HP Microserver Gen8 / modified bootloader for ODD bay plus possibe move from Raid 5 to 6?

BTRFS
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Here are the (very) detailed steps,
prerequisite is: OS already installed on the ODD disk

A) Prepare bootable sdcard

  • I used Rufus on Windows to format a sd-card as FreeDos bootable card
    This means, just start Rufus, select the sd-card drive and press “start”

B) Remove additional hard disks from microserver

  • Disconnect microserver power cable
  • Remove all disks from microserver, except the one connected to ODD
  • Insert the formatted sdcard into the microserver slot
  • Reconnect microserver power cable

C) Check sdcard is bootable

  • power on the microserver and let it boot -> should boot from sdcard
  • If you used Rufus+FreeDos, it will show you the FreeDos prompt: C:>

D) Boot from ODD drive

  • use Ctrl+Alt+Canc to reboot the microserver
  • wait until it shows “F11 -> Boot menu”, then press F11
  • wait for “Please Choose one of the Following Default Boot Override Options:” and then press “5” (One Time Boot to HDD)
  • Now the microserver should boot from the ODD drive

E) Install GRUB on the sdcard

  • login as root
  • the sdcard should be listed as /dev/sdb, check it executing: "mount dev/sdb1 /mnt; ls /mnt; umount /dev/sdb1"
    If you used Rufus+FreeDos, the output should be something like:
    AUTOEXEC.BAT autorun.ico autorun.inf COMMAND.COM CONFIG.SYS KERNEL.SYS LOCALE System Volume Information
  • execute the command: "grub-install /dev/sdb"
    the output should be something like:
    Installing for platform i386-pc
    Install completed, no errors reported
  • execute the command: "update-grub2"
    the output should be something like:
    Found linux image XXXX
    Found initrd image YYYY
    Found freeDos on /dev/sdb1

F) Check sdcard boots into ODD drive

  • execute the command: “shutdown -r now” to reboot
  • the microserver should boot from the sdcard and jump to the ODD drive
  • login as root
  • execute the command: “shutdown now” to power off the microserver

G) Reinstall additional hard disks

  • Disconnect microserver power cable
  • reinstall data hard disks
  • Reconnect microserver power cable

H) Check sdcard boots into ODD drive even with additional hard disks

  • power on
  • again, the microserver should boot from the sdcard and jump to the ODD drive

Regards,
Andrea

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