Using a single Big Storage on multiple VPSs

Big Storage can be attached to one VPS per availability zone, but maybe you want to write files to your Big Storage from five VPSs for example.

You can make your Big Storage drive accessible for other VPSs by using NFS (Linux), SMB (Windows) or SSHFS (Linux). SSHFS is a relatively simple option to achieve this and has the advantage that you use an SFTP connection (only one port required).

In this article, we explain how to make your Big Storage drive available on your other VPSs using SSHFS.

Installing and configuring SSHFS

SSHFS stands for Secure Shell Host File System and is a FUSE file system. The latter means that it allows users to create their own file systems without modifying kernel code. SSHFS uses SFTP for this.

Step 1

Connect to the VPS to which you have linked your Big Storage via SSH or the VPS console.

Step 2

Create a directory that you want to make accessible from your other VPS, for example:

sudo mkdir /mnt/bigstorage/backups

Step 3

Choose an existing user or create a user who will have rights to this folder. You create the user as follows (replace username with the name of the user you want to create):

sudo useradd username 
sudo passwd username

Next, only grant this user rights to the folder that you created in step 2, for example:

sudo chown -R username /mnt/bigstorage/backups
sudo chmod -R 600 /mnt/bigstorage/backups

This way, only the newly created user has rights to read and write in this folder. You are free to adjust this as desired, but for security reasons, we do not recommend using the root user.

By giving a single user specific access and not granting that user access anywhere else, you increase the security of your server. If that user's password becomes compromised, a malicious person cannot access other directories.

In addition, we recommend limiting access to your VPSs in your firewall to trusted IPs, or to use SSH keys.

Step 4

Connect to the VPS from which you want to reach the Big Storage via command line or the VPS console (not the VPS to which the Big Storage is connected).

Step 5

Depending on your operating system, use the following commands to install SSHFS:

CentOS

SSHFS is included in the EPEL repository at CentOS. First, install the EPEL repository if you have not already done so:

sudo yum -y install epel-release

And then SSHFS:

sudo yum -y install fuse-sshfs

Ubuntu / Debian

There is a good chance that SSHFS is already installed (with Ubuntu), if not, you install SSHFS with:

sudo apt -y install sshfs

Step 6

Next, mount the Big Storage of your other VPS with the command below. You will be asked for a password of this user and permission to trust the key fingerprint of the SSH connection.

sshfs username@123.123.123.123:/mnt/bigstorage/backups /mnt -p 22

• Replace user with the username of the user from step 3.
• Replace 123.123.123.123 with the IP address of the server to which your Big Storage is linked.
• Replace /mnt/bigstorage/backups with the name of the folder that you want to add on the VPS to which your Big Storage is linked (this can also be a folder on the SSD of your VPS).
• Replace /mnt with the location to which you want to link the remote directory on your VPS. You could also call it /mnt/bigstorage/backups, for example. In that case, do not forget to create the relevant directory with the syntax:

mkdir /mnt/bigstorage/backups

• Replace 22 in the -p 22 addition with the SSH port number of the server to which your Big Storage is linked. For security reasons, we recommend that you change the SSH port of your VPS and not allow root access via SSH.

Step 7

You can now test the connection with the command:

sudo touch /mnt/bigstorage/backups/test 

Unmounting

If you want to unmount your Big Storage from the VPS connected via SSHFS, use:

sudo umount /mnt

Where you replace /mnt/bigstorage/backups with the name of your mounted directory, see step 6 above.

This brings us to the end of this tutorial on making Big Storage accessible on other VPSs using SSHFS.

Should you have any questions left regarding this article, do not hesitate to contact our support department. You can reach them via the ‘Contact Us’ button at the bottom of this page.