Re-installing an OS from your ISO image

Yandex BareMetal allows users to install and re-install a server OS from their own ISO images. In this way, you can install Linux or Windows on a server. However, if the OS being installed requires a license, you must use your own one.

When installing or re-installing an OS from your ISO image, you can freely redistribute the disk space available on the server.

Fault-tolerant disk partitioning requires experience and understanding of RAID and/or LVM technologies, so we recommend opting for OS installation from a public Yandex Cloud Marketplace image and using the installation method in this tutorial only if you need to make significant changes that are not available when installing from Cloud Marketplace.

For example, you may need installation from your ISO image if the required OS is not available in Cloud Marketplace, or if you need a non-standard disk partitioning configuration, UEFI/SecureBoot mode, root encryption, or other settings not available when installing from a Cloud Marketplace image.

This guide provides an example of installing Ubuntu 24.04 in UEFI mode on a BA-i201-H server with four HDDs from your own ISO image in [RAID10] disk configuration (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nested_RAID_levels#RAID_10) with LVM.

Run the server from your own ISO image in UEFI modeRun the server from your own ISO image in UEFI mode

To create a BareMetal image from your ISO image and run the server from it:

1. Download the required OS image to your local computer.

2. Upload the downloaded ISO image to Yandex Object Storage and create a BareMetal image from it.

3. Connect to the server's KVM console.

   Note

   You will perform all further actions in the KVM console window.

4. In the KVM console window, in the top menu, select Media → Virtual Media Wizard... or click the CD icon. In the window that opens:

   1. In the CD/DVD Media1 section, click Browse and select the previously uploaded ISO image of the OS in the user-iso directory.
   2. Click Connect CD/DVD.
   3. Check the Status section for the Virtual CD 1 device to make sure the Connected To field now indicates the path to the ISO image you selected and click Close.

   Depending on the server settings, you may need to force selection of bootable media or UEFI mode in BIOS. For example, on a server with a BA-i201-H configuration, you must boot from a CD drive in UEFI mode to install an OS in UEFI mode.

5. To start a server from the selected ISO image:

   1. Click Reboot to cdrom in the top-right corner of the KVM console.

   2. While the server is loading, press F11 or Del on the POST screen. The following message will appear on the screen: Entering Setup....

   3. Wait until the BIOS system menu opens and use the ← and → keys to navigate to the Security section.

   4. Using the ↑ and ↓ keys, select UEFI: AMI Virtual CDROM0 1.00 in the Boot Override section and press Enter.

      The server will restart again and boot from the virtual CD drive in UEFI mode.

   Warning

   Default BIOS settings are optimal for a BareMetal server. We do not recommend changing them.

Configure the basic OS settingsConfigure the basic OS settings

At this stage, you will configure the basic settings for the OS being installed. Perform all the above actions in the KVM console terminal window:

1. In the GRUB bootloader menu, select Try or Install Ubuntu Server and press Enter.

2. Select the system language:

   

   Navigate through the menu items using the ↑ and ↓ keys.

3. Select your keyboard layout, move the cursor to Done, and press Enter. Depending on the selected layout, you may need to set a keyboard shortcut to switch the input language.

4. Select the server installation option, either full or minimal:

   

5. Configure the network interface settings. By default, it is enough to leave DHCP for all interfaces:

   

6. If required, configure a proxy and a mirror address for repositories to install OS packages.

   For example, when using Ubuntu, you can specify the following mirror address: http://mirror.yandex.ru/ubuntu. Usually, you do not have to make any edits.

7. Select the Custom storage layout option. To do this, move the cursor to this menu item and press Space.

   

   We do not recommended using the default option the Ubuntu installer offers, i.e., installing the system on a single drive. This option does not provide fault tolerance, and if the disk selected for system files fails, you will need to re-install the OS at the very least.

Partition your disks and create the RAID10 arraysPartition your disks and create the RAID10 arrays

Disk partitioning is the most important stage of installing an OS. Disk subsystem performance, data storage reliability, server fault tolerance, and redundancy restoration speed in the event of failure all boil down to ensuring partitioning is correct and you selected the right partition configuration.

At this stage, you can create any disk configuration, from repeating the partitioning proposed when installing the OS from a Cloud Marketplace image to setting up LVM with encryption.

You will create the following partitions to continue installing the OS:

• /: OS кoot partition.

• /boot: Partition for the OS boot files.

• swap: Swap partition.

• /home: Partition for user home folders.

• /srv: Service data partition.

• ESP: UEFI system partition with a size of 1 GB.

  If you boot the server in Legacy mode, this will create a BIOS grub spacer system partition of 300 MB instead of the ESP partition.

  Note

  There is no need to manually create the ESP and BIOS grub spacer system partitions: they appear on the disk automatically when you select it as the primary or additional boot device.

To create a RAID10-level fault-tolerant disk array, you need at least four disks or disk partitions. RAID arrays are usually created from partitions of disk devices, so you first need to repartition all disks and create a partition table on each of them:

1. If the server already has an OS installed and the disks have already been partitioned, remove the current partitioning. If you rented the server without an operating system and have not installed the OS on it yet, skip this step and proceed to the next one.

   1. In the AVAILABLE DEVICES section, delete all disk partitions and RAID arrays on the server.

      To do this, use the ↑ and ↓ keys to select a partition or RAID, press Enter, select DELETE in the menu that appears, and confirm the deletion.

      To delete all partitions on the disk, move the cursor to the line with this disk’s name, press Enter, select Reformat, and confirm the deletion.

   2. Repeat the previous step for all partitions, disks, and RAID arrays displayed in the AVAILABLE DEVICES section.

      As a result, you should only have disk devices with unallocated disk space (free space) in the AVAILABLE DEVICES section:

      

2. Select your boot disks:

   1. Using the ↑ and ↓ keys, select any disk and press Enter.

   2. In the additional menu that appears on the right, select Use As Boot Device and press Enter.

      

      To install the bootloader, you must mark one disk as bootable, but to ensure fault tolerance, we recommend selecting at least two boot disks.

   3. Select another disk, press Enter, and select Add As Another Boot Device.

3. Create an identical set of partitions on each disk based on the expected disk space consumption. In this example, three separate partitions are created on the disks:

   1. Partition the first disk:

      1. Select the free space line of the first disk in the list, press Enter, and select Add GPT Partition in the additional menu that appears.
      2. In the form that opens, in the Size: field, set the size of the first partition to create: 4G.
      3. In the Format: field, select Leave unformatted.
      4. Move the cursor to Create and press Enter.
      5. Repeat the previous steps to create two more partitions on the first disk: one 2 GB in size, the other occupying all the space left after the first two partitions.

   2. Partition the remaining three server disks in the same way: the partition sizes on all four disks must match.

   

4. Build RAID arrays from the partitions created in the previous step:

   1. Move the cursor to the Create software RAID (md) menu item and press Enter. In the form that opens:

      1. In the RAID Level: field, select 10.
      2. Use the Space key to mark 4 GB partitions on all four disks.
      3. Move the cursor to Create and press Enter.

      

   2. Similarly, create a 10-level RAID array of 2-GB partitions and then, a 10-level RAID array of the largest partitions.

5. Create partitions for the server file system in the RAID arrays you got:

   1. Create a swap partition:

      1. Move the cursor to the md0 RAID array of 8 GB, press Enter, and select Format from the menu that appears.
      2. In the form that opens, select swap in the Format: field.
      3. Move the cursor to Done and press Enter.

   2. Create a /boot partition:

      1. Move the cursor to the md1 RAID array of 4 GB, press Enter, and select Format from the menu that appears.
      2. In the form that opens, leave ext4 in the Format: field; in the Mount: field, select /boot.
      3. Move the cursor to Done and press Enter.

      

6. From the md2 RAID array built from the largest partitions, create a vg0 LVM group:

   1. Create an LVM group:

      1. Move the cursor to the Create volume group (LVM) menu item and press Enter.
      2. In the form that opens, use Space to mark the md2 array in the Devices: field.
      3. Move the cursor to Create and press Enter.

   2. Create an lv-root logical volume for the root partition:

      

      1. Under AVAILABLE DEVICES, in the section with the vg0 device, move the cursor to the free space line, press Enter, and select Create Logical Volume in the menu that opens.
      2. In the Name: field, enter lv-root.
      3. In the Size: field, set the volume size to 100G.
      4. In the Format: field, leave the ext4 value; in the Mount: field, leave the / value.
      5. Move the cursor to Create and press Enter.

      

   3. Create logical volumes in the same way:

      • lv-home, 512 GB in size with a /home mount point for user home folders.
      • lv-srv, 1 TB in size with an /srv mount point for service data.

      

   You can use the space left unallocated in the vg0 LVM group to expand existing logical volumes or create new ones later.

Alternative disk partitioning optionsAlternative disk partitioning options

The above disk partitioning is an example. In each case, you need to partition disk space based on the projected usage scenarios for the server. In addition, disk partitioning will vary depending on the boot mode set on the server: Legacy or UEFI.

Here are some other possible server disk partitioning configurations:

Installing system filesInstalling system files

Once you have created the required disk partitioning on your server, you can start installing the system files.

1. To continue the installation, move the cursor to Done and press Enter.

   In the Confirm destructive action form that appears, click Continue to confirm your consent to format the disks.

2. Set the hostname, create the first user, configure SSH if required, and install additional software:

   

   Wait for the installation of the OS files on the server to complete.

3. Disable the virtual CD drive in the KVM console:

   1. In the KVM console window, in the top menu, select Media → Virtual Media Wizard... or click the CD icon.
   2. In the window that opens, click Disconnect under CD/DVD Media1.
   3. Click Close.

4. To restart the server to the new OS, move the cursor to Reboot Now and press Enter:

   

5. Configure the server to boot in UEFI mode:

   1. While the server is booting, press F11 or Del on the POST screen. The following message will appear on the screen: Entering Setup....

   2. Wait until the BIOS system menu opens and use the ← and → keys to navigate to the Boot section.

   3. Select 1st Boot Device, press Enter, and select UEFI: Built-in EFI Shell.

   4. Select UEFI Boot Drive BBS Priorities and press Enter. In the menu that opens:

      1. In the 1st Device field, press Enter and select any of the UEFI OS fields.
      2. Press Esc to return to the previous menu.

   5. Make sure the value in the 1st Boot Device field has changed to UEFI OS.

   6. Use the ← and → keys to navigate to the Save & Exit section.

   7. Select Save Changes and Reset, press Enter, and confirm the action by pressing Yes.

As a result, the server will boot into the new OS in UEFI mode.