Server Build Checklist
Preliminaries
Check for blown caps - Examine all of the capacitors
Check battery - Confirm that the CMOS battery is at least 3 volts
Boot Process - Ensure that the server boots properly in the following ways:
- Boots from CD - use an Ubuntu Live CD, leave Ubuntu running for next step
- Boots automatically after power loss - while still in Ubuntu from the previous step, unplug all power cords (and the keyboard for the next step) from the server to simulate a sudden power loss. It should reboot automatically - if not, check BIOS settings.
- Boots without keyboard - the server may report a "Keyboard failure" error - this is okay as long it boots successfully without human intervention, such as "press key X to continue..."
RAID & LVM Setup (Build ONLY)
Install Debian Squeeze - Boot to network and install Debian Squeeze to local disks, choose hostname, leave domain name as “fglan”
Setup Software RAID
Partition Disks:
- Create small partition (400-500M) on each device
- primary partition at the beginning of the drive
- use as “physical volume for RAID”
- set as bootable
- Create large partition (all remaining space) on each device
- primary, not bootable
Setup RAID for small partitions: RAID1 (bootable) with the number of devices equal to number of disks
Setup RAID for large partitions:
- For 2-3 disks:Setup RAID1, with number of devices equal to number of disks
- For 4+ disks:Setup RAID6, with number of devices equal to number of disks
Configure LVM - configure larger RAID1 or RAID6 array as LVM volume
- Create Logical Volume Group with same name as hostname
- Select Large RAID array as LVM Volume
- create volume (4G) named root (mounted at /, ext3 filesystem)
- create volume (1G) named swap (use as swap)
- create volume (remaining) named srv (mounted at /srv, ext3 filesystem)
- Debian Wiki Guide to Software RAIDs: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/SoftwareRaidRoot
- Wikipedia RAID article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
Diagnostics & Databases
- Boot from local disk(s)
- Test USB ports (front and back),
- Test video ports (front and back),
- Test network ports - at terminal:
ifconfig eth0 up
,ifconfig eth1 up
, thentail -f /var/log/syslog
, and when you plug and unplug the ethernet cable, you should see reasonable printouts. Ctrl-C to stop thetail
command. - QC Only: Remove any SATA/SAS drives and give them to your Instructor
- Run printme:
- Boot from network
- Select printme from the network boot menu
- Log in as guest
- Open a terminal
- Run printme
- Answer all the questions and record anything else noteworthy in the notes section
Fill out the Server Specs sticker based on whether you are doing Build or QC:
- For BUILD:
- Put System ID on server specs sticker
- Processor speed (GHz) and type (Xeon, Opteron, Core 2, Other)
- Number of physical processors and number of cores per processor
- Number of RAM slots
- Number of included RAM sticks with their type, speed, and size
- Number of hard drive bays and their interfaces (IDE, SCSI, SATA, SAS)
- Number and size of included hard drives
- Do not print! Instead, put your Volunteer ID on a piece of tape on the system
- For QC:
- Confirm the accuracy of information already on the Specs sticker
- The total amount of installed RAM
- Number and size of included hard drives
- Write the System ID# on a Server Tag sticker (small labels marked S1, S2, etc.) and stick it to the front face of the chassis.
- Print the printme, write the number from the Server Tag in the upper right-hand corner of the printme, and give it to your instructor.
- Move the system to the Server Build KVM and run Memtest, if it hasn't already been done.
- Consult your Instructor for a new project!