How to swap a disk in Linux?

Question

linux

Greetings! I need what is called a sanity check, that is, a sanity check.

So, the situation is this:

There is a server with CentOS 7.4 on board. It runs an application that stores user data in /mnt/files . The data is already over 400 GB, and the disk is only 500 ... That's the problem, the disk will soon run out.

What I want to do is add a new 2TB drive, stop the application, rsync all the data from the old drive, mount /mnt/files on the new drive, run the application. PROFIT.

Is this the right plan? Or delusional? What is the best way to solve the problem?

Answer 1

add a disk, mount to another location
make rsync
stop the application
make rsync
unmount the old disk remount
the new disk in /mnt/files
start the application

Answer 2

One Germanjon option, mount. Another option is to take a disk image (I use Clonzilla), restore to a new one, boot, expand the partition to max (parted)

Answer 3

Normal option.
There is another one, if the data is stored structured by folders:
1. Create a folder in the root and mount a 2 TB disk there.
2. Create a slink in the /mnt/files folder to the location of the new disk.
3. Make sure that the application stores data in a new location.

Answer 4

In FreeBSD, often a new disk is mounted on top of an old one via UnionFS. Then the file is read:

• from a new disk if it is there;
  
• from the old disk, if the new one does not have it.
  

And when you change - the file on the old disk remains as it was, on the new one it is created with a record of the changes. With touch - the file is transferred to a new disk. Advantage - no need to stop the service (except to turn off the computer when a new disk is physically connected).
On Linux d.b. something similar.