Partitioning: A Different Perspective with Encryption and RAIDs

Back To Me

So back on my computer, I decided encrypting swap, /tmp, and /var was enough security for me given my hardware limitations. The /boot was separated for safety’s sake, and in anticipation of that future memory upgrade, at which time I will encrypt the whole thing and /boot will need to remain separate from that encryption. Why then did I decide to separate /opt, /srv, and /usr to a different partition? Well, it’s because those are the three top-level directories that change frequently (and take up the most space) on a system. The other partition is essentially static so for one, it makes security checking for changes (that someone else might have made) that much easier. And second, splitting the two sets of directories means that the active partition is physically separated from the inactive. This makes the hard drive’s seek arm(s) stay within a smaller area, having less distance to travel most of the time. My home/data directory has its own partition for the same reasons. Many would argue that the performance gain is minimal, and I agree, but more than the slight performance gain is the diminished wear and tear on the drive. Everyone eventually has failed drives. The most basic cause for this is moving parts. Any extra time I can get out of them by causing less stress on those parts is worth it in my book.

So back on my computer, I decided encrypting swap, /tmp, and /var was enough security for me given my hardware limitations. The /boot was separated for safety’s sake, and in anticipation of that future memory upgrade, at which time I will encrypt the whole thing and /boot will need to remain separate from that encryption. Why then did I decide to separate /opt, /srv, and /usr to a different partition? Well, it’s because those are the three top-level directories that change frequently (and take up the most space) on a system. The other partition is essentially static so it makes security checking for changes (that someone else might have made) that much easier. And over almost everything there is the redundancy of a RAID mirror so that if one drive dies, the system can live on.

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