I’m looking to create a unified view of data across multiple Debian-based devices without fully replicating the data. My current setup includes:

• Main computer with one HDD
• Server with four drives
• A couple of Raspberry Pis

I want a folder on each device that provides access to the contents from all drives, but without actually copying or syncing the data to each device. I’m aiming for a solution that allows browsing and accessing all files from any device while keeping the actual data in its original location.

I’ve been looking into using a combination of MergerFS and SSHFS. The idea is to use SSHFS to mount remote directories and then use MergerFS to combine these mounts with local directories into a single view. However, I’m not sure if I should merge the drives in the server and share the merged folder with all other systems or I should share each drive with each system and merge them in there. Is this the best approach or are there better alternatives?

I want to avoid solutions like Syncthing, Dropbox, or Google Drive that would clone the entire data set to each device. I’m trying to avoid data duplication and save storage space on devices with smaller capacities.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the MergerFS + SSHFS approach, or if you have any other suggestions that might better fit my needs. Any insights, recommendations, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help!