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The deep-end: FreeBSD questions

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Guardian
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 12:31 am    Post subject: The deep-end: FreeBSD questions Reply with quote

Hi

I am reading about FreeBSD installation at the moment. Further to what has been discussed in the other thread, may I please keep this thread for all questions which comes up from time to time regarding the installation and configuration?


Basic info:
I have PC with 8 GB HD running Windows plus server software and I want to install FreeBSD and run the server.

Question:
Complete web site is only around 100 MB. I can back it up easily.
Should I completely replace the current OS and reformat for FreeBSD during installation?

Benefits would be that there would not be a need for additional partitioning and if everything works out there would not be any waste.
Problem would be if things go wrong and I would need to reinstall windows. That would mean reformating and reinstalling windows once and then upgrade it to the latest version and install all serving software which would be time consuming.

As I am starting at the deep end, I was thinking about getting rid of windows completely. Any suggestions, comments?
One other possibility would be to purchase a new HD plus the cables etc and install the FreeBSD on that one but I was reading about some problems of FreeBSD with primary HD (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-steps.html).

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ShaolinTiger
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 12:52 am    Post subject: Re: The deep-end: FreeBSD questions Reply with quote

Guardian wrote:

Question:
Complete web site is only around 100 MB. I can back it up easily.
Should I completely replace the current OS and reformat for FreeBSD during installation?


That's what I would recommend.

Fdisk, repartition and format /u

Then re-install according to the recommended partition needs.

Guardian wrote:

Benefits would be that there would not be a need for additional partitioning and if everything works out there would not be any waste.
Problem would be if things go wrong and I would need to reinstall windows. That would mean reformating and reinstalling windows once and then upgrade it to the latest version and install all serving software which would be time consuming.


Make a ghost of the current Windows setup, this would mean a quick turnaround time if you needed to reinstate it.

Guardian wrote:

As I am starting at the deep end, I was thinking about getting rid of windows completely. Any suggestions, comments?
One other possibility would be to purchase a new HD plus the cables etc and install the FreeBSD on that one but I was reading about some problems of FreeBSD with primary HD (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-steps.html).


Well you could do this, and keep them both as master, install BSD standalone on the new drive as if the machine only had one drive.

Then if you needed Windows back up you could just plug the old one back in and unplug the new.

When you had it all fixed up you could add the old drive as a slave for backup purposes.
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Jason
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 1:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would say start with a clean HD. Why make life complicated?

With regards to backing up and re-installing windows if it goes pete tong, i personally dont bother with drive images unless i have a *lot* of customisation / mods / software installed.

I have found that i can get a baseline install of most os's up and patched in about 1hr 30. 2 more hours installing apps, and bobs your uncle. (or robert is your mother's brother Laughing )
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Guardian
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 2:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quick note:
I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the help and support I am getting.

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Guardian
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 8:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Question:
WHere do I find Device Inventory?

Device Name IRQ IO port(s) Notes
First hard disk N/A N/A 4 GB, made by Seagate, first IDE master
CDROM N/A N/A First IDE slave
Second hard disk N/A N/A 2GB, made by IBM, second IDE master
First IDE controller 14 0x1f0
Network card N/A N/A Intel 10/100
Modem N/A N/A 3Com 56K faxmodem, on COM1

Quote:
"A good rule of thumb is that your swap space should be two or three times as much as the available physical memory (RAM)."


At the moment I have 312 MB RAM but can (and will) incease to 512 MB.

Question:
What would be the correct SWAP size and should it be resized after RAM upgrade?



Question:
What would be the correct Size of partitions for an 8 GB HD and 312 MB (max 512) RAM?

ad0s1a------/---------- 128 MB------ UFS
ad0s1b------swap----- 503 MB------ SAWP
ad0s1e------/var------ 256 MB------ UFS+S
ad0s1f------/tmp------ 256 MB------ UFS+S
ad0s1g------/usr------ 6919 MB------ UFS+S

Thanks
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Giro
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 8:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Swap should be twice the size of your ram.
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ShaolinTiger
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RAM*2 is the rule of thumb, but it really depends on your system and how you are using it, but with BSD if it is how is used to be it has to be at least 1:1.

Aren't the devices in ls -al /dev/ ?

Again there is no correct way of partitioning, depends what you need.

You /var and /tmp seem a little small though.
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Guardian
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 9:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The partition table was taken from (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-steps.html)

I have not started yet and I am clearing up the issues.

As my current RAM size is 312 should swap size be 624 mb?
Would I need to resize it if I increase the RAm to its max 512 mb?

Device inventory: I am on Win XP.

As the primary use of the system would be as http server, any suggestions on appropriate partion layout?

TIA
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