Setting up a high-performance Linux environment on enterprise hardware isn’t just about installing an OS – it’s about precision, flexibility, and reliability. In this post, I’ll walk you through a real-world case study where I deployed Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on a ProLiant DL360 Gen9 server using mdadm-based software RAID 0 and a fully optimized UEFI boot setup.

The Challenge

My client needed a performant server for hosting CyberPanel and other web services. The server was equipped with 8x 4TB drives and required a RAID 0 configuration for maximum throughput. It also needed UEFI boot support and a fully customized minimal Ubuntu system for performance and control.

However, I ran into multiple real-world obstacles:

• Default Ubuntu installer doesn’t support RAID 0 configuration natively.
• UEFI boot and GRUB issues on software RAID.
• Network not coming up post-installation.
• Emergency mode boot loops due to missing base packages

The Solution (Step-by-Step)

Note: Use rescue system or Live CD

Step 1: Disk Partitioning

Each of the 8 drives was partitioned identically using parted:

• /dev/sdX1: 512MB FAT32 for EFI (boot, esp flags)
• /dev/sdX2: 1MB BIOS boot partition (bios_grub flag)
• /dev/sdX3: remaining space for RAID

for disk in /dev/sd{a..h}; do
  parted -s $disk mklabel gpt
  parted -s $disk mkpart primary fat32 1MiB 513MiB
  parted -s $disk set 1 esp on
  parted -s $disk mkpart primary 513MiB 514MiB
  parted -s $disk set 2 bios_grub on
  parted -s $disk mkpart primary ext4 514MiB 100%
done

Step 2: RAID Creation

Create RAID 0 using all /dev/sdX3 partitions:

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=0 --raid-devices=8 /dev/sd{a..h}3

Step 3: Filesystem Setup

mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0
mount /dev/md0 /mnt
mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi

Step 4: Base Ubuntu Installation (debootstrap)

apt update
apt install debootstrap -y
debootstrap jammy /mnt http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

Step 5: Mount and Chroot

mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
mount --bind /run /mnt/run
chroot /mnt

Step 6: Essential Packages

apt update
apt install ubuntu-standard ubuntu-minimal systemd-sysv grub-efi grub-efi-amd64 shim mdadm net-tools ifupdown isc-dhcp-client -y

Step 7: Configure RAID and FSTAB

echo "DEVICE partitions" > /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
mdadm --detail --scan >> /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
update-initramfs -u -k all

Example /etc/fstab:

blkid # Use to populate fstab with correct UUIDs
UUID=xxxxx-root  /          ext4 defaults  0 1
UUID=xxxxx-efi   /boot/efi  vfat defaults  0 1

Step 8: GRUB Installation

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=ubuntu
grub-install /dev/sd{b..h} # for BIOS fallback (optional)
update-grub

Step 9: Create UEFI Boot Entry

efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/sda --part 1 --label "Ubuntu" --loader '\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi'

Step 10: Network Configuration

echo 'auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eno49
iface eno49 inet static
  address 178.222.247.237
  netmask 255.255.255.128
  gateway 178.222.247.1
  dns-nameservers 1.1.1.1 8.8.8.8' > /etc/network/interfaces

The system now boots cleanly from /dev/md0, detects the RAID volume immediately via initramfs, and launches a fully minimal but extendable Ubuntu 22.04 environment ready for CyberPanel.

Boot time was optimized, all legacy EFI entries were removed, and the network stack is stable and persistent across reboots.