Adding additional storage to Qubes

[seshu]

Hi, I'm a Qubes newbie but coming along really well. I'm using 4.0.1 rc-1.

I had a question about what the process is to add new storage drives (ssd or hdd). Looking through the documentation I can see there are several docs that help but raised other questions. So here goes.

There is a doc to add SSD storage cache(https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/a08359c9-9eb0-4d1a-ad92-a8a9bc676ea6%40googlegroups.com) and one for Storing AppVMs on Secondary Drives (https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/secondary-storage/).

Question 1: What's the difference between these two? Or I do understand the second doc, but not sure what SSD storage cache is for?

Question 2: My main goal is to add more storage available to the entire system for it to use as it needs. This would be after initial install. It doesn't have to be specifically for AppVMs, etc. So, I wasn't sure how to do that.

Now, I'm currently setup on dual boot, I do realize the security concerns and since I'm just testing exploring now I'm only evaluating. I do have some data stored on the Win10 drives (hdd). So,

Question 3: is there a way to add those hdd's into the Qubes environment, let's say into the home directory of an AppVM so I can have access that way? I do realize the security holes this creates, so its not that I will ultimately operate this way. Maybe this question can be translated as, is it possible to add an ssd or hdd specifically for /home or user profile data?

Thanks again for all your help. It's been really fun getting back into linux and getting to know Qubes.

[awokd]

seshu wrote on 12/16/18 5:01 PM:

SSD storage cache can be used as a way to speed up your installation if
it's on a hard drive. That email was from 2015, but with current SSD
prices many people buy a large SSD and install on it instead.

https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/secondary-storage/ works if you want to
store an entire AppVM on a secondary drive. You can increase the private
storage size (the amount of drive space Qubes allows it to use) of any
AppVM in Qube Settings. So by putting AppVMs you know will be large on a
secondary drive and then increasing private storage size, that should
cover most of your needs. Qubes uses a relatively small amount of
storage for itself (20GB?) so most usage is within the AppVMs.

Another option is to use external storage, then qvm-block attach it to
AppVMs you want. You can also use qvm-block to attach internal block
devices that aren't mounted by Qubes- run qvm-block by itself to see
what's available.

[seshu]

Great. Thanks! this helps. I hadn't come across the qvm-block command, I'll research that.

I did install Qubes on a samsung 970 evo nvme 1TB so it is really fast and lots of space. I'm just trying to think about backup drives, or other drives I've had in my desktop for some time now.

Understanding how Qubes operates really causes me to think more about how I'd want to setup my system. Its very different then what I had used for Win10.

Thanks again!