Question - Seafile server data transfer to the OS directory (NVMe disk)

Seafile Server
1

Hi all in the Seafile club!

My question is:
What do I have to pay attention to if I want to move the Seafile-Server system files to another directory (one of the OS system root directory) within the same OS? Does that actually work through just copy / paste and adjust the path in Seafile .config files or do I have to reinstall any packages afterwards?

At the moment everything is on an external HDD.

The operating system runs fine on NVMEe disk and I want Seafile to go there also, but I want to leave the large file folder (seafile-data) on the HDD and just hyperlink to that folder.

The reason for this would be that the HDD seems to be overloaded by Seafile as long as the system files are there.

In my opinion, a separation would not overload the HDD (through I / O). Well, I should probably had to do everything at the beginning … well …

Any Ideas?

I currently use:

  • Seafile Server Pro edition, Seahub, SeaDrive
  • nginx server
  • mySql DB
  • Let’s encrypt SSL
  • Runs on Ubuntu Server 21.04.
2

What you are describing can work. My seafile server has seafile itself installed in /seafile, and the seafile data on another mounted at /seafile-data. In /seafile there is a symbolic link called seafile-data that points to /seafile-data/data/ .

When I moved to this layout I did it at the same time that I was moving all the data to a new server, so I am not sure exactly what you would need to do to just move the data, but I think just moving that seafile-data directory where you want it and replacing it with a link is all you need.

1 Like
3

Thanks for the answer!

So, the only thing then is to alter the config file paths and no other installations would be needed? Do you think the SSL will work? Or I would need to reissue the certificate?

4

I see a couple of ways you could go. When I first replied I assumed you were going to take this first option, but after some thought I realize that might not be what you were thinking.

1- The one that feels most easy to make work (because the change will be mostly invisible to seafile), is to change how that drive is mounted so that you can move the seafile program files to the other drive, while they stayed at the same path. So if you are mounting that drive at /hdd, and have seafile installed in /hdd/seafile, I would change it so that drive mounts somewhere else, like /hdd_real, and then copy everything but the data to /hdd/seafile, and then make a link to point /hdd/seafile/seafile-data to /hdd_real/seafile-data.

2- Just move the program file to another location, and update everything to know about the new path. This might work. I’ve never done it. You might end up basically doing the install again at the new location. The only time I changed where seafile itself was installed was when I created a new server and moved the data to it from the old one, which I did to convert from hardware to a VM server. What I did was basically just the backup and restore steps in the manual here. So I imagine that you could loosly follow the restore process with some changes (just point at the existing data instead of actually restoring it from the backup, that kind of thing) and make it work. Backup and Recovery - Seafile admin manual

Either way I don’t expect it will change anything for your SSL working. That happens in nginx, and once this is done nginx should not see anything different when it talks to seafile.

1 Like
5

Thanks a lot! That helps! The link to the " Backup and Recovery" is also helpful! Thanks!

6
I'm sure this scheme should work. I don't see anything here that would conflict with each other and cause the system to malfunction. The only unpleasant thing that happened to me while working with this program was that I lost data through my carelessness and recklessness. I had to reinstall my operating system. It was an unpleasant experience, but it only happened because I messed up the bios myself trying to figure it out. Good thing I kept all my important files in cloud storage. If I hadn't, I would have had to try to recover all my files. By the way, to do this, you can go to the experts. For example, I know https://www.salvagedata.com/. They help with file recovery on any operating system.