Installation of Suse SLES 10 SP1 with software RAID and LVM
We will be installing SLES 10 SP1 from CD, the ISO's I downloaded from the Novell web site
Insert CD number 1 into the CD drive and boot your computer from the CD
The following screens will be displayed
"Language" - I selected "English (UK)"
"License Agreement" - Select "Yes, I Agree to the License Agreement"
"Installation Mode" - Select "New Installation"
"Clock and Time Zone" - For "region" I selected "Europe" and for "Time Zone" I selected "United Kingdom"
"Installation Settings" - Select "Expert", then "Partitioning"
"Suggested partitioning" - "Create custom partition setup"
"Preparing hard disk step 1" - Select "Custom partioning (for experts)"
Now in the - "Expert Partitioner screen", you should see your installed disks listed
The disks installed in my server are as follows
"/dev/sda 74.5GB"
"/dev/sdb 74.5GB"
Click on "Create" at the bottom of the screen
Then select a disk to partition
I selected "1 /dev/sda"
Click "ok"
In the next window select the Partition Type. I selected "Primary Partition". It's a good idea to select primary partitions if possible.
Click "ok"
At - "Create a Primary Partition on /dev/sda", we will create a RAID partition
Change the following options
Select "Do not format"
Change file system ID to "0xFD Linux RAID"
This first partition is going to be a 200M /boot partition, so for the "Size" select a "Start Cylinder" of "0" and an "End" of "+200M".
Continue in the same way for the swap partition and a partition whose size will be the rest of the disk.
The following exceptions apply to their creation. The swap partiton should be at least the same size as physical memory and possibly 1.5 or 2 times physical memory depending on the application to be run.
The final partition should be as big as the remaining capacity of the disk. We will be creating some smaller logical volumes in the partition later.After completing the partition creation and back at the "Custom partitioning (for experts)" window, click on "RAID" at the bottom of the window.
Then click on "Create RAID", this will take you to the "RAID Wizard Step 1" window.
At the question - "What type of RAID would you like to create?", select your prefered RAID level, if you only have two disks then select "RAID 1 mirroring" as this will provide redundancy.
The next screen - "RAID Wizard Step 2", double click on "/dev/sda1 203.9MB LinuxRAID" and "/dev/sdb1 203.9MB LinuxRAID" the RAID meta device md0 should then appear at the end of each line.
Click "Next" and at - "Choose Filesystem", select "Ext3"
At - "Choose Mount Point", select "/boot"
Do the same for the swap partition but this time the RAID meta device should be md1 and this time at - "Choose file system", select "swap", and the mount point will automatically change to swap
For the final and largest partition again do the same but this time the RAID meta device should be md2. This time select "Do not format" at the Format section.
At - "Mount Point", delete the entry so that the box is empty.
Click "Finish"
Back at the main window click "LVM" and then "Create a volume group"
Leave the choices at the default and click "OK"
Next double click on "/dev/md2 72.3GB MDRaid" and the volume group "system" previously defined should appear at the end of the line
Click "Next" and at the screen - "Logical Volume Manager: Logical Volumes" click "Add" then at - "Create Logical Volume" - "Logical Volume Name", type "rootlv"
At - "Size", type the size you want this logical volume to be. This will depend on whether you decide to have in addition the separate logical volumes /home, /var, /usr, /tmp, /opt etc. I choose 2GB here as I created these additional partitions.
At - "Filesystem", select either "reiser" or "Ext3"; I selected "Ext3"
At - "Mount point", select "/"
If you choose to create additional separate partitions as listed above (to be recommended) then follow a similar process to the one described above for the root logical volume.
Once all the logical volumes have been defined click "Finish" and again at the next screen click "Finish", his will take you back to the "Installation Settings" screen
We are almost ready to install the operating system, just click on - "Software" and select any additional software you may require.
At - "Confirm Installation", click "Yes"
The server will now install the operating system
Follow the screen prompts and change the CDs as required
Once the O/S has been installed follow the on screen prompts for additional configuration of the O/S, such as username and passwords, network information etc. If the server has access to the internet then it is advisable to install all the latest updates from Novell
And that`s it, check computers-it for information on how to configure additional services