Setup RAID 1 OS Disk on Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS

Posted Feb 24, 2024

By Febryandana 3 min read

Environment

Component	Value
Hostname	ubuntu22
OS	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Specification	2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM
Boot Disk	2 x 32 GB
IP Address	DHCP
UEFI/Secure Boot	Supported
User/Pass	ubuntu/password123

All is done in Hyper-V virtual machine on Windows 11, any configuration setup is the same as baremetal installation with some name changes.
Using Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine to enable UEFI and Secure Boot support

Setup

Choose Try or Install Ubuntu Server

1. Select Language

Choose your desired installation language:

2. Continue Without Updating Installer

Skip updating installer to minimize installation time:

3. Keyboard Layout & Variant

Select desired keyboard layout for installation:

4. Choose Ubuntu Server for Type of Install

Choose standard Ubuntu Server, unless you know what you are doing with minimized ubuntu server

5. Edit Network

For this time, we will just use DHCP client to get IP Address. If your network doesn’t have DHCP server or you want to setup IP Address manually, select the NIC name and edit it to match your preferences:

6. Skip Proxy Address

We don’t have proxy server and not behind proxy network, so we can skip it. Unless your server is behind proxy or need to access proxy, then you should configure it:

7. Configure Ubuntu Repository Mirror

Use nearest Ubuntu Repository Mirror server to reduce latency and increase download speed:

8. Select Custom Storage Layout for Storage Configuration

Now we starting to configure our disk for OS installation, select Custom storage layout to configure it by ourself:

9. Storage Configuration for Software RAID 1

Before configuration:

9.1. md0 for Boot disk

9.1.1. Create Boot Device

Select first boot disk (32 GB) from Available Devices and set Use As Boot Device
Select second boot disk (32 GB) from Available Devices and set Add As Another Boot Device
ESP Partition for EFI boot device (/boot/efi) will automatically created on both device (primary and backup) with recommended size of 1 GB, let’s leave it as is.
Storage summary

9.1.2. Create Unformatted partition for RAID

Select first boot disk -> Free space -> Add GPT Partition
Set Size=blank and Format=Leave unformatted
Select second boot disk -> Free space -> Add GPT Partition
Set Size=blank and Format=Leave unformatted
Storage summary

9.1.3. Create md0 RAID 1 Device

Select Create software RAID (md)
Set name to md0
Choose RAID Level 1 (mirrored)
Select both the 32 GB partition 2 and set as active
Click Create
Storage Summary

9.1.4. Create Storage Partition for md0

Select md0 free space -> Add GPT Partition. Do this twice (each for different partition)
First partition (boot) : Size=2G, Format=ext4, Mount=/boot
Second partition (root) : Size=blank (use max size available), Format=ext4, Mount=/
Storage Summary

9.2. Final Storage Partition Tree

Click Done
Click Continue to Confirm Destructive Action

10. Setup User Profile

Name : ubuntu
Hostname : ubuntu22
Username : ubuntu
Password : password123

11. Install OpenSSH Server

Check Install OpenSSH server
Set Import SSH identity to No
Enable Allow password authentication over SSH
We will import the SSH key and set only public key authentication later after installation completed