Installing Software Raid (MDAMD) on the Appliance

First, you will need to download

open.intrahealth.org/livecd.iso

and burn it to a USB stick:

[Ubuntu Start Menu]
[System]
[Administration]
[Startup Disk Creator]

No boot the appliance with the USB Disk inserted. Note, you may have to go into the BIOS and select that the USB boots before the hard drives.

Booting

At the beginning of the boot is the boot menu ( RUB boot loader) where you need to do:

[F6] (Other Options)
Select to Disable dmraid
[Esc]
Choose to install Ubuntu/iHRIS

Setting Up Partitions

Continue as usual until the partition disks screen

[Ctrl]-[Alt]-[F1]  will take you to a prompt

Here you do

sudo apt-get install mdadm

You will need to create partitions via fdisk. If iHRIS has been installed on the appliance before, partitions may already exist. In this case we will need to remove them first

sudo fdisk /dev/sda
 #(Optional: Removing existing partitions)
   p (print the partition table -- you should see something like the following but with different numbers)
        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
       /dev/sda1   *           1       18662   149902483+  83  Linux
       /dev/sda2           18663       19457     6385837+   5  Extended
       /dev/sda5           18663       19457     6385806   82  Linux swap / Solaris
      (we want now to remove each of these partitions, 1 2 and 5)
   d (delete partition)
   1 (select partition 1 to delete)
   d (delete partition)
   2 (select partition 1 to delete)
   d (delete partition)
   5 (select partition 1 to delete)
   
 #Creating new partitions
   n  (new partition)
   p  (primary)
   1 (partition 1)
   1 (first cylinder)
   9242 (last cylinder)
   n  (new partition) 
   p  (extended)
   2 (partition 2)
   9243 (first cylinder)
   9729 (last cylinder)
   n    (new parition)
   l    (logical partition)
   9243 (first cylinder)
   9729 (last cylinder)
   t (set partition type)
   5 (parition 5)
   82 (swap)
   p (print to make sure everything matches below)
   w  (write and exit)

Repeat for /dev/sdb

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
..blah blah..

and the partitions should be identical:

/dev/sda1 start 1 end 9242 id 83 (linux)
/dev/sda2 start 9243 end 9728 id 5 (extended)
/dev/sda5 start 9243 end 9728 id 82 (swap)
/dev/sdb1 start 1 end 9242 id 83 (linux)
/dev/sdb2 start 9243 end 9728 id 5 (extended)
/dev/sdb5 start 9243 end 9728 id 82 (swap)

Now assemble the software raid array

sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
sudo mdadm --create /dev/md1 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda5 /dev/sdb5

on success it should say "mdadm: array /dev/md0 started"

To return to installed:

[Alt]-[F7]

From the partition manager thing, click "Back" and then "Forward" so that is will rescan the disks

Select 'Specify the partitions manually'
Click "Forward"
Right click on /dev/md0 and create a new partition table
Under /dev/md0 you should see "free space".  Right click and use as "ext3" with mount point "/"
Right click on /dev/md1 and create a new partition table
Under /dev/md1 you should see "free space".  Right click and use as swap
Click "Forward"

Automatic boot on failure

edit this file /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/mdadm change "BOOT_DEGRADED=false" to "BOOT_DEGRADED=true"

LCD Menu

sudo usblcd spash /home/lcdmenu/bin/splash.txt

After rebooting, maybe modify /etc/fstab and set

 /dev/md0 to "relatime" instead of defaults

Background

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SoftwareRAID#Formatting