Installation guide

The fsck application is used to check the file system for metadata consistency and optionally repair one or more

Linux file systems.

unless changed, only a 100 MB partition will be created.

• Additional Size Options: Choose whether to keep this partition at a fixed size, to allow it to

"grow" (fill up the available hard drive space) to a certain point, or to allow it to grow to fill

any remaining hard drive space available.

If you choose Fill all space up to (MB), you must give size constraints in the field to the

right of this option. This allows you to keep a certain amount of space free on your hard drive

for future use.

• Force to be a primary partition: Select whether the partition you are creating should be

one of the first four partitions on the hard drive. If unselected, the partition is created as a lo-

gical partition. Refer to Section 1.3, “Partitions within Partitions — An Overview of Extended

Partitions”, for more information.

• OK: Select OK once you are satisfied with the settings and wish to create the partition.

• Cancel: Select Cancel if you do not want to create the partition.

18.5.1. File System Types

Red Hat Enterprise Linux allows you to create different partition types, based on the file system

they will use. The following is a brief description of the different file systems available, and how

they can be utilized.

• ext2 — An ext2 file system supports standard Unix file types (regular files, directories, sym-

bolic links, etc). It provides the ability to assign long file names, up to 255 characters.

• ext3 — The ext3 file system is based on the ext2 file system and has one main advantage

— journaling. Using a journaling file system reduces time spent recovering a file system after

a crash as there is no need to fsck

the file system. The ext3 file system is selected by de-

fault and is highly recommended.

• physical volume (LVM) — Creating one or more physical volume (LVM) partitions allows

you to create an LVM logical volume. LVM can improve performance when using physical

disks. For more information regarding LVM, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Deploy-

ment Guide.

• software RAID — Creating two or more software RAID partitions allows you to create a

RAID device. For more information regarding RAID, refer to the chapter RAID (Redundant

Array of Independent Disks) in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Deployment Guide.

• swap — Swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other words, data is written

to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is pro-

cessing. Refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Deployment Guide for additional information.

• vfat — The VFAT file system is a Linux file system that is compatible with Microsoft Win-

dows long filenames on the FAT file system. This file system must be used for the /

boot/efi/ partition on Itanium systems.

18.6. Editing Partitions