Server running out of space
 

Hello,

I am a Linux newbie, played with it a long time ago to make firewalls with it. Now I have a server running Ubuntu that is running out of space. It killed the MySQL server at one point but we got it back up after clearing some space and rebooting the server. However I would like to extend the space we have on the server. Can I connect a USB drive to the server and just us that? The server supports about 8 web developers. My other thought was to add a NAS device to the network and use it. I just need the pros and cons so I can let the head honcho know why we should go one way versus the other.

The current system is running without a gui at this time. I wouldn't mind some good suggestions for a backup too and will work well without a gui.

Thanks for your help!

Welcome to LQ!

To be honest, I don't think Linux cares how you connect a drive. So the short answer is yes, you can connect a USB drive and then mount it somewhere useful. If you add the NAS server on the network, you're probably looking at using NFS or SAMBA to mount it to the server. That is probably dependent on what OS the NAS is running. I think it really boils down to how much additional storage you need, what kind of performance you're looking for (both USB and NFS are going to be slower than SATA). If you go the NFS/Samba route, you do have to think a bit about network security as I don't think either is encrypted.

As for the GUI, none of this requires one. Both the USB drive and the NFS/Samba mount can easily be handled from the console. Backup I would handle with just rsync.

Thanks for the quick reply. I think I will go for a 2GB USB Drive and see how it goes.

Good luck, but I think you're gonna want to go for a bit more that 2GB. Can you even buy one that small?

LOL, this is what happens when you have too many things going on. I am also working on adding more memory to his home computer and need to add 2GB more. The drive I was looking at is a WD Black 2TB that supports both USB 2 and 3. I wouldn't mind adding a USB 3 port to the system but I don't think there is room.

Thanks for the laugh, I needed it today. Too many things going on.