Upgrade Hard Drive

Andy83

• March 21, 2018 14:15

Hi, My server is running out of disk space very soon. Currently, the CPanel software, database and web files are stored in 480GB SSD. And there is a 500 GB hard disk drive for storage and backup purposes. I am considering to add a 500GB SSD or 2 TB hard disk drive. What is the recommended method to upgrade or increase the disk space with minimum downtime? Thank you.

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  cPanelMichael

  • March 21, 2018 19:22

  Hello, You could add the additional SSD to the server, and ensure it's mounted to the /home2 location. Then, use the following option in Web Host Manager to move some of the existing accounts over to the new /home2 location: Rearrange an Account - Version 70 Documentation - cPanel Documentation Thank you.

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  Andy83

  • March 22, 2018 06:26

  Hi Michael, I would like to describe my situation in detail. One of my accounts is taking up more than 400GB of space inclusive of the MariaDB database. And one of the database tables is using 300GB and still growing (innodb 1 file per table). We derive this figure because its .ibd file shows 300GB. For your information, my existing SSD is 480GB only. So I have been getting email alerts that The filesystem "/" mounted at "/" reached "critical" status because you currently use 97.88% of its available blocks. Could you recommend a solution to add new hard drive to the server so that we can solve this lack of disk space issue? Thank you.

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  cPanelMichael

  • March 22, 2018 18:30

  Hello, In that case, you'll likely want to mount the 2TB drive and then move the MySQL data directory to a location on the new drive. Here's a thread with an example of how you can do that: Note that you can mount the new drive to a location such as /var/lib/mysql-2 as opposed to the /home location referenced in the example. Thank you.

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  Andy83

  • March 22, 2018 19:00

  Hi Michael, Thanks for your reply. Based on your experience and knowledge, how long does it take to move the MySQL data directory from SSD to the new 2 TB hard disk drive? How much downtime do you anticipate the entire process to take? Thank you.

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  cPanelMichael

  • March 22, 2018 19:02

  Hello, You are mostly just moving the directory with the "mv" command, updating the MySQL data directory value in the /etc/my.cnf file, and adding a symlink. This generally only takes a few minutes to complete, but do keep in mind it's an unsupported solution. Thank you.

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  Andy83

  • March 24, 2018 12:27

  Hi Michael, My developer suggested another solution. The root partition is under LVM. We can extend the LVM with the new disk and then resize the root partition over the new disk. The result will be partition spanning two disks, no need for moving files/renames/symbolic links etc., everything will be in the standard place. The downtime would be just for physically adding the new disk. rootusers.com/how-to-increase-the-size-of-a-linux-lvm-by-adding-a-new-disk/ Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you.

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  cPanelMichael

  • March 26, 2018 12:32

  Hello, Yes, that's also an acceptable method of increasing the space available to the default MySQL data directory. Let us know how it works out. Thanks!

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