Spanning Samba share

[arachnoid]

I've just filled up the first disk on my NSLU2 (running debian)

I've already added a second disk and partitioned it so that it holds my Swap and a big ext3 partition ready to take some data.

At the moment Samba is sharing out a folder on the first disk called SambaFiles with a share name of SharedFiles.

Is there a way i can span the big partition so that the Samba share called Sharedfiles includes the contents of SambaFiles on the first disk and the contents of the new partition on the second disk?

I thought about mounting the second partion inside SharedFiles but the big problem is that my Music folder constitutes 90% of the contents so moving the Music folder to the second disk and Mounting it back into SambaFiles would just shift the problem a month or so into the future when the second disk fills up.

Is it possible to join /span 2 partitions in linux and then share them using Samba?

Cheers

Russell

 

[BillytheImpaler]

It might not be the best way to do it, but you can set up LVM, the logical volume manager, to combine two partitions and stick them both on one mount point. The downside of this is that you need to reformat both of the partitions you want to combine which may or may not be possible for you, given whether you have space elsewhere for all the files you'd have to move away, then move back.

 

[dave-lew99]

I see 3 solutions:

1. Mount your second shared folder inside the first (which you've already decided won't work for you)
2. As suggested use LVM or a software raid type setup
3. Distributed Samba (just don't bother it's more than a little complicated....)

So really, i think you're stuck, i think you'll just have to create a second share for the new disk and divide up your files between the two (ie music on one and movies on the other)

 

[BillytheImpaler]

...I think you'll just have to create a second share for the new disk and divide up your files between the two (ie music on one and movies on the other)

If you were going to do that you might as well mount one in the music directory and pop everything else on the other, rather than running multiple shares.

 

[TrX]

Distributed samba won't help you here really either, it is more for presenting multiple samba shares from different systems under one path. (Windows server calls it DFS 'Distributed Filesystem') And not what is really needed here.

LVM is the best solution for a linux box if you can afford the time to move your data somewhere temporary while you config/format the disks.

Mouting one partition inside the other looks like the best solution offered here.

There is always solaris ZFS.. which would solve this problem entirely.. But that involves changing OS's and still requires a disk format.. but the results are very scalable.

It's good to be back!
//TrX

 

[arachnoid]

I think LVM looks like the way to go.

I did, of course, forget to mention that I have various spare hard disks kicking about the place. The OS is currently living on its own partition so I'm going to get the SharedData off onto a spare drive and get LVM setup over the other 2 disks.

Then i can rip the contents of the huge amazon parcel that arrived this morning

Thanks everyone for helping out, I'll post the "I just hosed my system" thread later

Russell