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How should hard drive be partitioned for Plesk Linux installation?

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Alexandr Zubtsovsky
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Applicable to:

  • Plesk 12.5 for Linux
  • Plesk Onyx for Linux
  • Plesk 11.x for Linux
  • Plesk 12.0 for Linux
  • Plesk 10.x for Linux

Question

How should hard drive be partitioned for Plesk Linux installation?

Answer

Plesk for Linux OS stores user data in the /var directory, by default, so the partitioning should be set up as follows:

SWAP     ->     defer to recommendations from the OS vendor (usually RAMx2)

/boot    ->     128 MB

/        ->     system + Plesk, updates. 10 GB should be enough

/tmp     ->     greater than 3 GB for Plesk 11.0 and later

/var     ->     the rest of the space (domains, mail, backups, and databases are stored there)

Note: it may vary. The /usr/local/psa/tmp/ directory (for domains backups) as well as the /usr/local/psa/PMM/tmp/ one (for full server backups) are used as a temporary placeholder for backups. For instance, when downloading a backup file via Plesk GUI, a temporary file with the same size is created in those locations.

Directories, that usually contain large amounts of data, include:

  • /var/www/vhosts ( /srv/vhosts on SuSE) - domains content

  • /var/qmail - mail configuration/content

  • /var/lib/mysql ' - MySQL databases

  • /var/lib/psa/dumps - Plesk client/domain backups

  • /var/lib/pgsql/data - PostgresQL databases

  • /var/tomcat \* - Tomcat applications

  • /var/lib/mailman - Mailman lists

The /etc/psa/psa.conf file defines other directories used by Plesk.

On Debian and Ubuntu , Plesk files are located in /opt/psa directory.

More information about partitioning can be found through the following links:

Debian-based OSes:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/343268/how-to-use-manual-partitioning-during-installation

RHEL-based Oses:

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/6/html/installation_guide/s1-diskpartsetup-x86

Currently supported operating systems for Plesk Onyx can be found on the product requirements page at Release Notes for Plesk Onyx for Linux Systems .

Comments

2 comments

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  • Avatar
    iamkingsleyf

    This resources are too small, servers run out of spaces in 1 month

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  • Avatar
    Bato Tsydenov

    @iamkingsleyf

    In this article there are only recommendations how to partition hard drive for Plesk server.

    Additionally to find the top files consuming the disk space use the following command:
    du -ah /var | sort -n -r | head -n 5

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