Installing Software Raid (MDAMD) on the Appliance

On the grub boot loader do

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

Continue as usual until the partition 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 (instructions not included here)

sudo fdisk /dev/sda
   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