How to configure disk drives in CentOS 7 for separate home directories

To configure disk drives in CentOS 7 for separate home directories, you can follow these general steps:

1. Before proceeding, make sure you have any necessary backups of your data. Modifying disk configurations can be risky, and it’s always wise to have backups in case of data loss.
2. Identify the new disk drives you want to use for the home directories. Ensure they are properly connected to your CentOS 7 system and recognized by the operating system. You can use tools like lsblk or fdisk -l to list available disks.
3. Once you have identified the disks, you need to partition and format them. Use a utility like fdisk or parted to create a partition on each disk. For example, you can use the command sudo fdisk /dev/sdX (replace ‘X’ with the appropriate drive identifier) to launch the partitioning tool.
4. After partitioning, format the partitions using a file system of your choice. For instance, you can use mkfs.ext4 to format the partitions as ext4 file systems. The command syntax would be something like sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1 (replace ‘X’ and ‘1’ with the correct drive and partition numbers).
5. Create mount points for the new partitions. You can choose suitable names for the mount points, such as /home1 and /home2. Use the mkdir command to create these directories, e.g., sudo mkdir /home1 and sudo mkdir /home2.
6. Edit the /etc/fstab file using a text editor like vi or nano. Add entries for the new partitions, specifying the appropriate disk device, mount point, file system type, and mount options. For example:
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   /dev/sdX1 /home1 ext4 defaults 0 2

   /dev/sdX2 /home2 ext4 defaults 0 2

7. Save and exit the /etc/fstab file.
8. Mount the new partitions using the mount command or by rebooting the system. If you don’t want to restart, you can use the following command to mount all file systems listed in /etc/fstab: sudo mount -a.
9. Verify that the new partitions are successfully mounted by checking if the directories /home1 and /home2 contain the correct data from the respective partitions.

By following these steps, you should be able to set up separate disk drives for home directories in CentOS 7. Remember to exercise caution while working with disks and ensure you have appropriate backups in place.