This guide is based on a real WHM/cPanel server running AlmaLinux, where a DigitalOcean volume was added, mounted as /home2, used for cPanel accounts, and later expanded from 100 GB → 200 GB → 300 GB.

The goal is simple:

Add extra disk space to your WHM server and use it for hosting cPanel accounts without changing DNS, IPs, or moving to another server.

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What we were trying to fix

The server had:

16 GB RAM
8 vCPUs
480 GB main disk
Additional DigitalOcean volume
WHM/cPanel on AlmaLinux 8

The main disk was getting full, so we added a DigitalOcean volume. DigitalOcean automatically mounted it at:

/mnt/volume_blr1_01

But WHM/cPanel does not normally create hosting accounts there. For cPanel accounts, the practical mount point should be:

/home2

cPanel’s own WHM Basic Setup documentation explains that /home is the default home directory, and if more than one home directory is configured, cPanel can use the directory with the most free space for new accounts. It also says the additional home directory value must be a mount point.

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Part 1: Check the new disk

First, check what disk DigitalOcean attached:

lsblk -f
df -h

In our case, the extra disk was:

/dev/sda

It was formatted as:

ext4

And it was originally mounted at:

/mnt/volume_blr1_01

Also check the stable DigitalOcean disk path:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/ | grep -i DO_Volume

Example output:

scsi-0DO_Volume_volume-blr1-01 -> ../../sda

This stable path is better than using /dev/sda directly because /dev/sda can theoretically change after reboot.

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Part 2: Create /home2

Create the mount point:

mkdir -p /home2
chown root:root /home2
chmod 0711 /home2

Check it:

ls -ld /home2

Expected:

drwx--x--x root root /home2

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Part 3: Stop DigitalOcean from auto-mounting the disk somewhere else

This was the important issue in our case.

DigitalOcean/systemd had created an auto-mount unit that kept mounting the disk at:

/mnt/volume_blr1_01

Check for such a mount unit:

systemctl list-units --type=mount | egrep 'home2|mnt.*volume|sda'

We found:

mnt-volume_blr1_01.mount

Inspect it:

systemctl cat mnt-volume_blr1_01.mount

It showed:

Where=/mnt/volume_blr1_01
What=/dev/disk/by-uuid/...
Type=ext4

So this unit was overriding our intended /home2 mount.

Disable it:

systemctl disable --now mnt-volume_blr1_01.mount
systemctl daemon-reload

Confirm it is no longer active:

systemctl list-units --type=mount | grep volume_blr1_01 || echo "not active"

Expected:

not active

cPanel has a support article on changing the mount point of a disk drive. It also notes that some providers automatically mount new drives under /mnt/..., and that the server owner or system administrator must handle these OS-level mount changes.

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Part 4: Create a reliable systemd mount for /home2

Instead of relying only on /etc/fstab, we created a clean systemd mount unit.

Create:

nano /etc/systemd/system/home2.mount

Paste this, but replace the What= line with your actual DigitalOcean by-id path:

[Unit]
Description=Mount DO Volume at /home2

[Mount]
What=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0DO_Volume_volume-blr1-01
Where=/home2
Type=ext4
Options=defaults,nofail,_netdev

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and exit.

Now enable and start it:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now home2.mount

Verify:

findmnt /home2
df -h /home2

Expected:

/dev/sda   100G   ...   /home2

or, after resizing:

/dev/sda   299G   ...   /home2

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Part 5: Avoid duplicate mounts in /etc/fstab

Use either systemd mount or /etc/fstab, not both for the same mount.

If you had already added /home2 to /etc/fstab, comment that line:

cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
sed -i 's#^\(.*[[:space:]]/home2[[:space:]].*\)$#\# \1#' /etc/fstab

Check:

grep -n '/home2' /etc/fstab

It should show the /home2 line commented with #.

cPanel’s /etc/fstab guide explains that storage devices can be added to /etc/fstab for boot-time mounting, but this is an operating-system task, not something cPanel manages directly.

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Part 6: Configure WHM to recognize /home2

Go to:

WHM → Server Configuration → Basic WebHost Manager Setup

Set:

Default Home Directory: /home
Home Directory Prefix: home
Additional home directories: /home2
Use closest matching directory: Yes

Important distinction:

/home  = default home directory
home   = home directory prefix
/home2 = additional home directory mount point

Do not put /home2 in the Home Directory Prefix field.

cPanel’s support article on creating users on a different home directory explains that WHM has two relevant settings: the default location for new users’ home directories, and the additional home directory pattern. It also says that if multiple directories are available, the one with the most free space can be used automatically.

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Part 7: Move existing cPanel accounts to /home2

You do not need DNS changes.

The domain still points to the same server IP. Only the local file path changes from:

/home/username

to:

/home2/username

GUI method

Go to:

WHM → Account Functions → Rearrange an Account

Select the account and move it to /home2.

cPanel’s Rearrange an Account documentation says this tool changes which home directory stores an account, useful when a server has another hard drive. It also warns that scripts using hardcoded paths may need to be updated.

CLI method

Replace USERNAME with the actual cPanel username:

/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/homemove USERNAME /home2

Verify:

grep ^HOMEDIR /var/cpanel/users/USERNAME
df -h /home2/USERNAME

Expected:

HOMEDIR=/home2/USERNAME

In WHM → List Accounts, the partition should show:

/home2

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Part 8: Create new accounts directly on /home2

Sometimes WHM does not show a manual home directory field while creating an account. That is normal.

You can create an account directly on /home2 using CLI:

whmapi1 createacct domain=example.com username=user123 password='StrongPasswordHere' homedir=/home2

Or create normally and move it later:

/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/homemove user123 /home2

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Part 9: Resize the DigitalOcean volume later

In our case, the volume was increased:

100 GB → 200 GB → 300 GB

After resizing in the DigitalOcean panel, WHM still showed the old size until the Linux filesystem was expanded.

This is normal.

DigitalOcean’s documentation explains that after increasing a volume size, you must expand the filesystem so the operating system can use the extra space. It also recommends taking a snapshot before resizing and notes that volume size cannot be decreased later.

Step 1: Check what Linux sees

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT /dev/sda

If it shows the new size, continue.

If it still shows the old size, rescan:

echo 1 > /sys/class/block/sda/device/rescan
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT /dev/sda

Step 2: Expand the ext4 filesystem

Because our /home2 volume used ext4, we ran:

resize2fs /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0DO_Volume_volume-blr1-01

Then verify:

df -h /home2

Expected after 300 GB resize:

/dev/sda   299G   ...   /home2

DigitalOcean’s quickstart also states that after resizing a volume, ext4 filesystems should be expanded with resize2fs, while XFS filesystems use xfs_growfs.

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Part 10: Final health checks

After everything is done, run:

df -h | egrep '/$|/home2$'
findmnt /home2
systemctl status home2.mount --no-pager

Check account locations:

awk -F= '/^HOMEDIR/{print $2}' /var/cpanel/users/* | sed 's#/[^/]*$##' | sort | uniq -c

This will show how many accounts are on:

/home
/home2

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Common mistakes to avoid

1. Do not format an existing disk with data

Never run this on a disk that already contains accounts:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda

That destroys data.

Only format a brand-new empty disk.

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2. Do not leave the DigitalOcean auto-mount active

If the volume keeps going back to:

/mnt/volume_blr1_01

check:

systemctl list-units --type=mount | grep volume

Disable the old unit:

systemctl disable --now mnt-volume_blr1_01.mount
systemctl daemon-reload

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3. Do not confuse WHM fields

Correct:

Default Home Directory: /home
Home Directory Prefix: home
Additional home directories: /home2

Wrong:

Home Directory Prefix: /home2

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4. No DNS change is required

Moving an account from /home to /home2 does not change:

Domain
IP address
Nameserver
DNS zone
Mail routing

DNS changes are only needed if you change the server IP, move to another server, or change nameservers.

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Quick copy-paste version

Mount new DO volume as /home2

lsblk -f
ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/ | grep -i DO_Volume

mkdir -p /home2
chown root:root /home2
chmod 0711 /home2

systemctl list-units --type=mount | grep volume || true
systemctl disable --now mnt-volume_blr1_01.mount
systemctl daemon-reload

cat >/etc/systemd/system/home2.mount <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Mount DO Volume at /home2

[Mount]
What=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0DO_Volume_volume-blr1-01
Where=/home2
Type=ext4
Options=defaults,nofail,_netdev

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now home2.mount

findmnt /home2
df -h /home2

Move account to /home2

/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/homemove USERNAME /home2
grep ^HOMEDIR /var/cpanel/users/USERNAME
df -h /home2/USERNAME

Resize volume after increasing size in DigitalOcean

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT /dev/sda
echo 1 > /sys/class/block/sda/device/rescan
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT /dev/sda

resize2fs /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-0DO_Volume_volume-blr1-01
df -h /home2

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Useful official resources

• cPanel: Basic WebHost Manager Setup — home directory and additional home directory settings.
• cPanel: Create new users on a different home directory.
• cPanel: Change the mount point of a disk drive.
• cPanel: Add storage devices to /etc/fstab.
• cPanel: Rearrange an Account.
• DigitalOcean: Increase the size of Volumes Block Storage.
• DigitalOcean: Volume quickstart and filesystem expansion notes.