The simplest way to have additional storage available for your Ubuntu Linux VM is to mount the CIFS home directory space for your netID. This will not disturb your existing Linux filesystem and will allow your VM to access the same directory space described you can mount to your Mac or Windows machines described here:
- https://oit.duke.edu/what-we-do/applications/cifs
- https://oit.duke.edu/help/articles/cifs-home-directories-and-web-spaces-how-connect-windows

How to do this:

1.) On your Linux VM, make sure that the CIFS client is installed by running these commands:

     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get install cifs-utils -y

2.) create a directory in the Linux filesystem where the external CIFS storage will be mounted(in their example /srv/homedir):

 sudo mkdir /srv/homedir

3.) tell Linux to mount your home directory with a command like this:

     sudo mount -t cifs -o username=NETID,password=PASSWORD,domain=WIN //homedir.oit.duke.edu/users/l/lastname /srv/homedir

To mount your CIFS home directory you will need to make a few changes to the example mount command above:

  • replace NETID in the example above with your netID
  • replace PASSWORD in the example with the password for your netID
  • change the CIFS path in the example above to end in the first letter of your netID and then your netID. If your netID was 'smith001' the path would be //homedir.oit.duke.edu/users/s/smith001
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