# \[OT\] server partitioning question (rails + postgres)

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-server-partitioning-question-rails-postgres/50778>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 21, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-server-partitioning-question-rails-postgres/50778 "2005-12-21T02:04:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kelleysislander)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-server-partitioning-question-rails-postgres/50778/1 "2005-12-21T02:04:51Z")

</div>

Hi,

A bit off-topic, but I’m about to set up a remote Linux server  
for Rails, with postgres and probably Lighttpd.

The server has two 120GB hard drives, one of which will just be  
for nightly backups of the other.

I don’t intend to have any untrusted user accounts on the server.  
The server will be dedicated to my own applications.

I’ll want to support lots of www clients, with pretty heavy database  
access.

Currently, I’m planning to just make a single partition for  
everything, aside from the small /boot and swap partitions.

Does this seem reasonable? Or are there reasons I’d be better off  
with multiple partitions, such as maybe the postgres database files  
in their own partition?

Just figured I’d ask in case there were any “gotcha’s” I should be  
aware of when putting everything in one partition.

Thanks for any thoughts,

Regards,

Bill

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kelleysislander)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-server-partitioning-question-rails-postgres/50778/2 "2005-12-21T04:53:07Z")

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On Dec 20, 2005, at 5:00 PM, Bill K. wrote:

> Just figured I’d ask in case there were any “gotcha’s” I should be  
> aware of when putting everything in one partition.
> 
> Thanks for any thoughts,
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Bill

Bill-

```
It sounds good to me. One thing I highly recommend though is to

```

make /tmp its own partition and mount it as noexec nosetsuid. This  
will keep any malicious folks from exploiting a vulnerabilty  
somewhere and uploading files to your /tmp dir and running exploits  
from there. I have dealt with these type of attacks before and  
hardening /tmp is a big step to quashing these attack vectors.

Cheers-  
-Ezra Z.  
WebMaster  
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
509-577-7732

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kelleysislander)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 5:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-server-partitioning-question-rails-postgres/50778/3 "2005-12-21T05:53:15Z")

</div>

Hi Ezra,

From: “Ezra Z.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

> It sounds good to me. One thing I highly recommend though is to  
> make /tmp its own partition and mount it as noexec nosetsuid. This  
> will keep any malicious folks from exploiting a vulnerabilty  
> somewhere and uploading files to your /tmp dir and running exploits  
> from there. I have dealt with these type of attacks before and  
> hardening /tmp is a big step to quashing these attack vectors.

Thanks for the tip !!!

I’ll do that. I’ll also be using a grsecurity kernel patch, which  
among other things pretty much refuses to execute a program or  
script unless it has the same owner/group as its containing directory,  
and both the program file and the directory are chmod go-w.  
( [http://www.grsecurity.net/](http://www.grsecurity.net/) )

Thanks again,

Regards,

Bill

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kelleysislander)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-server-partitioning-question-rails-postgres/50778/4 "2005-12-21T16:43:51Z")

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Bill K. wrote:

> Just figured I’d ask in case there were any “gotcha’s” I should be  
> aware of when putting everything in one partition.

Hi There,

Here are my suggestions for partitioning. I use these for my own  
servers. My recommendations are most relevant for linux.

1. I recommend using logical volume management. Make /boot and swap  
partitions and put the rest in LVM. LVM allows you to more easily resize  
your storage volumes.
2. give /tmp, /var/log and your database files their own  
partitions/volumes. Any other fast-changing data folders should have  
their own volume. This will keep your root/main volume from getting  
fragmented. In addition it keeps your system functioning in case of DoS  
of similar attacks.

If /tmp, /var/log, or the db partition fill up, you might have problems,  
but if the root volume gets full,you won’t be able to login and fix  
things.

for /tmp and /var/log, I recommend a minimum of 2GB each. more if you  
have high-traffic sites.

If you do use LVM, leave about 10% of your disk unallocated, that leaves  
you room to expand volumes or create new ones for things that you didn’t  
expect.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,  
Jason E.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@kelleysislander](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kelleysislander)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-server-partitioning-question-rails-postgres/50778/5 "2005-12-21T16:56:01Z")

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On Wed, 2005-12-21 at 10:41 -0500, Jason E. wrote:

> > I don’t intend to have any untrusted user accounts on the server.  
> > in their own partition?
> > 
> > Just figured I’d ask in case there were any “gotcha’s” I should be  
> > aware of when putting everything in one partition.

Geez, yeah that could be a long OT topic. EVMS is a good alternative to  
LVM. Just in terms of partitioning, I’d throw /tmp (maybe /var/tmp?) on  
a ramdisk, and be sure rails sessions are being thrown there. A /boot  
is sort of unnecessary, unless you plan not to mount it by default. I  
might make /var a separate EVMS partition, since it’s where you’ll  
(ideally) be putting all of your app’s data (And thus the most likely to  
need to grow in the future). Giving / (minus /var) ~5 Gigs is plenty  
generous, the rest could go toward /var.

It’s sort of unlikely file-systems and partitions will be your apps  
performance limit in the short term, I wouldn’t worry too much.

I would GET EVERYTHING ON A RAID-1 ARRAY. Just Do It. Hard drive  
crashes will happen, and murphy’s law says it will be the only copy of  
your code, and your biggest client will need it that day 😉

–

-Matthew B.  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid :: 607 227 0871  
Resume and Portfolio @ [http://madhatted.com](http://madhatted.com)