Keeping all the config data and the actual stored data away from the main OS drive makes for a headache free upgrade path when you accidentally kill your server, and you will kill the server at some point.

First off we need to check the /media folder to see that there is’t a mount point that exists already with the name we’re going to use:-

ls /media

Then if there isn’t one called data then we can go ahead and create one :-

sudo mkdir /media/data

Next we need the UUID of the Hard Disk Drive that we want to be mounted to find that we need to see the attached drives:-

sudo blkid
/dev/sdb1: UUID="7231ab44-4e94-474a-909f-bf611b61f4c6" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="7484dbf7-01"
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv: UUID="c122359c-473a-4db4-972d-3db9f4402b60" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda2: UUID="c784b8fd-fd0e-46ee-bc5b-5a2bb0f79aa2" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="abb0849e-7195-4e88-b74d-cdf459fe4f5b"
/dev/sda3: UUID="eVtsIb-ZzCz-lZeg-oGAp-Fgpt-5mAE-IMFMLF" TYPE="LVM2_member" PARTUUID="e81e1d16-47ae-425d-b72c-dbbc55921c1a"

From this output you are looking for the UUID of the drive NOT the PARTUUID make a note of this. You’ll also want to check the TYPE of the drive so we can add that to the file system table file.

Next we want to edit the fstab file to mount the drive when we reboot the server:-

sudo nano /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv during curtin installation
/dev/disk/by-id/dm-uuid-LVM-tGN23kHJzuXRdnvEB7pxGjSOx2JpXSh23mcOjsGqreFFk2KULJvcqqtOl0coNVqg / ext4 defaults 0 1
# /boot was on /dev/sda2 during curtin installation
/dev/disk/by-uuid/c784b8fd-fd0e-46ee-bc5b-5a2bb0f79aa2 /boot ext4 defaults 0 1
/swap.img       none    swap    sw      0       0

At the bottom of the file add a new line with the following:

UUID=<UUDI_OF_THE_NEW_DRIVE>    /media/data     <DRIVE_TYPE>    defaults    0   0

Use a tab between each of the options. Save the file (Ctrl-X / Y / Return)

And before we reboot the server we need to test that it works by calling:-

sudo mount -a

Once the drive has been mounted you can check the contents with:-

ls /media/data

And reboot or not the drive is working now it’s up to you.

That’s it for today’s tutorial. Next we’ll set-up docker. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below. And don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS so you’ll know when I post the next exciting installment.