Solving “No Space Left on Device” with a Little Bit of AWS Trick

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Today, my Ubuntu server started complaining:

Discord: “Low disk space — only a 3 gigabytes left.”

Some of my data was filling up fast, for the sake of this article, let’s just assume it was GitLab backups. (Yes, I know, nobody keeps backups on the same server — this is just an example!)

Now, upgrading the server by adding more disk space was one option. But then I remembered something:

I had free AWS credits just sitting there.

So I thought: “Why not use some space as required instead of paying monthly?”

That’s when I stumbled onto s3fs, a magical little tool that lets you mount an S3 bucket as if it were a local folder.

Suddenly, my tiny server had access to petabytes of storage, all for free (well, until the credits run out).

Here’s how I did it.

Step 1: Install s3fs

On Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install s3fs -y

Step 2: Add AWS Credentials

s3fs needs your AWS keys. I stored them safely in ~/.passwd-s3fs:

echo "AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID:AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY" > ~/.passwd-s3fs
chmod 600 ~/.passwd-s3fs

This file acts like your magic key to S3.

Step 3: Create a Mount Point

This is where my S3 bucket would show up:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/gitlab_backups

Step 4: Mount the Bucket

Then the fun part — connecting S3 like a hard drive:

s3fs your-aws-bucket /mnt/gitlab_backups \
  -o passwd_file=/home/ubuntu/.passwd-s3fs \
  -o url=https://s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com \
  -o endpoint=ap-south-1 \
  -o use_path_request_style \
  -o allow_other

✨ Boom! Suddenly /mnt/gitlab_backups had virtually unlimited space.

Step 5: Verify

df -h | grep s3fs

Output:

Yep, that’s 64 petabytes available (S3 fakes this number, but still — it felt like Christmas).

Step 6: Allow Other Users (Optional)

By default, only the user who mounted can access it. I edited /etc/fuse.conf and added:

user_allow_other

Then remounted with -o allow_other so my GitLab jobs could write backups there too.

Step 7: Unmount & Cleanup

When done:

sudo umount /mnt/gitlab_backups

And if I ever ditch this setup:

sudo apt-get remove --purge s3fs -y

The Payoff

Instead of upgrading my VPS or deleting old backups, I redirected them all to S3.

My server now feels light and fast, while AWS handles the heavy lifting.

It’s like having a tiny flat with an infinite basement.

I just keep dumping boxes down there, and somehow there’s always more room.

Now whenever someone complains about “disk full” on their server, I can tell them:

“Don’t fight for space. Just borrow AWS’s basement.”

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