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ReferenceStorage

Data volume

The second disk as one ext4 partition, mounted at /srv by UUID, holding stacks, container data and backups.

By Brian Mars · Verified 17 Oct 2026 · Part 1 of the devbox build

Names and addresses are placeholders. The list says what each one stands for.

What it does here

Everything that matters lives on /srv: compose files, container data, the Docker image store, and local backup staging. The OS disk can be reinstalled without touching any of it.

From the manual

Canonical setup

One GPT partition, an ext4 filesystem, and an fstab line that mounts it by UUID. Device names like /dev/sdb can change between boots; UUIDs don't.

Partition, format, find the UUID
sudo parted /dev/nvme0n1 --script mklabel gpt mkpart primary ext4 0% 100%
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L data /dev/nvme0n1p1
sudo blkid /dev/nvme0n1p1

Upstream: fstab on the Debian wiki.

Edited for this build

In this build

  1. Mounted at /srvEvery later card assumes this path.
  2. noatimeReads don't trigger a write.
  3. Three top-level folders/srv/stacks for compose files (owned by you), /srv/data for container data, /srv/backups for local backup staging.
  4. The device is nvme0n1On this box the data drive is NVMe. Use your own name from lsblk.

If the drive already has a full-disk partition from an earlier life, blkid shows it, and you can skip parted and format that partition.

/etc/fstab
sudo mkdir -p /srv
echo 'UUID=<the-uuid-from-blkid>  /srv  ext4  defaults,noatime  0  2' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo mount -a && df -h /srv
Layout, after the mount succeeds
sudo mkdir -p /srv/stacks /srv/data /srv/backups
sudo chown -R youruser:youruser /srv/stacks
Where it breaks

Seams

Where this meets the rest of the build. Each one leads with what you will actually see.

fstab meets a placeholder

Symptomcan't find UUID

The placeholder went into fstab instead of the real UUID. Paste the value blkid printed and run mount -a again.

A bad fstab line meets boot

Symptomthe box stops in emergency mode on reboot

A line that can't mount holds up boot. That's why mount -a runs before any reboot: it fails the same way while you can still fix it.

mkdir meets an unmounted mountpoint

Symptomfolders you made are gone after mounting

Folders created before the mount sit on the OS disk, hidden underneath it. Create the layout only after df -h /srv shows the data drive.

Verify

Checks
findmnt /srv          # the data drive, ext4, noatime
df -h /srv            # the data drive's size, not the OS disk's
ls -ld /srv/stacks    # owned by youruser
Corrections and updates
  1. 17 Oct 2026First written. Verified on Debian 13.6.