Adding more storage using the Third Light Storage Manager

If you find that the storage allocated to your Third Light server is filling up, you can add more by mounting extra disks.

A newly installed IMS system will use storage in the /space directory but by using the Storage Manager, the system can be configured to use storage subsequently mounted as /space2, /space3 and so on. Each additional disk is initialised as a Data Store and becomes available for use immediately.

Using additional block storage (disks, VMDKs and other hard drives)

1 Before adding a new disk, run the 'lsblk' command as root to see a summary of the existing disks and partitions. Keep a record of the output, add the new disk, reboot and run 'lsblk' again. The difference between the two runs of the command will help you identify the new disk.

Before addition of new disk:

root@system:/# lsblk 
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda    254:0    0   16G  0 disk 
├─sda1 254:1    0    10G  0 part /
├─sda2 254:2    0    1K  0 part 
└─sda5 254:5    0 4096M  0 part [SWAP]

After addition of new disk:

root@system:/# lsblk 
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda    254:0    0   16G  0 disk 
├─sda1 254:1    0    10G  0 part /
├─sda2 254:2    0    1K  0 part 
└─sda5 254:5    0 4096M  0 part [SWAP]
sdb    254:16   0    1T  0 disk   <--- sdb is the new device (you can double check by looking at the size column). Its full path will be /dev/sdb

Format the new block device with XFS substituting the device name if necessary to the value determined above.

mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb

2. Mount the new block device with XFS. For example, edit /etc/fstab and add an extra entry for the new device:

/dev/sdb      /space2  xfs noatime,nodiratime,defaults 0 0

3. Mount /space using the mount command. This will also serve to ensure that the new entry in /etc/fstab works correctly.

mount /space2

4. If this is the first time you have used the Storage Manager, you may need to re-configure IMS to make the management pages available.

dpkg-reconfigure ims6

Press return to every question (to keep the previous value) except the one that asks about the Manager. That should be enabled. You can also press enter for the questions about licence key username and password.

5. Access the Storage Manager via this address:

https://yoursite/admin/manager/login.tlx

(note that this is only available on the secure URL)

6. Login with the user and password of your license key. These were handed to you when you purchased Third Light. Please ask Third Light support if your do not have a record of these details.

7. There is a link called 'Storage' in the right hand menu. A section labeled 'Actions' contains a button named 'Scan for new data stores button'. When /space2 is found, select it and click the 'Activate' button.

8. Finally, from the 'Storage Options menu' choose which types of files should be placed on the store (e.g. originals, thumbnails, videos, uploads or miscellaneous). Select all the options if you don't have a particular preference.

Using NFS Storage

The below is an example of how to configure Third Light to make use a new disk partition mounted over NFS (network file system) v3.

1. Install NFS utils

   apt-get install nfs-client
   

2. Prepare to mount the NFS system:

   [nfs-server-ip-address]:/[path-to]/space2       /space2  nfs rw,noatime,rsize=32768,wsize=32768 0 0
   

   [nfs-server] should be replaced with the IP address of your NFS host, eg. 192.168.0.10. The value of [path-to] is the remote path to your storage on the NFS server.
   
   For example:

   192.168.0.10:/thirdlight/space2  /space2  nfs rw,noatime,rsize=32768,wsize=32768 0 0
   

3. You can check that the remote NFS server is responding by using showmount -e 192.168.0.10 (replace the IP address as appropriate). This will ensure there are no firewalls or other issues at this stage.

4. Make a new storage directory, /space2:

   mkdir /space2
   chown ims:ims /space2
   

5. Mount the NFS partition using the new entry in /etc/fstab:

   mount /space2
   

6. If you have not used the Storage Manager before, ask Third Light support to enable the Storage Manager via your licence key.

7. Re-configure Third Light to make use of the Storage Manager:

   dpkg-reconfigure ims6
   

   Say 'Yes' when asked about using the 'IMS Manager' (this contains the Storage Manager)

8. Access the Storage Manager via this address:

   https://yoursite/admin/manager/login.tlx
   

   (note that this is only available on the secure URL)

9. Login with the user and password of your license key. These were handed to you when you purchased Third Light.
10. There is a link called 'Storage' in the right hand menu. A section labeled 'Actions' contains a button named 'Scan for new data stores button'. When /space2 is found, select it and click the 'Activate' button.
11. Finally, from the 'Storage Options menu' choose which types of files should be placed on the store (e.g. originals, thumbnails, videos, uploads or miscellaneous). Select all the options if you don't have a particular preference.