Installing Debian

Come with a bootable USB stick with Debian Squeeze installed (as of 2010-05-25, all physical servers are being installed with squeeze and will be creating KVM virtual servers).

To create a USB installer for Debian Squeeze...

• Download ​boot.img.gz.
• Plug in USB stick (don't mount) - run dmesg | tail to figure out which device (e.g. sdb)
• zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/DEVICE
• mount /dev/DEVICE /mnt/
• Download ​netinst ISO
• Copy ISO image to /mnt/
• Download BNX drivers (optional): aptitude download firmware-bnx2x; aptitude download firmware-bnx2
• Copy the debs to /mnt/
• umount /mnt
• Done!

Initial steps

• Plug in monitor and keyboard
• Boot machine while USB stick is inserted
• Enter Bios/Setup. Specify that Bios should output to serial console and make our standard bios changes
• Ensure that server skips errors like no keyboard attached
• Reboot and select Boot Options and choose to boot to USB stick
• Choose Expert install
• For DNS servers, use:

  Telehouse: 209.51.163.29 209.51.169.83 
  XO: 209.234.253.168
  

• When prompted for component to use, include all of them to be safe (but be sure to include the SSH server one)
• When given the option - choose to continue your installation via ssh - this will give you the ability to easily set and record pass phrases
• Drive partioning. If you are using 2TB disks or greater... Open a new ssh session and choose to switch to console.

  parted /dev/sda mklabel gpt
  parted /dev/sdb mklabel gpt
  
  parted /dev/sda unit s mkpart biosboot 8192 16383 
  parted /dev/sda set 1 bios_grub on 
  
  parted /dev/sdb unit s mkpart biosboot 8192 16383 
  parted /dev/sdb set 1 bios_grub on 
  
  parted /dev/sda unit s mkpart boot 16384 1015807
  parted /dev/sda set 2 raid on 
  
  parted /dev/sdb unit s mkpart boot 16384 1015807
  parted /dev/sdb set 2 raid on 
  
  parted /dev/sda unit s mkpart pv 1015808 -1 
  parted /dev/sda set 3 raid on 
  
  parted /dev/sdb unit s mkpart pv 1015808 -1 
  parted /dev/sdb set 3 raid on 
  

When done, type:

parted /dev/sda unit s p
parted /dev/sdb unit s p

And you should get:

0 sittingbull:~# parted /dev/sda unit s p
Model: ATA Hitachi HUA72303 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 5860533168s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start     End          Size         File system  Name      Flags
 1      8192s     16383s       8192s                     biosboot  bios_grub
 2      16384s    1015807s     999424s                   boot      raid
 3      1015808s  5860533134s  5859517327s               pv

0 sittingbull:~#

You should be able to return to the graphical installer to do the rest.

For the record - here's how you can do it by hand:

RAID:

mdadm --create --raid-devices=2 --level=1 --metadata=1.0 --verbose /dev/md0 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2
mdadm --create --raid-devices=2 --level=1 --metadata=1.0 --verbose /dev/md1 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3

Now cryptsetup:

anna-install cryptsetup-udeb
cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/md1
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/md1 md1_crypt

pvcreate /dev/mapper/md1_crypt
vgcreate --name vg_nameofserver0 /dev/mapper/md1_crypt
lvcreate --name swap --size 1GB vg_nameofserver0
etc.

Choose manual partition in the Debian Installer. Then:

• Choose "Congifure software RAID" (skip step if one disk system)
  • Choose "Create MD Device"
  • Choose RAID1
  • Number of active devices: 2
  • Number of spare devices: 0
  • Now select the second partition on each device.
  • Click Continue. Repeat for third partition on each device.
  • When you are done, click Finish. Now you are back at the partition menu.
• Scroll down to the raid devices (or apply straight to your partitions if it's a one disk system). Modify the 512 MB RAID device: Filesystem: ext3, mount on /boot
• Encrypt the larger, remaining device. Give password to Jamie.
• Choose "Congifure LVM" (selecting the device encrypted in the previous step)
• Create a volume group called vg_nameofserver0
• Create logical volumes in this volume group based on your needs. Suggestions: 3GB for /, 1GB swap.
• After returning to the main disk config menu, click on each logical volume that you create and specify how it should be formatted and mounted.
• Enter root password. Give to Jamie.
• Create a second user for yourself.
• Do not install the server package or the base package - deselect all of them.