Setup additional drive in Linux

Setup additional drive on Linux VPS (only for plans with extra HDD)

Default drive its already configured as the primary drive with selected operating system. The HDD will be a second drive, in order to use it, we need to set it.

Let's see what's currently mounted. Right now, it's just the primary drive mounted to /

[email protected]:~# df -h

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            970M     0  970M   0% /dev
tmpfs           200M  2.8M  197M   2% /run
/dev/vda1        78G  1.5G   73G   2% /
tmpfs           997M     0  997M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs           997M     0  997M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs           200M     0  200M   0% /run/user/0

Let's see the second disk:

[email protected]:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/vda: 80 GiB, 85899345920 bytes, 167772160 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x941390d7

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/vda1  *         2048 165677055 165675008   79G 83 Linux
/dev/vda2       165677056 167772159   2095104 1023M 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Disk /dev/vdb: 80 GiB, 85899345920 bytes, 167772160 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

We can see it on /dev/vdb

We need to deciding where to mount the second drive. We are going to mount it at /drive2

We'll create the mount point now:

[email protected]:~# mkdir /drive2

We can proceed to partition it.

[email protected]:~# fdisk /dev/vdb

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.31.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Device does not contain a recognized partition table.
Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x6b36d253.

Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 
First sector (2048-167772159, default 2048): 
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-167772159, default 167772159): 

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 80 GiB.

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

[email protected]:~#

The above steps represent: n (new partition), p (primary), enter, enter, enter and w (to write the changes)

Output of fdisk -l

[email protected]:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/vda: 80 GiB, 85899345920 bytes, 167772160 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x941390d7

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/vda1  *         2048 165677055 165675008   79G 83 Linux
/dev/vda2       165677056 167772159   2095104 1023M 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Disk /dev/vdb: 80 GiB, 85899345920 bytes, 167772160 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x6b36d253

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/vdb1        2048 167772159 167770112  80G 83 Linux
[email protected]:~#

We have the partition and we need to format it for use by using mkfs.ext4 command

[email protected]:~# mkfs.ext4 /dev/vdb1

mke2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
Creating filesystem with 20971264 4k blocks and 5242880 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 13ed1c87-3195-407b-b2ff-b6f73df93969
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
    32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
    4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000

Allocating group tables: done                            
Writing inode tables: done                            
Creating journal (131072 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done   

[email protected]:~#

Let's mount the partition and check with df -h

[email protected]:~# mount /dev/vdb1 /drive2
[email protected]:~# df -h

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            970M     0  970M   0% /dev
tmpfs           200M  2.8M  197M   2% /run
/dev/vda1        78G  1.5G   73G   2% /
tmpfs           997M     0  997M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs           997M     0  997M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs           200M     0  200M   0% /run/user/0
/dev/vdb1        79G   57M   75G   1% /drive2
[email protected]:~#

It's mounted at /drive2.

We'll add it to the fstab to make it permanent.

[email protected]:~# nano /etc/fstab

We need to edit fstab file by adding the last line.

# /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).
#
#               
# / was on /dev/xvda1 during installation
LABEL=root /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/vda2        swap       swap       defaults        0 0
/dev/vdb1       /drive2    ext4

Let's reboot the server and check after.

[email protected]:~# reboot

[email protected]:~# df -h

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            970M     0  970M   0% /dev
tmpfs           200M  2.8M  197M   2% /run
/dev/vda1        78G  1.5G   73G   2% /
tmpfs           997M     0  997M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs           997M     0  997M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/vdb1        79G   57M   75G   1% /drive2
tmpfs           200M     0  200M   0% /run/user/0
[email protected]:~#

New drive has been mounted at /drive2.