Symbolic link help

mobiboy

Guys I have a dedicated server on which i host files, the files are hosted in path: /home/admin/public_html/files/

i have 2 HDD each of 3TB space, first hdd is full so i partitioned the 2nd HDD and mounted it to a newly created folder with path: /home/admin/public_html/files2/

now i am trying to link both the directories using symbolic link option but its not happening, when i am uploading a file in /home/admin/public_html/files2/ directory i cant access it from /home/admin/public_html/files/ directory please help

mustafaramadhan

Why not mount to /home/admin/public_html/files2/ directly?.

mobiboy

@mustafaramadhan said:
Why not mount to /home/admin/public_html/files2/ directly?.

I guess u saying i should mount directly on /home/admin/public_html/files/ right? if i do so my previous uploaded files will not be shown, only the new uploaded files will show, i want both old and new files to be accessable from /home/admin/public_html/files2/

JustAMacUser

You probably should have set them up as a RAID when starting. You can mount the second drive as blah/blah/files2 and then use some fancy rewrites with the web server to check the second location if the file is not found in the first.

JustAMacUser

Also, 6 TB with no redundancy? You're living on the edge.

mobiboy

^bro while setting up the server i was newbie, i didnt knew this would be so complicated in future, it thought there will be some simple way

JustAMacUser

I understand. My comment wasn't intended to offend.

I'm not sure if there's a way to make an array (striped) out of two existing drives, but if there is I would think data loss is a significant risk. Even now, if the data is replaceable I would reconsider and go with 3 TB mirrored.

Nevertheless, my original comment stands in that I think web server rewrites are your best bet. In Nginx you can use try_files and Apache mod_rewrite.

Edit: Also, I know it seems a little confusing, but instead of symlinking the second drive, I would (as suggested in the other thread) actually just mount the volume where you need it (.../files2) using /etc/fstab.

mobiboy

I need the volume in /home/admin/public_html/files/ not in /home/admin/public_html/files2/,but the confusion is that it will than not show my old uploaded files in /home/admin/public_html/files/ this directory, i need both old files as well as the files i am going to upload further. i have already mounted the 2nd drive to /home/admin/public_html/files2/ but am unable to access it from /home/admin/public_html/files/

Falzo

probably you should not make more than one thread on the same topic... I commented on the other one already. you have to mount your new drive to an empty directory, so not as /home/admin/public_html/files2/ beside your old one, but maybe something within your old folder like /home/admin/public_html/files/2nd/

JustAMacUser

mobiboy said: I need the volume in /home/admin/public_html/files/ not in /home/admin/public_html/files2/,but the confusion is that it will than not show my old uploaded files in /home/admin/public_html/files/

You're correct, but if you're using Apache you can use mod_rewrite to do a internal redirect to check an alternative location if the file doesn't exist.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/files/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^/files/(.*)$ /files2/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

If you're using Nginx you can use try_files:

location ~ ^/files/(.*)$ {
    try_files $uri /files2/$1;
}

On the front-end the difference in drives would be invisible.

Falzo

@JustAMacUser said:
On the front-end the difference in drives would be invisible.

+1 for this suggestion. easy to setup after all.