Rudy says, "Make your /var BIG!"

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Partitioning your BSD box!

Here is a brief explanation of what the partitions hold.

/
size: 256M - 512MB
Has this stuff /bin /sbin /boot /root and needs to have room for a couple of kernels. 256MB - 512MB is what we usually do. This partition should RARELY be written to. If you were real paranoid, you could set this partition to ReadOnly on a stable, production box.
swap
size: double your the RAM installed
If you have 1GB installed, but you plan on upgrading to 2GB in a couple of months, go ahead and set your swap to 4GB.
/var
size: 6GB - 8GB
With disks so big, I usually make this anywhere from 2 to 8GB. It sucks when someone turns on logging and the partition fills up. Also, mail queues and mysql (without configuring to use another partition) uses /var.
/tmp
size: 512MB - 1GB
Temp! Make this NOEXEC in your /etc/fstab. If you have troubles with installworld, you may need to make the partition EXEC. I usually make this 512MB to 1 or 2 GB depending on whether or not users are trained to use /tmp. Most people just through things in their home directory (or worse /root). Recommendation if you are using the noexec flag on /tmp in your fstab file:
mv /var/tmp /tmp/var-tmp; cd /var && ln -s /tmp/var-tmp tmp

/usr
size: 6GB - 8GB
More executables (/usr/bin), 3rd party software (in /usr/local), config files for 3rd party stuff.
/data
size: The Rest Of the Disk
Really, this can be called anything. /data /mysql /mail /home /www, depending on what you use the box for. Often, we call it /data and then symlink things to it, like "ln -s /data/www /www". /data is where stuff developers and designers put stuff.
> df -m disks with da Filesystem 1M-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on /dev/da0s1a 247 94 133 41% / /dev/da0s1d 989 13 896 2% /var /dev/da0s1e 989 1 908 0% /tmp /dev/da0s1f 7931 1807 5489 25% /usr /dev/da0s1g 281387 146651 112224 57% /data
For that same machine, here is the BSDLABEL output.
> bsdlabel da0s1 # /dev/da0s1: 8 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize bps/cpg] a: 524288 16 4.2BSD 2048 16384 32776 b: 8388608 524304 swap c: 624944502 0 unused 0 0 # "raw" part, don't edit d: 2097152 8912912 4.2BSD 2048 16384 28552 e: 2097152 11010064 4.2BSD 2048 16384 28552 f: 16777216 13107216 4.2BSD 2048 16384 28552 g: 595000000 29884432 4.2BSD 2048 16384 2855
And here is the /etc/fstab
> cat /etc/fstab # See the fstab(5) manual page for important information on automatic mounts # of network filesystems before modifying this file. # # Device Mountpoint FStype Options Dump Pass# /dev/da0s1b none swap sw 0 0 /dev/da0s1a / ufs rw 1 1 /dev/da0s1e /tmp ufs rw,noexec 2 2 /dev/da0s1f /usr ufs rw 2 2 /dev/da0s1d /var ufs rw 2 2 /dev/da0s1g /data ufs rw 2 2 /dev/cd0 /cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto 0 0 proc /proc procfs rw 0 0

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Here is a brief explanation of what the partitions hold.
/ size: 256M - 512MB Has this stuff /bin /sbin /boot /root and needs to have room for a couple of kernels. 256MB - 512MB is what we usually do. This partition should RARELY be written to. If you were real paranoid, you could set this partition to ReadOnly on a stable, production box. swap size: double your the RAM installed If you have 1GB installed, but you plan on upgrading to 2GB in a couple of months, go ahead and set your swap to 4GB. /var size: 6GB - 8GB With disks so big, I usually make this anywhere from 2 to 8GB. It sucks when someone turns on logging and the partition fills up. Also, mail queues and mysql (without configuring to use another partition) uses /var. /tmp size: 512MB - 1GB Temp! Make this NOEXEC in your /etc/fstab. If you have troubles with installworld, you may need to make the partition EXEC. I usually make this 512MB to 1 or 2 GB depending on whether or not users are trained to use /tmp. Most people just through things in their home directory (or worse /root). Recommendation if you are using the noexec flag on /tmp in your fstab file: mv /var/tmp /tmp/var-tmp; cd /var && ln -s /tmp/var-tmp tmp /usr size: 6GB - 8GB More executables (/usr/bin), 3rd party software (in /usr/local), config files for 3rd party stuff. /data size: The Rest Of the Disk Really, this can be called anything. /data /mysql /mail /home /www, depending on what you use the box for. Often, we call it /data and then symlink things to it, like "ln -s /data/www /www". /data is where stuff developers and designers put stuff. > df -m disks with da Filesystem 1M-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on /dev/da0s1a 247 94 133 41% / /dev/da0s1d 989 13 896 2% /var /dev/da0s1e 989 1 908 0% /tmp /dev/da0s1f 7931 1807 5489 25% /usr /dev/da0s1g 281387 146651 112224 57% /data For that same machine, here is the BSDLABEL output. > bsdlabel da0s1 # /dev/da0s1: 8 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize bps/cpg] a: 524288 16 4.2BSD 2048 16384 32776 b: 8388608 524304 swap c: 624944502 0 unused 0 0 # "raw" part, don't edit d: 2097152 8912912 4.2BSD 2048 16384 28552 e: 2097152 11010064 4.2BSD 2048 16384 28552 f: 16777216 13107216 4.2BSD 2048 16384 28552 g: 595000000 29884432 4.2BSD 2048 16384 2855 And here is the /etc/fstab > cat /etc/fstab # See the fstab(5) manual page for important information on automatic mounts # of network filesystems before modifying this file. # # Device Mountpoint FStype Options Dump Pass# /dev/da0s1b none swap sw 0 0 /dev/da0s1a / ufs rw 1 1 /dev/da0s1e /tmp ufs rw,noexec 2 2 /dev/da0s1f /usr ufs rw 2 2 /dev/da0s1d /var ufs rw 2 2 /dev/da0s1g /data ufs rw 2 2 /dev/cd0 /cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto 0 0 proc /proc procfs rw 0 0
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This data is completely accurate.