> I am about to begin my first installation of PostgreSQL. :-) At the
> moment I am installing Red Hat Linux ES v3 on a brand new machine for
> use as a database server. The machine has two RAID arrays. The
> first is an 18GB RAID 0 array that I intend to use as the system
> drive (/boot, /, swap space, etc.) while the second is a 140GB RAID 5
> array that I plan to utilize for the database. I am at the point
> where I need to partition the arrays. What considerations do I need
> to keep in mind? Where does the PostgreSQL software get installed?
If you install from source you can set it during ./configure with
prefix=/whatever/path. Where RedHat puts it if you use the prebuild
package I don't know, somewhere under /usr I'd surmise.
> Where are the log files kept?
Hm, depends on the start script you use. Lots of distros put it in /var/log.
> What directory does the database end up in?
Whatever directory you tell it to use when using initdb. RedHat probably
runs this when installing.
> Are indexes, procedures, tables, etc stored in separate locations?
No, but I think there's a way to partition your DB somehow.
(Tablespaces? Only in the coming version 8? The gurus and the docs
certainly know).
> Should they be for performance reasons? What can I do now while
> installing the OS and eventually PostgreSQL to avoid problems and
> improve performance in the future?
I don't really know, being a newbie myself.
If this is an all new machine I'd probably just install things once to
look what steps are needed (keep a log of what steps you perform), play
with it a bit, see whether you get any problems and if you're satisfied:
Start from scratch and replay the "good" steps from your log. Like this
you'll find the answers to most of your questions all by yourself.
Good luck.
Arthur