sharing /home across multiple partitions

[eweber]

Hello,

Disclaimer: new to Linux, sorry if its a dumb question.

I was going to install Ubuntu 11.10 server onto 3 hdd's in the following configuration...

HDD #1 - 32GB
/root
/boot
/swap

HDD #2 & HDD #3 - 1TB, RAID 0
/home (documents, pictures, music, movies)

But then I thought (always a scary proposition) that my small files (documents and pictures) don't really need the benefit of RAID 0. So maybe the following configuration would work better...

HDD #1 - 32GB
/root
/boot
/swap

HDD #2 & HDD #3 - 1TB, RAID 0
/home (music, movies)

HDD #4 - 200GB
/home (documents, pictures)

Questions:

1) is it possible to have 2 home directories spread over 2 partitions?
2) is yes, then how would i specify which home directory I'm using?
3) which home directory would contain my .profile file?
4) from everything i've read, /home is the (only?) place for all personal files. Is this true? If it's not true, then I could put /home on the RAID partition, and then /media on HDD #4. Is there some reason that all personal files need to be in /home?

thanks in advance for your feedback!

eric

[eweber]

Just spoke to someone here at work. Sounds like there's nothing special about /home. I could probably do something like this...

HDD #1 - 32GB
/root
/boot
/swap
/home/eric

HDD #2 & HDD #3 - 1TB, RAID 0
/music
/movies

HDD #4 - 200GB
/documents
/pictures

any thoughts to the contrary, please let me know.

[oldfred]

If you / (root) is not in the RAID, you probably do not need a separate /boot. Servers often need a separate /boot just to have it outside the RAID or LVM or other special configurations.

I use data partitions as I have multiple installs in my desktop. Since I used to dual boot with XP(still use it very occassionly), have data in both NTFS and ext3 partitions. I mount those in every install and link folders into /home.

Splitting home directory discussion:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1811198
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1734233&highlight=%2Fdata
Shared /data (NTFS)-see post #3 oldfred
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1772620
Link is on move home but see post by bodhi.zazen on data partition #6
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=325048

Opposing viewpoint on separate data partitions - post 14 srs5694:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1738065
Shared Data with Different operating systems, different uid and gid issues - Morbius1
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1675381

Another way to share:
kansasnoob's sharing and Morbius1 use of bindfs
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1495798
HowTo: Create shared directory for local users (with bindfs).
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1460472
With upstart script
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1771773&page=5
HowTo: Create shared directory for local users (with bindfs). - sisco311
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1460472