From: aragorn@chatfactory.invalid   
      
   Okay peeps, looks like I'm finally going to get around it: for over a month   
   now I've been waiting on installing Gentoo on my brandnew "are you sure   
   this isn't a mainframe?" box because of the delayed release of kernel   
   2.6.24, and now it's finally here. :-)   
      
   So, before I begin, allow me to explain what this machine is built of and   
   how I intend to go about it...   
      
   First of all, these are the hardware specs (including some non-OS related   
   ones :p)...   
   - Tyan Thunder n6650W (S2915) motherboard (twin-socket ccNUMA)   
   - 2x AMD Opteron 2218 HE (2.6 GHz, 68 Watt, dualcore)   
   - 32 GB ECC registered DDR-2 pc5300 (667 MHz, brand ATP, 8x 4 GB modules)   
   - Adaptec 31205 8-lane 12-channel PCIe SAS RAID controller   
   - 4x Hitachi 147 GB 15k SAS disks   
   - Plextor PX810-SA double layer SATA DVD writer   
   - Asus GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB PCIe videocard   
   - GeCube Radeon 9250 256 MB PCI videocard   
   - Zippy 800 Watt EPS12V power supply   
   - CoolerMaster CM Stacker 832 chassis   
   - Iomega REV 70 GB (140 GB compressed) USB removable storage   
      
   As I explained once before in another post, the machine will be set up with   
   Xen - preferably version 3.1.x - and at least three but possibly four   
   virtual machines, each of which will be running Gentoo.   
      
   The first unprivileged virtual machine will be used as a workstation and   
   will have most of the RAM available.  Then there is of course the first   
   virtual machine, which is the privileged one, and then as I said, one or   
   two other unprivileged virtual machines in a dedicated server role.   
      
   The machine will be connected via USB to a Brother MFC 9880 multifunctional   
   device that I got for free.  The device has a built-in fax but I'm on cable   
   so I can't use that.  I will however use it as a scanner, printer and   
   copier.   
      
   There are two SGI 21" CRT monitors, both of which are connected to the   
   GeForce adapter, and one of them is also connected to the Radeon adapter.   
   I use this set-up so that I would have visual output via the Radeon during   
   the system's main boot and shutdown, with the GeForce hidden from /dom0./   
   In /domU,/ the GeForce will only be visible to the workstation   
   installation, from which in turn the Radeon will be hidden.   
      
   Because of a limitation of the SCSI protocol that allows systems with a   
   legacy BIOS (and thus the traditional "maximum four primary partitions") to   
   only have 15 partitions and my wish to use distinct filesystems for the   
   traditionally relocatable UNIX directories, I will be using LVM2 for just   
   about everything, except for the main */boot,* / and swap.   
      
   In addition, I intend to mount several filesystems read-only during normal   
   operation in all virtual machines, including - and this is something I've   
   never done before - the root filesystems.  The respective */root* - home of   
   the superuser - will of course be split off from the root filesystems as   
   well, and */tmp* will be a /tmpfs/ in all virtual machines, as will   
   */var/tmp/portage* be in the /dom0/ virtual machine.   
      
   Now, one of the advantages of using logical volumes (if not the main one) is   
   that this gives you flexibility in terms of diskspace.  However, I still   
   would like to dedicate only as much as needed (and a bit extra) to each   
   filesystem, just for consistency.  I don't wish to radically overallocate   
   diskspace from the start, nor do I want to be short of diskspace, forcing   
   me to extend the logical volumes right away.  It's a brandnew system, so it   
   needs a clean install. ;-)   
      
   Thus, I turn to you, the longstanding Gentoo gurus  (:p), with a   
   couple of questions...:   
      
           (1) How much diskspace would I need to allocate for...   
                   - /usr   
                   - /usr/src   
                   - /usr/portage   
                   - /usr/local   
                   - /srv   
                   - /opt   
           ... in a basic server installation and in a basic workstation   
           installation?  (I will be using the XFS filesystem for all slices   
           and the machine is hooked up to two UPSes.)   
      
   The intended usage is as follows: the workstation install will have KDE 3.x   
   with either Beryl or Compiz Fusion - depending on which one is in Portage   
   as marked "stable" - with KDE window decorations, office software,   
   scientific, development and graphical software - for stills, no streaming   
   video - while the servers will be the /dom0/ virtual machine, an IRCd   
   machine and possibly an Apache and mailserver machine respectively - I   
   haven't decided on the e-mail server yet, both in terms of whether I will   
   set one up and in terms of which one to use.   
      
   My second question is not really Gentoo-specific, but since I couldn't find   
   the information elsewhere I thought I'd ask here, just in the event that   
   one of you knows the answer...:   
      
           (2) As of 2.6.23, the Linux kernel includes Xen support, but is   
           this only for unprivileged guests or for privileged guests as   
           well?  In other words, will I still need to patch the kernel   
           tree?   
      
   Advice, comments, plush penguins and flames are highly welcome, although   
   preferably less of the latter... :p   
      
   --   
   Aragorn   
   (registered GNU/Linux user #223157)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)