Expand storage in Olares

This document describes how to expand storage in Olares using different approaches. Choose the method that best matches your scenario:

• Connect to an SMB server to access shared files on a NAS or another computer over the network.
• Use USB auto-mount for plug-and-play external storage. No Linux commands required.
• Manually mount an HDD or SSD under /olares/share to keep a disk as independent external storage for large files.
• Expand system storage via Olares CLI (disk extend) to increase system capacity on LVM-based setups by merging new disk(s) into the system volume.

Connect to an SMB server

You can easily mount Server Message Block (SMB) shares in Olares to access and manage shared files.

1. On the Olares web interface, navigate to Files > External > Connect to server.

2. Enter the server address (for example: //192.168.1.10/shared) and click Confirm.

3. Once connected, you can access the shared directory under Files > External.

For details, please refer to Mount SMB shares.

Expand storage via USB devices

Olares automatically detects and mounts inserted USB storage devices.

• Once you insert a USB device, it will be mounted automatically — no command-line operations are required.

• You can access it in Files > External from both Olares and Larepass.

• The system automatically unmounts the device when you unplug it.

• You can manually eject the device via the Olares web interface. Right-click the USB drive in Files and select Unmount.

Manually mount an HDD or SSD

You can manually mount an HDD or SSD to Olares from your Linux hosting system.

This approach is recommended for large data storage (e.g., AI models) or long-term storage expansion.

Before you begin

Please ensure the following:

• You have administrator (sudo) privileges on your Linux system.

• Olares is properly installed and running.

• The target drive is already formatted (recommended file systems: ext4 or XFS).

Mount path restriction

Currently, only mounts under the /olares/share directory are supported.

Mounting flexibility will be improved in future versions.

Identify the drive

1. Insert the hard drive into the host machine.

2. Run the following command to view detected drives:

   fdisk -l

3. Identify the target drive type and device name from the output:

   • NVMe SSD: typically appear as /dev/nvme0n1, /dev/nvme1n1, etc.
   • SATA or HDD: typically appear as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc.

   Each drive lists its partitions under the Device column, such as /dev/nvme1n1p1, /dev/nvme1n1p2, or /dev/sdb1.

4. Confirm the target partition to mount (e.g., /dev/nvme1n1p1).

Temporarily mount a partition

Temporary mounting is suitable for one-time or short-term use (e.g., file transfer).

The mount configuration will be lost after a Linux or Olares reboot.

1. Create a mount directory:

   sudo mkdir -p /olares/share/<directory_name>

   Replace <directory_name> with a custom name.

2. Mount the partition:

   sudo mount /dev/<partition> /olares/share/<directory_name>

   Example:

   sudo mount /dev/nvme1n1p1 /olares/share/hdd0

3. Verify the mount result:

   After successful mounting, you can access the partition from Files > External.

   

Permanently mount a partition

If you want the mount configuration to remain after reboot, configure automatic mounting in /etc/fstab.

1. Run the following command to list all drives and find the target partition:

   lsblk -f

   Record the following information:

   • FSTYPE: File system type (e.g., ext4, xfs).
   • UUID: Unique identifier of the partition.

   

2. Create a mount directory:

   sudo mkdir -p /olares/share/<directory_name>

   Replace <directory_name> with a custom name.

3. Edit the mount configuration file:

   sudo vi /etc/fstab

4. Add a mount entry using UUID (recommended to prevent issues if device names change):

   UUID=<UUID> /olares/share/<directory_name> <FSTYPE> defaults,nofail 0 0

   Example:

   UUID=1234-ABCD /olares/share/my_disk ext4 defaults,nofail 0 0

5. Save and exit the editor.

6. Verify the configuration (recommended):

   mount -a

   If no errors appear, the setup is successful.

7. After reboot, confirm the drive is automatically mounted via Files > External.

   WARNING

   An incorrect /etc/fstab configuration may prevent your system from booting. It is strongly recommended to run mount -a first to validate the configuration before rebooting.

Unmount a partition

You can unmount partitions mounted using either temporary or permanent methods.

1. Unmount the partition:

   sudo umount /olares/share/<directory_name>

   NOTE

   Make sure no programs or terminals are accessing the directory before unmounting.

2. Remove the empty directory (optional):

   rm -rf /olares/share/<directory_name>

   WARNING

   Ensure the directory is empty and fully unmounted before deleting.

   You can also view and remove this directory from Files in Olares.

Expand system storage via Olares CLI

If your Olares system uses LVM-based storage, you can expand its system storage capacity using the disk command.

Manual mounting adds an external drive under /olares/share. In contrast, disk extend expands Olares system storage. After extension, the added drive is no longer shown as an independent mount point.

Data loss

disk extend will destroy all data on the selected disk.
Make sure the disk does not contain important data, or back up the data before continuing.

Before you begin

• Connect the external drive to the Olares host machine.
• SSH into the Olares terminal.

Identify the unmounted disk

List block devices on the host:

lsblk | grep -v loop

Identify the newly added disk by checking its size and confirming it has no mount points. Do not select the disk that contains / or /boot.

Example output:

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda           8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk
├─sda1        8:1    0   512M  0 part /boot
└─sda2        8:2    0   931G  0 part /
nvme1n1     259:3    0 931.5G  0 disk

In this example, sda is the system drive which is mounted at / and /boot, while nvme1n1 is the newly connected disk.

Extend system storage

1. Verify that Olares recognizes the unmounted disk:

   olares-cli disk list-unmounted

2. Add the disk to the system volume:

   olares-cli disk extend

3. Type YES to proceed when the command prompts for confirmation.

   WARNING: This will DESTROY all data on /dev/<device>
   Type 'YES' to continue, CTRL+C to abort:

   Example output:

   Selected volume group to extend: olares-vg
   Selected logical volume to extend: data
   Selected unmounted device to use: /dev/nvme0n1
   Extending logical volume data in volume group olares-vg using device /dev/nvme0n1
   WARNING: This will DESTROY all data on /dev/nvme0n1
   Type 'YES' to continue, CTRL+C to abort: YES
   Selected device /dev/nvme0n1 has existing partitions. Cleaning up...
   Deleting existing partitions on device /dev/nvme0n1...
   Creating partition on device /dev/nvme0n1...
   Creating physical volume on device /dev/nvme0n1...
   Extending volume group olares-vg with logic volume data on device /dev/nvme0n1...
   Disk extension completed successfully.
   
   id  LV    VG         LSize    Mountpoints
   1   data  olares-vg  <3.63t   /var,/olares
   2   root  olares-vg  100.00g  /
   3   swap  olares-vg  1.00g
   ...

Verify the extension

You can verify the storage increase in both terminal and UI.

In terminal

• Check the size of the /olares directory where data is stored to confirm expansion:

  df -h /olares

  Example output:

  Filesystem                  Size   Used  Avail Use% Mounted on
  /dev/mapper/olares--vg-root 1.8T   285G   1.4T  17% /olares

• Confirm if the new disk is now part of the olares--vg-data volume:

  lsblk | grep -v loop

  Example output:

  NAME                MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
  nvme0n1             259:0    0  1.9T  0 disk
  └─nvme0n1p1         259:2    0  1.9T  0 part
    └─olares--vg-data 252:2    0  3.6T  0 lvm  /olares /var
  nvme1n1             259:3    0  1.9T  0 disk
  ├─nvme1n1p1         259:4    0  512M  0 part /boot/efi
  └─nvme1n1p2         259:5    0  1.9T  0 part
    ├─olares--vg-root 252:1    0  100G  0 lvm  /
    └─olares--vg-swap 252:0    0    1G  0 lvm  [SWAP]

In UI

Open Dashboard from Launchpad and confirm that total system storage capacity has increased.

For full command usage and options, please refer to disk.