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)
Now we need to repeat the creation of partitions for the second hard disk ( /dev/sdb ). There shouldn't be any existing partitions here so we won't need to delete them first.
sudo fdisk /dev/sdb #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) ..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
