Question: I am building a server that will run Samba for 2-5 people, a mail server for myself, a SQL server and maybe a Windows VB. I'm booting from an 8G thumb drive. How should I partition my HDD? This is what I was thinking so far:

* / --> 20G
* /boot --> 1G
* /home --> 550G
* /var --> 200G
* /var/mail --> 75G
* /tmp --> 50G
* /usr --> 20G
* /swapp --> 2G

Answer: 
```
/home --> 550G

```

Far too big. On a server you should put personal files on a separate data partition, 

```
/var --> 200G
/var/mail --> 75G
/usr --> 20G

```

Why are you limiting youself by creating these partitions? 

Just create symlinks or change the settings to set your personal files to your data partition. A mysql database file, apache webserver, your mail etc all have a config file where you can change the location of the files that hold your data.

Partioning your system directories is a thing of the past. Keep /, a swap if you want BUT we nowadays use a swapfile, make a smallish home (even 50Gb is overkill) and make 1 big personal data partition. Easy to backup your own files and you can keep a script there that can reset changes you made to the default Ubuntu. Easy if you want to upgrade your systen: format / and /home. reattach your partition, run the script to change the changes you made and you are good to go.
do not separate the /tmp, /usr /boot from / just do it like this:

```
/ --> 90G
/home --> 550G
/var --> 275G

```

and swap should be 2x your physical memory