Topic: Where to mount a big HDD that resides on an iSCSI target

[edform]

I have successfully attached an iSCSI target to my SME 10.1 server to supplement the storage space available on the small SSD in the server itself. I have mounted its storage unit at /home/e-smith/files, and I have added its details to /etc/fstab so that it remains available after reboots of the server. I have also written the text of a HowTo which I'll publish if it is thought useful.

Now I need advice on where to mount such a disk.

The suggestion to sit it at /home/e-smith/files came from Jean-Philippe Pialasse, and I can see his logic from the directory structure. The folder /home contains one subfolder: e-smith. Then /home/e-smith contains the subfolders: db, files, and Maildir, and some files: dkim_keys, ssl.crt, ssl.key, and ssl.pem. The folder /home/e-smith/files is where SME server puts its ibays, so having lots of space for that is important. What bothers me a bit, however, is that /home/e-smith/Maildir could also become big and space on the SSD is limited, so should I move the mount point of the big disk to /home/e-smith, or will that cause trouble because the iSCSI target object may not become available until after the system looks for things stored on it?

Ed Form

[Jean-Philippe Pialasse]

question is not specific to ISCSI, but generik to any situaiton where you want to have some of your data stored somewhere else than the system disk.

In the case of SME Server, we usually suggest
- /home/e-smith/files
or
- /home/e-smith/files/users +  /home/e-smith/files/ibays + /home/e-smith/files/nextcloud ...

The idea is to keep system basic always available, and /home/e-smith has admin /root email. Keeping content of /home/e-smith/files on a bigger drive allow to store the huge amout of data out of system (except databases like /var/lib/mysql) and ease migration from version to another by only migrating db and configuration and then reattach your drive with user data.