Hello,

I'm currently working on installing Ubuntu Server on a Fujitsu TX1330 M3 server I recently purchased. The setup is as follows:

2 x 1 TB HDD for the OS (I know, waste of space, but I don't want to put data on Seagate drives, bad experience)
2 x 6 TB HDD for data (WD Datacenter)

My plan is to run both pairs of HDD's in RAID 1 Linux softraid arrays, and install Ubuntu on the 1 TB array.

I've tried the instructions here: https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/servergu...ation.htmlwith the addition of creating a ESP partition which is not part of the raid array. As I understand, you can't RAID your GRUB

However, I do have a few questions:

Can I create two ESP partitions, one on each HDD, not in a RAID array, and manually install GRUB on the second one after the installation? To preserve boot capability when one HDD fails.
If this is indeed possible, should I label both partitions as "Use as: EFI System Partition", or will this confuse the installer?


So far I have had little success when I tried completing the installer with this method. After the installer finishes without errors, and tells me to reboot and remove the installation media, the server goes straight to BIOS. None of the HDD's show up as bootable media, so I cannot force it to boot from the HDD.

When I start a live version of Ubuntu, gparted tells me four times that the backup GPT partition table is corrupt. (one for each HDD) I have also tried yannubuntu's Boot Repair tool, which reports that GRUB has been repaired, but none of my drives shows up as bootable anyway. The log file for this repair can be seen at:

https://paste.ubuntu.com/25780582/

Does anybody have any tips for how I can make this boat anchor work as a proper server?
Thanks

SandMan874

Please post partitioning!

Can you post the Boot menu of your UEFI Bios?

Well, after multiple attempts, I have switched to legacy mode, but still no joy in getting Ubuntu to boot.

Attached are screenshots of gparted and fdisk as the partitions are now. Also screenshots of the boot menu and CSM.

I first set up GPT tables on all drives, and then created the 1 MiB partitions called /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 for GRUB. Then I started the Ubuntu server installation, where I created the swap and / RAID volumes, before finally creating two RAID 1 arrays for these two partitions. The GRUB partitions are not part of a RAID array.

The installation completed successfully, but the drives still won't show up as bootable in the BIOS. I also tried to reinstall GRUB on both drives using Yannubuntu's Boot Repair tool, which also completes successfully, but this did not help.

Is there anything that jumps out as incorrect in my method?


SandMan874

Attached Thumbnails

         

When you have a UEFI Bios, then you should have a /boot/efi partition with 500MB size.

Yes, I know that, and I have tried that quite a few times already.

I just want to close this thread by explaining that I finally got my server up and running thanks to some assistance on another forum.

Turns out that the most important thing was to disable the built-in RAID controller in the BIOS. As soon as I switched the controller from RAID mode to AHCI mode, all my disks showed up in the BIOS as standard SATA disks. From then on, the installation of Ubuntu server on a RAID 1 array was very simple, by following the instructions here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/servergu...tallation.html

With the addition of also creating a 550 MB EFI System Partition on each of the two drives. But NOT putting these partitions together in a RAID array.

Anyway, the problem has now been solved.

SandMan874