2

When installing Ubuntu Server 14.04, am I required to name all my partitions or can I leave the "name:" field blank without running into any problems/confusion now/later? I'm pretty new to the Ubuntu OS, so I'm worried that by naming partitions I might actually end up creating confusion later on.

Does the answer change if I'm setting up a software RAID 1 array?

Willman
  • 233

2 Answers2

1

Naming partitions will make future management easier. It just creates an alias to the mount point, I'm pretty sure. Basically gives the partition mount point that can be called by using an easier to remember name, rather than just a number assignment.

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user241585
  • 101
0

The problem is that the device names as /dev/sda and /dev/sdb can change: add a disk to the system and the names can be easily messed up.

Labels will not change, as the UUID (unique identifier) for disks. To avoid problems, when you install a new Ubuntu system normally the disks and partition are mounted/recognized by their UUID, and not the device name; look at my /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=0dfa0702-cb80-417c-b06e-5c946216d174 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /home was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=12fa4e6a-6a16-4d4d-84bb-9bbdfae8e0a1 /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=3773a8fb-fdbc-4e77-8358-7fa5ed65cc5f none            swap    sw              0       0

You can use the labels if you prefer, with label= if you have them (at least, I think). See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Persistent_block_device_naming

Rmano
  • 32,167