Mount an additional volume

On a HolyCloud Linux VPS, the system disk (/) can be complemented by an additional volume (secondary disk) to isolate data, backups, or databases. This guide covers detection, partitioning, formatting, and persistent mounting.

Prerequisites

• Additional volume attached to the VPS from the HolyCloud customer area
• VPS rebooted or SCSI bus rescanned if needed
• sudo access
• HolyCloud snapshot before any partition changes

Tip: note the volume size in the panel to confirm you format the correct disk.

Step 1: identify the new disk

List disks:

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT,MODEL
sudo fdisk -l

On HolyCloud, the system disk is often /dev/sda or /dev/vda; the additional volume appears as /dev/sdb, /dev/vdb, or /dev/nvme1n1 without a mount point.

Verify it has no data:

sudo file -s /dev/vdb

Expected output for a blank disk: data.

Step 2: GPT partition (recommended)

Replace /dev/vdb with your device:

sudo parted /dev/vdb --script mklabel gpt
sudo parted /dev/vdb --script mkpart primary ext4 0% 100%
sudo partprobe /dev/vdb
lsblk /dev/vdb

The partition will be /dev/vdb1.

Step 3: format as ext4

sudo mkfs.ext4 -L holycloud-data /dev/vdb1
sudo e2label /dev/vdb1

For XFS (large files, good performance):

sudo apt install -y xfsprogs
sudo mkfs.xfs -L holycloud-data /dev/vdb1

Step 4: mount point and fstab

Create the directory:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/data
sudo chown root:root /mnt/data

Get the UUID (preferable to /dev/vdb1 which may change):

sudo blkid /dev/vdb1

Test mount:

sudo mount /dev/vdb1 /mnt/data
df -h /mnt/data

Add to /etc/fstab (ext4):

UUID=VOTRE-UUID-Ici  /mnt/data  ext4  defaults,nofail  0  2

Edit carefully:

sudo nano /etc/fstab
sudo mount -a
df -h /mnt/data

nofail prevents the VPS from hanging at boot if the volume is detached on HolyCloud side.

Step 5: permissions for applications

Example: web data for Nginx:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/data/www
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /mnt/data/www

PostgreSQL (advanced move — stop the service first):

sudo systemctl stop postgresql
sudo rsync -av /var/lib/postgresql/ /mnt/data/postgresql/

Adjust data_directory in postgresql.conf then restart.

Step 6: grow an existing volume

After extending the disk in the HolyCloud panel:

sudo apt install -y cloud-guest-utils
sudo growpart /dev/vdb 1
sudo resize2fs /dev/vdb1
df -h /mnt/data

For XFS: sudo xfs_growfs /mnt/data.

Verification

lsblk -f
findmnt /mnt/data
grep /mnt/data /etc/fstab
sudo touch /mnt/data/test-write && sudo rm /mnt/data/test-write

Need help?

• Disk not visible: check volume attachment in the customer area, then lsblk after reboot
• Boot stuck: fstab error — fix in rescue or single-user mode
• HolyCloud support: lsblk, fdisk -l output, panel screenshot (attached volume size)