How to Move /var to Separate Partition

Prerequisites

Before moving /var, make sure you have:

• SSH access to your VPS
• Root or sudo privileges
• Unused disk space or separate disk
• Backup of all data

Step 1: Create New Partition

Connect to your VPS:

ssh hxroot@YOUR_SERVER_IP -p 22

Check available disks:

lsblk
sudo fdisk -l

Create partition (example adding 10GB to /dev/sdb):

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

Follow prompts to create a single partition (n, p, 1, Enter, Enter, w).

Format the new partition:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

Step 2: Mount New Partition Temporarily

sudo mkdir /mnt/newvar
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/newvar

Step 3: Copy /var Contents to New Partition

sudo rsync -avx /var/ /mnt/newvar/

Step 4: Backup Current /var and Mount New

sudo mv /var /var.old
sudo mkdir /var
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /var

Step 5: Auto-mount at Boot

Get UUID of new partition:

sudo blkid /dev/sdb1

Add to /etc/fstab:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

UUID=your-uuid-here /var ext4 defaults 0 2

Step 6: Verify and Clean Up

Reboot:

sudo reboot

After reboot, check mount:

df -h /var

Remove old /var:

sudo rm -rf /var.old

Alternative: Using LVM (More Flexible)

If your VPS uses LVM, extend and create new logical volume:

sudo lvcreate -L 10G -n var VolumeGroup
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/VolumeGroup/var
sudo mount /dev/VolumeGroup/var /mnt/newvar
rsync -avx /var/ /mnt/newvar/
sudo umount /var
sudo mount /dev/VolumeGroup/var /var
# Add to fstab