[SOLVED] creating users in /mnt/data

vjramana · 03-03-2012, 03:52 AM

I would like to setup a server (Centos) and this server has got two hard drives. In the first hard drive I wish to install Centos 5.7 and the second hard drive I plan to dedicate to home directories of the users.

Normally if I create home directory for users, it is like /home/john, /home/mark, /home/leena. But now I want to create home directories to be in /mnt/data/home/john, /mnt/data/home/mark and /mnt/data/home/leena where the second hard drive mounted at /mnt/data. Whenever these users login, they should be directed to /mnt/data/home/(users).

I have searched on the internet on how to setup this, but seems does not help me much.

It would be pleasure if I can get some help or guide to achieve this.

Thanks

T3RM1NVT0R · 03-03-2012, 04:24 AM

Hi vjramana,

Do you want to set that up for all users you will create going forward? Do you already have /mnt/data/home created? If answer to both the questions is "yes" then you can simply edit /etc/default/useradd script as follows:

Default useradd script

Code:

# useradd defaults file
GROUP=100
HOME=/home
INACTIVE=-1
EXPIRE=
SHELL=/bin/bash
SKEL=/etc/skel
CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=yes

Modified useradd script

Code:

# useradd defaults file
GROUP=100
HOME=/mnt/data/home
INACTIVE=-1
EXPIRE=
SHELL=/bin/bash
SKEL=/etc/skel
CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=yes

Doc CPU · 03-03-2012, 04:36 AM

Hi there,

Quote:

Originally Posted by vjramana

I would like to setup a server (Centos) and this server has got two hard drives. In the first hard drive I wish to install Centos 5.7 and the second hard drive I plan to dedicate to home directories of the users.

separation of system/code and user data, always a good idea.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vjramana

Normally if I create home directory for users, it is like /home/john, /home/mark, /home/leena. But now I want to create home directories to be in /mnt/data/home/john, /mnt/data/home/mark and /mnt/data/home/leena where the second hard drive mounted at /mnt/data. Whenever these users login, they should be directed to /mnt/data/home/(users).

I'd rather recommend you to keep the standard /home/* directories, and mount your second hard disk to /home instead of /mnt/data.
If you want to do that, copy all existing home directories first, for example /home/john to /mnt/data/john (while the second hard disk is mounted to /mnt/data). When you copied all existing profiles from /home, unmount the drive from /mnt/data an re-mount it to /home. I'd recommend to do that by a static mount in /etc/fstab.

Result: The home directories remain "standard" (/home/user), but they're located on the second hard disk.

Once you established that everything works, you log in as root, temporarily unmount the /home volume, and delete everything in the original /home directory to regain the space. Re-mount /home, and you're done.

[X] Doc CPU

vjramana · 03-03-2012, 05:50 AM

Hi T3RM1NVT0R,

I tried your method, but there seems some error I get.
I could create a user account using command.

useradd kaka
passwd kaka

but when I login I get this message as below:

Could not chdir to home directory /mnt/data/home/kaka: Permission denied
-bash: /mnt/data/home/kaka/.bash_profile: Permission denied
-bash-3.2$

note: I work from root.
Thank you

T3RM1NVT0R · 03-03-2012, 06:46 AM

I have checked on my system and it works perfectly fine. Did you compare the permissions of /home and /mnt/data/home.

It appears to me that user does not have read / excute permissions on /mnt/data and thus it is not able to get into his home directory. Default /home permissions are drwxr-xr-x. You have to setup /mnt/data/home the same way. Paste the output of the following commands:

1.

Code:

cat /etc/default/useradd

2.

Code:

ls -l / | grep home

3.

Code:

ls -l /mnt/data

vjramana · 03-06-2012, 05:53 AM

Hi, T3RM1NVT0R

I got it. The trick was the permission of the /mnt/data/home. I changed the mode to, chmod ugo+rwx. Then it is working ready.

Thanks.

Regards.

Vijay