BIOS Setup
1) Set the server on Legacy mode
These are the steps to set the server on Legacy Mode.
- At the boot screen press F9
- Choose the "System Configuration" option.
- Choose "BIOS/Plataform Configuration (RBSU)"
- Choose "Boot Options"
- Choose "Boot Mode"
- Change to "Legacy Bios Mode"
- Press F10 and reboot the server.
2) Disable the RAID Controller
These are the necessary steps to disable the Dynamic Smart Array B140i Controller:
- Reboot the server.
The server restarts and the POST screen appears. - Press F9.
The System Utilities screen appears. - Select System Configuration → BIOS/Platform Configuration (RBSU) → System Options → SATA Controller Options → Embedded SATA Configuration, and then press Enter.
- Select Enable SATA AHCI Support, and then press Enter.
- Press F10 to save the selection.
- Press Y to save the changes.
The Change saved confirmation prompt appears. - Select Exit and resume system boot, and press Enter.
Reference: http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04430543
Installing the OS
The OS that must be installed is: Debian 7.0 64bits
Enter on Expert Installer mode on the boot menu
- Select "Advanced options"
- Select "Expert install"
Partitioning Details
- Select "Partition disks"
- Choose an installation step: Detect disks
- Partitioning method: Manual
- Select each device (sda, sdb, etc...) to create new empty (GPT) partition Table
- Create new empty partition table on this device? Yes
- Partition table type: gpt
PS: Repeat the procedure for every other device.
On each device create primary "Reserved BIOS boot area" partition with 1 MB
- Select the available FREE SPACE on each device
- Select: Create a new partition
- New partition Size: 1 MB
- Location for the new partition: Beginning
- Partition settings: Use as "Reserved BIOS boot area"
- Partition settings: Done setting up the partition
PS: Repeat the procedure for every other device
On each device create a "Physical volume for RAID" partition with the available FREE SPACE for LVM
- Select the available FREE SPACE on each device
- New partition Size: (use the default)
- Location for the new partition: Beginning
- Partition settings: Use as "Physical volume for RAID"
- Partition settings: Done setting up the partition
PS: Repeat the procedure for every other device
Configure software RAID
- Software RAID configuration actions: Create MD device
- Sofware RAID device type: RAID 1
- Number of active devices for the RAID1 array: 2 (default)
- Numbe of space devices for RAID1 array: 0 (default)
- Active devices for the RAID1 array: /dev/sda2 and /dev/sdb2
- Software RAID configuration actions: Finish
Configure the Logical Volume Manager
- Write changes to disks and configure LVM: Yes
- LVM configuration action: Create volume group
- Volume group name: debian
- Devices for the new voume group: /dev/md0
- Write changes to disks and configure LVM: Yes
- LVM configuration action: Create logical volume
- Volume group: debian
- Logical volume name: root
- Logical volume size: 50GB
- LVM configuration action: Create logical volume
- Volume group: debian
- Logical volume name: swap
- Logical volume size: 1GB
- LVM configuration action: Create logical volume
- Volume group: debian
- Logical volume name: boot
- Logical volume size: 500MB
- LVM configuration action: Create logical volume
- Volume group: debian
- Logical volume name: data
- Logical volume size: (use the default value to allocate all the available FREE SPACE)
- LVM configuration action: Finish
- Select partition #1 on "LVM VG debian, LV boot" device
- Partition settings: Use as "EXT3"
- Partition settings: Mount point "/boot"
- Partition settings: Done setting up the partition
- Select partition #1 on "LVM VG debian, LV data" device
- Partition settings: Use as "EXT4"
- Partition settings: Mount point "/data"
- Partition settings: Done setting up the partition
- Select partition #1 on "LVM VG debian, LV root" device
- Partition settings: Use as "EXT4"
- Partition settings: Mount point "/"
- Partition settings: Done setting up the partition
- Select partition #1 on "LVM VG debian, LV swap" device
- Partition settings: Use as "swap area"
- Partition settings: Done setting up the partition
- Select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk"
- Go back to the menu and resume partitioning?: No
- Do you want to return to the partitioning meny?: No
- Write the changes to disks? Yes
Reference: http://kudzia.eu/b/2013/04/installation-of-debian-wheezy-on-mdadm-raid1-gpt/