Questions about differences between FreeBSD and Linux use of partitions.

[IT_Architect]

I'm experimenting with Linux after more than a decade after switching to FreeBSD. My partner is more web-oriented and not MIS technical. Site reliability is a huge thing. I soon won't be there at a moment's notice when things go sideways because I'm setting up orphanages, so I'm trying to make the servers as "neglect proof" as I can.

Current FreeBSD

Volume	Size	Used
/	2G	24%
/tmp	1G	1%
/var	5G	21%
/var/tmp	1G	1%
/usr	15G	62% (I normally target partition size to be at <=50% capacity based on anticipated size.)
/home

AlmaLinux (Proposed from advice)

Volume	Size	DA Recommended
/boot	.5G	.5G
/	10G	6-10 *Way bigger than FreeBSD
/tmp	1G	1G
/var	19G	8-20G *Reduced by 1G for /var/tmp
/var/tmp	1G
/usr	30G	5 - 12+ GB DA data, source code, MySQL backups with custom build option.
/home

The current FreeBSD MySQL directory is just over a gig. That may double or triple but I don't foresee beyond that.

I see posts online that have /var/log and /var/log/audit in separate partitions.
- In FreeBSD I have scripts that keep /var/log small. Perhaps I need/want more for /var in Linux, but how much for /var and how much for /var/log?
- I also have no idea how useful /var/log/audit is, how much space it typically uses, nor how useful it is. From contents that they explain online, it looks about as useful as a core dump. I'm wondering why someone would want to make it separate from /var/log and if so, how large it should be.

During install, for Software I select Minimal Install and from the right side check Standard or leave unchecked?

DA's instructions show using yum instead of dnf. Why?

How can I avoid ending up with Mariah instead of MySQL during install?

I think FreeBSD so your Linux thoughts and input requested and appreciated.

Thanks!!!

 

[IT_Architect]

I didn't hear from anyone, so I have settled on the following.:
AlmaLinux (Based on a summarization of opinions, DirectAdmin recommendations, and checking our FreeBSD servers)

Volume	Size	DA Recommended
/boot	.5G	.5G
/	10G	6-10 *Way bigger than FreeBSD
/tmp	1G	1G
/var	19G	8-20G *Reduced by 1G for /var/tmp
/var/tmp	1G
/usr	30G	5 - 12+ GB DA data, source code, mysql backups with custom build option.
/home

- I decided not to separate /var/log and /var/log/audit to enable the free space to float between them because I don't know anything about audit, and I may want to extend the life of the logs sometimes, plus it looks like DirectAdmin with the Red Hat distros uses it for backups and workspace during updates. /usr looks like a little overkill, but as apps get newer, they get larger. I have plenty of disk space inside vSphere, but the larger I make the VM, the longer it takes to backup and move, and the more space the backups require. I will copy over the scripts from a FreeBSD machine to automate the maintenance of the log areas.
- For the AlmaLinux install, I'm going to leave Standard unchecked because I don't know what it contains, and the less I have installed the less I have to maintain and the less chance for conflict.
- I will use dnf for package management rather than yum as I cannot think of a reason why one wouldn't these days.
- I'll find a work-around to kill MariaDB from getting installed. I did for FreeBSD. Now I just need to dig through my notes to see if I documented it. Perhaps they changed the install script. Before, I got MariaDB, like it or not, then had to uninstall it, change settings in the conf, and re-install. I'd like to support MariaDB from a political perspective, but I can't afford to use it because in this situation where I need tables loaded very fast, and MariaDB is getting slower and getting further behind MySQL.