From Granizada

Server provisioning is the process of receiving a server from a manufacturer and preparing it for production.

Here are a few steps I have found useful. They should be followed in order.

Contents 1 Inventory 2 One-time Hardware Installation 3 Debian Install (Test Version) 4 Stress Testing 5 Installation 6 Further Testing 7 Very Last Items

Inventory

In a page specific to the new server write down everything you know after unpacking it:

• hardware numbers (serial, ethernet, other)
• paper numbers (warranty number, order number, other)

Look at the shipping list and compare the installed components. By looking at BIOS and booting a recovery/probe CD such as Knoppix and running tools such as lshw, check:

• number and model of CPUs
• amount of RAM
• number of power supplies, ethernet cards
• number of disks and capacity
• are the rackmount rails and bolts present? Do they fit our racks (sigh.)

One-time Hardware Installation

• Disable network boot
• Enable serial console
• Disable shutdown on high temp (our monitoring should handle this, more gracefully)
• Configure hardware RAID
• Plug in UPS serial cable

Debian Install (Test Version)

This installation will be destroyed after testing.

Boot from a Debian Etch CD. Install all the server-looking options. Set up the repositories, and install any updates. Consider using a local package cache for speed and to save network traffic.

Basic tests:

• does networking work, for all network cards? Copy an ISO over each network card.
• does sdparm (assuming SATA drives) report sensible values?
• can you see all CPUs?
• does RAID work when you deliberately poweroff one drive while the machine is running?

Stress Testing

• apt-get install bonnie++, and run it as bonnie -m MACHINENAME -rRAMSIZE -u UNPRIVUSER. Omit -u if you are not root.
• When you have some numbers from bonnie, start several dd's from the DVD to /dev/null while bonnie is running. Ignore the numbers, this is just to give the bus a hard time.
• apt-get install cpuburn. You'll need a practice if this is the first time.
• cover the server with a blanket. Run all of the foregoing simultaneously while monitoring temp. Let it get very hot.
• run the {insert dan's favourite net stuff here}
• apt-get install memtester. Run it overnight, it doesn't have anything else to do.

Installation

• Follow these instructions for a minimal Etch Xen server. Unfortunately this does not yet cover LVM. Must fix that.
• With reference to the master server, follow these instructions to clone a package list.
• Copy across the master Xen image used to create all other Xen images on this server
• Install five new Xen DomU's using the xen-tools command xen-create-image --lvm --copy

Further Testing

• Unplug mains power and induce UPS failure. Does server shutdown gracefully beforehand?
• Shutdown and restart. Do the Xen babies come back where they were (ie, without rebooting?)

Very Last Items

• set final IP addresses, reboot and verify with ifconfig
• disable CD boot
• place serial-capable recovery CD in CD drive
• test boot to make sure you really did disable CD boot in BIOS

Ship to Customer

• Check you can login remotely
• Check the serial console works
• Check the remote serial reboot option