2 harddrives, one note being used. Adjust partitions?

[BooDaddy]

Hello everyone. I am loving DA.

Just had a quick question. When I first setup my server I installed 2 500 gig drives in it. one the first hard drive I setup all of my partitions including /home.
on the second hard drive, the only partition i setup on it is /var.

Now, my reasoning for this at the time (a year or so ago) was that I planned on using /var for all of my webhosting domains and file saves. For some crazy reason i didnt realize that most sites are hosted from /home (like DA uses). And I had forgotten that /home was on my first hard drive.

So, now I have a very empty hard drive that isnt being utilized for anything.

My question is, is it possible to reconfig the /home partition to the second hard drive now that I have DA installed and a few sites being hosted?

Really all I am wanting to do is just to utilize that other 500 gig of drive space that is on the other hard drive. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[nobaloney]

My question is, is it possible to reconfig the /home partition to the second hard drive now that I have DA installed and a few sites being hosted?

Yes.

Really all I am wanting to do is just to utilize that other 500 gig of drive space that is on the other hard drive. Any suggestions?

It's Linux vs FreeBSD specific, and could even be OS distribution specific (though I don't think so.

It's NOT for sissies; you can break your server, and if you do, I'm not responsible. Nor is anyone else but you. Make a backup.

Google for mounting How-To's for your OS distribution.

The following summary is for Linux only; note I could have made a simple mistake, and I'm NOT responsible if you have to restore your entire system.

That said...

You'll need to first copy the entire contents of var to /var on the first drive, change the relevant mount directive in /etc/fstab, and then reboot.

Then check to make sure you're using the copy of /var on the first drive (check /etc/mtab).

Then you can delete the entire /var/directory and contents on your second drive and create a /home directory. If there wasn't a /var directory, then do NOT create a /home directory, but just presume the entire drive is a /home directory.

Copy the entire contents of /home to the /home directory on the second drive, or if there isn't a /home directory on the second drive, copy it to the root of the second drive.

Then edit /etc/fstab to change the relevant mount directive, and reboot.

Note that in all cases, if you're not doing something like

# cp -Rfp

then you're probably not copying properly.

If you don't feel like doing this yourself, and if you're using a version of Linux, then email me (PMs may take days to answer) and ask for a quote, or ask one of the many other system administrators who write on these forums.

Jeff

 

[BooDaddy]

Cool. Thanks Jeff.

I am using Debian for my OS.

I totally understand on the whole "liability" thing, but your suggestions are very helpful.

When I first set the server up (about a year ago) I never even knew about Direct Admin, and I was going to use cPanel. thats one of the reasons why I stuck /var on its on Hard disk. But, after recently finding and buying Direct Admin, I didnt realize /home weould be used. I have been using DA for less than a month, and I am already about to pull the trigger on a lifetime license.

Thanks for the offer of helping me! I will be emailing you soon for a quote. If I / we did the move, do you forsee anything that might pop up in the future error wise?

 

[nobaloney]

I sure hope not; we just did it on the server we're using for our ticketing/billing system .

Jeff

 

[BooDaddy]

Heh. Well at least I know now it wont crash DA by doing the move (if done properly).

Thanks again for the replies, I emailed ya a request for a quote.