6.6 Planning Partitions for Data Storage

When you install Sentinel, you must mount the disk partition for primary storage in the location where Sentinel will be installed, by default the /var/opt/novell directory.

The entire directory structure under the /var/opt/novell/sentinel directory must reside on a single disk partition to ensure correct disk usage calculations. Else, the automatic data management capabilities might delete event data prematurely. For more information about the Sentinel directory structure, see Section 6.6.4, Sentinel Directory Structure.

As a best practice, ensure that this data directory is located on a separate disk partition than the executables, configuration, and operating system files. The benefits of storing variable data separately include easier backup of sets of files, simpler recovery in case of corruption, and provides additional robustness if a disk partition fills up. It also improves the overall performance of systems where smaller file systems are more efficient. For more information, see Disk Partitioning.

NOTE:There is a limitation in ext3 file systems for file storage, which prevents a directory from having more than 32000 files or subdirectories. NetIQ recommends that you use XFS file system if you are going to have a large number of retention policies or if you are going to retain the data for longer periods of time, such as an year.

6.6.1 Using Partitions in Traditional Installations

On traditional installations, you can modify the disk partition layout of the operating system before installing Sentinel. The administrator should create and mount the desired partitions to the appropriate directories, based on the directory structure described in Section 6.6.4, Sentinel Directory Structure. When you run the installer, Sentinel is installed into the pre-created directories resulting in an installation that spans multiple partitions.

NOTE:

  • You can use the --location option while running the installer to specify a different top-level location than the default directories to store the file. The value that you pass to the --location option is prepended to the directory paths. For example, if you specify --location=/foo, the data directory will be /foo/var/opt/novell/sentinel/data and the config directory will be /foo/etc/opt/novell/sentinel/config.

  • You must not use filesystem links (for example, soft links) for the --location option.

6.6.2 Using Partitions in an Appliance Installation

If you are using the DVD ISO appliance format, you can configure the partitioning of the appliance filesystem during installation by following the instructions in the YaST screens. For example, you can create a separate partition for the /var/opt/novell/sentinel mount point to place all data on a separate partition. However, for other appliance formats, you can configure the partitioning only after installation. You can add partitions and move a directory to the new partition by using the SuSE YaST system configuration tool. For information about creating partitions after the installation, see Section 13.3.2, Creating Partitions.

6.6.3 Best Practices for Partition Layout

Many organizations have their own documented best-practice partition layout schemes for any installed system. The following partition proposal is intended to guide organizations without any defined policy, and considers Sentinel specific use of the filesystem. Generally, Sentinel adheres to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard where practicable.

partition

Mount point

Size

Notes

Root

/

100GB

Contains operating system files and Sentinel binaries/configuration.

Boot

/boot

150MB

Boot partition

Temp

/tmp

30GB

Location for OS and Sentinel temporary files; isolating this on a separate partition protects application data from corruption if a runaway process fills up the temp space.

Primary storage

/var/opt/novell/sentinel

Calculate using the System Sizing Information.

This area will contain the primary Sentinel collected data, and other variable data such as log files. This partition can be shared with other systems.

Secondary storage

Location based on the type of storage, NFS, CIFS, or SAN.

Calculate using the System Sizing Information.

This is the secondary storage area, which can be mounted locally as shown or remotely.

Archival storage

Remote system

Calculate using the System Sizing Information.

This storage is for archived data.

6.6.4 Sentinel Directory Structure

By default, the Sentinel directories are in the following locations:

  • The data files are in /var/opt/novell/sentinel/data and /var/opt/novell/sentinel/3rdparty directories.

  • Executables and libraries are stored in the /opt/novell/sentinel directory.

  • Log files are in the /var/opt/novell/sentinel/log directory.

  • Configuration files are in the /etc/opt/novell/sentinel directory.

  • The process ID (PID) file is in the /var/run/sentinel/server.pid directory.

    Using the PID, administrators can identify the parent process of Sentinel server and monitor or terminate the process.