LinuxQuestions.org
Share your knowledge at the LQ Wiki.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - General
User Name
Password
Linux - General This Linux forum is for general Linux questions and discussion.
If it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 05-17-2012, 09:53 AM   #1
mojomonkey
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: May 2012
Posts: 2

Rep: Reputation: Disabled
Issues with and suggestions for network mounting of partitions


I recently purchased a low power computer to be used for some light-duty server use at home. For background, it is running an Atom D525 with 4GB RAM and 64GB SSD (Crucial CT064M4SSD2). I installed Debian stable.

I have network storage I want to use for storage of the actual content and have successfully mounted drives via CIFS for testing. I know enough to be dangerous, so was looking for advice / strategy on partitions to mount.

Items I am not sure about...

I'd planned to minimize use of the local SSD. I'm not sure how concerned to be as older threads used tmpfs for swap or had none, turned off logging, etc. That seems to be less a concern with more recent drives. How much should I care?

I at least want to mount /var/www from the network storage (much more space, backed up, etc) A quick test using fstab resulted with boot up "waiting for /var/www..." and eventually failing. I tried using the _netdev option to no avail. It mounts fine after I login and run "mount -a" This looks to be a network issue and a problem with trying to mount the network device before network is up. Is there a best practice for how to approach this?

It looks like I could use rc.local or other methods, but I am not sure of the impact. Will Apache fail to load if it is not mounted when it tries to start? I also had hanging on shutdown, apparently from network going down before the drives were unmounted.

Related, is it possible to move /var/log, or other /var directories to a network mount? Will services fail if they can't reach /var/log? Or just right in the /var/log directory that would be used as the mount point?

There are permissions issues to consider as well - is there a recommended method for mounting (NFS/CIFS/other) and any security or stability issues to be aware of?

I need to mount /var/www (or a subset) to have enough storage. I'd prefer to mount more just to keep use off of the SSD, but perhaps that is unnecessary.
 
Old 05-18-2012, 03:30 AM   #2
jschiwal
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Fargo, ND
Distribution: SuSE AMD64
Posts: 15,733

Rep: Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682
/var/www would be used if you are running a web server. If this is a samba server, create your shares under /var/samba or /home. The point of a file server is for clients to save and read their files, not to expose directories of the servers OS.

For a server used as nas storage, you'll probably reserve most of the space for the /var partition.

If you will create an nfs server, NFSv4 expects all shares to be located under an nfsroot directory. You can use -bind mounts to mount directories there.
 
Old 05-18-2012, 08:48 AM   #3
mojomonkey
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: May 2012
Posts: 2

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
I think I was not clear. I already have a NAS. The new device will be used as a small webserver. I want to mount directories from the NAS, at the very least /var/www. The device will not be a Samba server, but I planned to use CIFS/NFS/something to mount directories from the already existing NAS to this new, small webserver.

Unless I misunderstand, your answer was from the point of view of sharing the directories from the webserver to other machines via Samba or similar. I want the webserver to (at the very least) mount its /var/www directory from the NAS (i.e. NAS is file host, not web server).

Thanks!
 
Old 05-22-2012, 03:13 AM   #4
jschiwal
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Fargo, ND
Distribution: SuSE AMD64
Posts: 15,733

Rep: Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682Reputation: 682
You are correct. I thought the new device was to be a file server.

A directory with a network share mounted on it doesn't occupy space, but I don't know how well it would work to serve up the contents of an smb share. Make sure the users match on both, and that the NAS supports the CIFS extensions. Ownership, group, and even setfacl permissions are possible if both are Linux based. What filesystem does the NAS storage use. Fat32 doesn't support ownership or groups.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
[SOLVED] Mounting suggestions Josh000 Slackware 24 07-14-2010 11:30 PM
suggestions Debian hard drive partitions bearbigears Linux - Newbie 8 03-02-2005 03:23 PM
New to linux, so so lost, auto mounting issues, permissions issues slowhand22 Linux - Newbie 2 02-10-2005 09:41 AM
partitions suggestions for RH webserver complus Linux - Newbie 4 08-18-2003 03:57 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - General

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:29 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration