Can I move my media files to a different partition on the server?

Question:

I have installed Centova Cast on a small partition on my server, and I want to place my media files on a different, large partition on the server. How can I do this?

Answer:

There are two ways to do this -- on a per-stream basis (meaning that you specify a different path for each stream), or on a server-wide basis (meaning that all of your streams' data is moved to another partition).

Per-Stream

Centova Cast resolves symbolic links in your media directories, so you can simply place a symbolic link in the stream's var/spool/media/ directory which points a different directory. So for example, you might do this:

Put all of your shared MP3 files in the directory:
/var/lib/mp3/
Create a symlink by running:
ln -s /var/lib/mp3 /home/centovacast/vhosts/USERNAME/var/spool/media/shared

This needs to be done on a per-stream basis. See below for moving all of your streams' media files to another partition.

Server-Wide

Warning: Please note that this is not officially supported nor recommended. Ideally you should install Centova Cast on the partition on which you wish to store your media files; if you have already installed Centova Cast but not created any streams, we strongly recommend simply reinstalling Centova Cast in the correct location. That said, if you have no other choice, the procedure below is your best option.

The Linux mount command supports a special option named --bind which allows you to "graft" any directory on your system into a new location. So for example, say you want to move your Centova Cast virtual host directory (/home/centovacast/vhosts/) onto your /var partition which has more disk space:

Temporarily disable your Centova Cast cron job in /etc/crontab by adding a hash symbol (#) to the beginning of any lines containing the word centovacast. For example, look for:
```
*/2 * * * * centovacast /home/centovacast/system/...
```
...and replace it with:
```
# */2 * * * * centovacast /home/centovacast/system/...
```
Stop all of your streams in Centova Cast, and make sure your users cannot start them again for the next few minutes. (Stopping your web server is a good way to do this.)
Copy the /home/centovacast/vhosts/ directory to its new home (for example, /var/centovacast/vhosts/), but be sure to maintain ownerships and permissions as follows:

mkdir -p /var/centovacast/vhosts/ cp -a /home/centovacast/vhosts /var/centovacast
Verify that the copy was successful by checking that /var/centovacast/vhosts/ contains the exact same files and directory trees as /home/centovacast/vhosts/. This step is critically important -- if the copy was unsuccessful, you'll permanently lose all of your clients' streams and media in the next step.
Remove the contents of the original /home/centovacast/vhosts/ directory.
```
rm -rf /home/centovacast/vhosts/*
```
If you're not 100% sure of what you're doing, you may want to simply move the contents of the vhosts/ directory to a new location instead, in case something goes wrong.
Finally, use the mount command with the --bind option to graft the new directory into place:
```
mount --bind /var/centovacast/vhosts /home/centovacast/vhosts
```
Because the mount command above is not persistent, it needs to be executed again every time your system boots up. The procedure for doing this varies depending on your Linux distribution, but typically adding the mount command to /etc/rc.local (or /etc/rc.d/rc.local) will accomplish it.

If you are an experienced systems administrator, you can alternately add a line such as the following to /etc/fstab instead:
```
/home/centovacast/vhosts   /var/centovacast/vhosts   none   bind
```
This will ensure that the /home/centovacast/vhosts/ directory is mounted automatically at boot time.

At this point, the contents of /home/centovacast/vhosts/ should appear identical to the contents of the /var/centovacast/vhosts/ directory. You should be able to re-instate your cron job by reverting the changes you made in step 1, re-start all of your streams, and allow your clients to access Centova Cast again.

It is important to realize that, as a result of the mount command above, /home/centovacast/vhosts is now a shortcut to /var/centovacast/vhosts. If you delete a file from /home/centovacast/vhosts, it will also be deleted from /var/centovacast/vhosts, and so-on. Don't make the mistake of accidentally deleting the contents of /home/centovacast/vhosts, thinking it's no longer needed!

NOTE: This article is for Centova Cast v2 only; an alternate version exists for Centova Cast v3.