/

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-17 17:06:46

[how to delete your post? -_-]

Last edited by Włóczymyśl (2011-03-17 17:33:40)

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-17 17:30:50

[...]

Last edited by Włóczymyśl (2011-03-17 17:33:22)

Inxsible · 2011-03-17 17:36:40

Włóczymyśl wrote:

[how to delete your post? -_-]

Umm, please don't do that. We do not allow deleting of posts because it results in very disconnected threads. Also editing your post to incomprehensible nonsense is highly frowned upon.

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-17 17:45:53

Oh, sorry fot that, I wanted to think about what I want to type as I was typing emotionally at first... and wasn't sure if I want you to see all these nonsense questions I was already knew the answers. Sorry again, your rules are wise.

Generally, I understood that jfs is more accurate generally and faster for a little amount of processes and xfs is generally less specialised and better for general usage.

What sould I do with this knowledge? I mean: which partitions use more than 4 processes? I guess that /var, /tmp and root should use xfs as it's all about performance there and jfs should remain at storage partitions as I rather don't use more than 3 files at once. Not sure about /home. Am I correct in my thoughts?

Last edited by Włóczymyśl (2011-03-17 17:46:56)

Inxsible · 2011-03-17 17:52:35

I generally keep it simpler than that. I just try to figure out what types of files will be in that partition.

small sized files but large number of files : reiserfs -- perfect for /var
video editing or large sized files : jfs or xfs
if i need a separate /boot : ext2 since partition sizes are only a few MB
general usage: ext4

That's just the basic. Depending on your needs you need to expand. JFS and XFS might need an additional parition so you can defragment. /tmp might need a different FS if you plan on using it for video editing so on and so forth. Btrfs if you want to try out the latest and the greatest and you are not putting important information on that partition without backup.

I am not sure how important deadline scheduling is for you, so that would also require certain specifications.

Note that JFS and XFS are not able to be resized, so you will have to decide in advance how much size you need.

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-17 18:18:07

After getting knowledgle from this topic, this is my desired partition table:
1. /, xfs, 45GB;
2. /var, reiserfs, 25GB;
3. /tmp, xfs, 35G;
4. swap, 6GB;
/home/1st, jfs, 110GB;
/home/2nd, jfs, 110GB;
/home/jfs, jfs, 115GB (defragmentation);
/home/xfs, xfs, 50GB (defragmentation).

Does it seem okay?

Also, any actively developed alternative for reiser3 as a file system for /var or I shouldn't care so much about it?

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-21 18:45:37

Okay, I spent four days at above mentioned file systems [I splited /home/1st and /home/2nd to /home/3rd and /home/4th in order to make one, smaller defragmentation partition (lol because it took me a long time to figure that I can format one partition to another file system just later....)] and it looks like the performance is... different. 3D games seems to work less fluent but overall system work is better; fair trade if you ask me but can't see sense in this...

Anyway, I was doing a lot of testing with some software and now I need to clean up my system and that's why I decided to pump pertitioning a little more (as there is the ocasion). And here my question appears:
How to check how many processes is taking place at certain partitions during typical system usage? I would like to run the measure tool for a day and just see it... real-time-only tool would be okay too.

skunktrader · 2011-03-21 19:12:48

Włóczymyśl wrote:

And here my question appears:
How to check how many processes is taking place at certain partitions during typical system usage? I would like to run the measure tool for a day and just see it... real-time-only tool would be okay too.

Install

lsof

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-21 19:49:38

Oh, thanks, that worked well!

But I have trouble understanding the output... it's like A LOT of processes at every partition; for /tmp it's above 30, for /var it's above 120 (!) and for root it's too much records to list at once at terminal window!

Is it really what I need? I want to verify the usage of every partition to meet with result of this test:

Inxsible wrote:

http://mindplusplus.wordpress.com/2011/ … 1-edition/

and decide what are the needs for every of them to meet them perfectly. Should I maybe count +1 for every process name instead of amount of processes itself? Like it woudn't happen at once but one after another... I mean, e.g.:

[wloczymysl@mrowkarium ~]$ lsof /tmp
COMMAND     PID       USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF    NODE NAME
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   21u  unix 0xffff88001d74ce00      0t0 1635071 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorM22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   23u  unix 0xffff8800b9aa30c0      0t0 1639380 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorx22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   27u  unix 0xffff88011001f1c0      0t0 1635076 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorD22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   29w  unix 0xffff88001d74e180      0t0 1635081 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorh22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   30u  unix 0xffff8800b9aa6800      0t0 1635082 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorT22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   32w  unix 0xffff88001d74f500      0t0 1669348 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorL22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   37u  unix 0xffff88011001e180      0t0 1641631 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konqueroru22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   42u  unix 0xffff88007d6dd480      0t0 1668685 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorm22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   43u  unix 0xffff8800d8059040      0t0 1668695 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorw22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   46u  unix 0xffff88007d6dba80      0t0 1668651 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerory22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   47u  unix 0xffff8800aed67500      0t0 1669363 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konqueroru22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   49u  unix 0xffff88011001f840      0t0 1634993 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorW22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   50u  unix 0xffff8800b9aa2a40      0t0 1661863 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorK22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   52u  unix 0xffff8800ba2f5140      0t0 1668673 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorB22745.slave-socket
konqueror 22745 wloczymysl   58u  unix 0xffff88011001d480      0t0 1642622 /tmp/ksocket-wloczymysl/konquerorV22745.slave-socket
mysqld    23093 wloczymysl    4u   REG                8,3        0     140 /tmp/ibHotKsn (deleted)
mysqld    23093 wloczymysl    5u   REG                8,3        0     142 /tmp/ibgtosrl (deleted)
mysqld    23093 wloczymysl    6u   REG                8,3        0     143 /tmp/ibFGTaqj (deleted)
mysqld    23093 wloczymysl    7u   REG                8,3        0     144 /tmp/ibGl89ph (deleted)
mysqld    23093 wloczymysl   11u   REG                8,3        0     147 /tmp/ibbwqvCf (deleted)

Are there two or twenty processes? If just two, I will save the output to some file, open as spreadsheet and clean to see throught...

skunktrader · 2011-03-21 20:28:44

Each process has a unique pid so there are 2 processes, each with multiple files opened

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-21 22:10:13

Thanks a lot!

So what I know now is that jfs is better than xfs at storage only and could be used as /tmp for higher performance at one task (video editing in my case) but to do that you would need to accept lesser performance during typical multitasking. Need to sleep over with it to decide but it's just my problem: thank you both for help, I'm just setting this topic as solved. The only dilemma left is about /var and reiserfs but that's for another topic...

Last edited by Włóczymyśl (2011-03-21 22:12:23)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-17 15:46:19

[SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#2 2011-03-17 15:55:11

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#3 2011-03-17 16:01:09

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#4 2011-03-17 16:06:24

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#5 2011-03-17 16:14:56

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#6 2011-03-17 16:42:43

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#7 2011-03-17 17:06:46

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#8 2011-03-17 17:30:50

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#9 2011-03-17 17:36:40

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#10 2011-03-17 17:45:53

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#11 2011-03-17 17:52:35

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#12 2011-03-17 18:18:07

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#13 2011-03-21 18:45:37

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#14 2011-03-21 19:12:48

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#15 2011-03-21 19:49:38

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#16 2011-03-21 20:28:44

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

#17 2011-03-21 22:10:13

Re: [SOLVED] Partitioning, usage of JFS and XFS.

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