local_proxmox/docs/walkthrough-phases-4-6.md

Phases 4–6: RAID Config, Proxmox Install, Post-Install

Dell R730xd — Button-by-button walkthrough

---

Phase 4 — H730 RAID Configuration

Goal: Mirror the two 2.5" rear drives together so a single drive failure cannot take down Proxmox. Leave every 3.5" drive untouched — the perc-nonraid.sh script handles those later from inside Proxmox.

Why mirror the OS drives here instead of using ZFS? The H730 presents the RAID1 mirror as a single virtual disk to the OS. Proxmox installs onto it and never needs to think about the fact that two physical drives are underneath. This is the simplest and most reliable approach for an OS volume.

---

Step 4.1 — Enter Lifecycle Controller

Power on (or reboot) the server and press F10 at the Dell splash screen.

Wait for Lifecycle Controller to load. You will see the main menu on the left:

Home
Firmware Update
OS Deployment
RAID Configuration     ← go here
Hardware Configuration
Settings

Arrow to RAID Configuration and press Enter.

---

Step 4.2 — Open the RAID configuration wizard

You will see:

RAID Configuration

  View Current Configuration
  Create New VD
  ...

First, click View Current Configuration to see what is already there.

You are looking at the physical drives the H730 can see. Drives are listed under their controller — it will say something like:

PERC H730 Mini (Slot 0)

  Physical Disks:
    Port 0: SEAGATE  ST4000NM0023  4.0 TB  State: Unconfigured Good
    Port 1: SEAGATE  ST4000NM0023  4.0 TB  State: Unconfigured Good
    ...
    Port 8: TOSHIBA  MK1401GRRB   146 GB  State: Unconfigured Good   ← 2.5"
    Port 9: TOSHIBA  MK1401GRRB   146 GB  State: Unconfigured Good   ← 2.5"

Identifying the 2.5" OS drives: They will be noticeably smaller than the 3.5" drives — likely 146 GB, 300 GB, 600 GB (SAS) or 120–480 GB (SSD). The 3.5" drives will be 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB, or larger. Size is the giveaway.

If drives show "Foreign Configuration": They were previously part of a RAID array. See Step 4.3a before continuing.

If the 2.5" drives appear under a different controller (e.g., "PERC H330 Mini"): The R730xd sometimes puts the rear bays on a separate mini controller. That is fine — just create the RAID1 on whichever controller owns those drives.

Press Back to return to the RAID Configuration menu.

---

Step 4.3a — Clear foreign configurations (only if needed)

If any drives showed "Foreign Configuration" in Step 4.2, you need to clear them before you can create a new virtual disk.

In the RAID Configuration menu, look for:

Clear Foreign Configuration

Select it, choose All Foreign Configurations, click Apply.

A warning will appear saying all data on those drives will be lost — click Yes. (We are building a new system so there is nothing to keep.)

After clearing, go back to View Current Configuration and confirm the drives now show Unconfigured Good.

---

Step 4.4 — Create the RAID 1 virtual disk

In the RAID Configuration menu, select Create New VD and press Enter.

The wizard walks you through four screens:

---

Screen 1 — Select RAID Level

Select RAID Level:

  RAID 0  (no redundancy, faster)
  RAID 1  (mirror, one drive can fail)    ← select this
  RAID 5  (requires 3+ drives)
  RAID 6  (requires 4+ drives)
  RAID 10 (requires 4+ drives)

Select RAID 1 and click Next.

---

Screen 2 — Select Physical Disks

A list of all available physical disks appears. You need to select only the two 2.5" drives. Do not select any 3.5" drives.

Click the checkbox next to each of the two 2.5" drives (identified by their smaller size). Leave all 3.5" drives unchecked.

Click Next.

---

Screen 3 — Virtual Disk Attributes

Virtual Disk Name:    OS-Mirror
Virtual Disk Size:    (auto-filled — leave it)
Strip Element Size:   64KB   (leave default)
Read Policy:          Adaptive Read Ahead  (leave default)
Write Policy:         Write Back           (leave default)
Disk Cache Policy:    Enabled              (leave default)

The only thing you need to change is the name — type OS-Mirror so it is easy to identify. Everything else can stay at defaults.

Click Next.

---

Screen 4 — Confirm

Review the summary. It should show:

• RAID Level: 1
• Physical Disks: 2 (your 2.5" drives)
• Virtual Disk Size: whatever the smaller of the two drives is

Click Finish.

---

Step 4.5 — Initialize the virtual disk

After creating the VD, Lifecycle Controller will ask about initialization:

Initialize virtual disk?
  Fast Initialize    ← select this
  Full Initialize    (writes zeros to every sector — takes hours, not needed)
  Skip

Select Fast Initialize and click OK.

Fast initialization takes 30–60 seconds. A progress bar will appear. Wait for it.

---

Step 4.6 — Verify and exit

When initialization finishes, go back to View Current Configuration.

You should now see:

PERC H730 Mini

  Virtual Disks:
    VD 0: OS-Mirror  RAID 1  ~146 GB  State: Optimal

  Physical Disks:
    Port 0–7:  3.5" drives  State: Unconfigured Good
    Port 8–9:  2.5" drives  State: Online (member of VD 0)

The 3.5" drives should all show Unconfigured Good. That is exactly what you want. Leave them that way.

Click Back repeatedly until you reach the Lifecycle Controller home screen, then click Exit. The server will reboot.

---

Phase 5 — Install Proxmox VE 9.1

Step 5.1 — Download the Proxmox ISO

On your other computer, open a browser and go to:

https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads

Click Proxmox Virtual Environment → find the latest Proxmox VE 9.x ISO Installer and click Download.

The file will be named something like proxmox-ve_9.1-1.iso and is about 1 GB.

---

Step 5.2 — Write the ISO to a USB drive

You need to write the ISO as a disk image (not copy the file). Use one of these tools depending on your computer:

Windows — Rufus (free, no install needed)

1. Download Rufus from: https://rufus.ie (click the first .exe link)
2. Plug in your USB drive (8 GB or larger — all data on it will be erased)
3. Open Rufus
4. Device: select your USB drive from the dropdown
5. Boot selection: click SELECT and choose the Proxmox ISO file
6. Partition scheme: select GPT
7. Target system: select UEFI (non CSM)
8. Click START
9. A dialog appears asking about ISO mode vs DD mode — select Write in DD Image mode and click OK
10. Click OK again when warned that the USB will be wiped
11. Wait for it to finish (1–3 minutes), then click CLOSE

Mac — Balena Etcher (free)

1. Download from: https://etcher.balena.io — click Download for macOS
2. Open Etcher
3. Click Flash from file → select the Proxmox ISO
4. Click Select target → select your USB drive
5. Click Flash — enter your Mac password if prompted
6. Wait for it to finish

Linux — terminal

# Find your USB drive device name (look for your drive size)
lsblk

# Write the ISO (replace sdX with your actual USB device, e.g. sdb — NOT sdb1)
dd if=proxmox-ve_9.1-1.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync
sync

---

Step 5.3 — Boot the server from USB

1. Plug the USB drive into one of the USB ports on the front or back of the server
2. Power on (or reboot) the server
3. At the Dell splash screen, press F11

The Boot Manager screen appears:

Boot Manager

  BIOS Boot Menu
  UEFI Boot Menu      ← go here
  One-shot BIOS Boot Menu
  ...

Arrow to UEFI Boot Menu and press Enter.

You will see a list of bootable devices. Look for your USB drive — it will be listed as something like:

UEFI: SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0, Partition 1

Arrow to it and press Enter.

If the USB does not appear in the UEFI Boot Menu: Make sure Rufus wrote in DD mode and GPT was selected (Step 5.2). Legacy/MBR USB drives will not appear in the UEFI menu.

---

Step 5.4 — Proxmox installer boot menu

The server boots from the USB and shows the Proxmox boot menu — white text on a blue/dark background:

Proxmox VE Installer

  Install Proxmox VE (Graphical)     ← select this
  Install Proxmox VE (Terminal UI)
  Advanced Options
  ...

Arrow to Install Proxmox VE (Graphical) and press Enter.

The graphical installer loads. This takes about 30–60 seconds.

---

Step 5.5 — End User License Agreement

The EULA screen appears. Read it or don't — click I agree at the bottom right.

---

Step 5.6 — Target disk selection

This is the most important screen. You are choosing where Proxmox installs.

You will see a dropdown labeled Target Harddisk. Click it.

The list shows all visible storage. You are looking for the RAID1 virtual disk you created in Phase 4. It will appear as a single disk — something like:

/dev/sda  (146.00 GB)   ← this is the OS-Mirror RAID1 VD
/dev/sdb  (4.00 TB)
/dev/sdc  (4.00 TB)
...

Select the small one — your OS-Mirror virtual disk (146 GB or whatever size your 2.5" drives are).

Do not select a 3.5" drive. Those are your VM data drives.

Filesystem: Click the Options button next to the disk selector.

Filesystem:   ext4    ← leave this as ext4

Leave it as ext4. The H730 RAID1 already gives you drive redundancy. Adding ZFS here would be redundant overhead with no benefit.

Click Next.

---

Step 5.7 — Location and timezone

Country:   [type your country, e.g. United States]
Time Zone: [auto-filled based on country, e.g. America/New_York]
Keyboard:  [your keyboard layout, e.g. U.S. English]

Adjust if needed. Click Next.

---

Step 5.8 — Password and email

Password:         [choose a strong root password — write it down]
Confirm:          [same password again]
Email:            [any email address — used for system alerts]

The root password is how you log into Proxmox. If you forget it, recovery is painful. Write it on a piece of paper and put it somewhere safe.

Click Next.

---

Step 5.9 — Network configuration

Management Interface:  [auto-selected — usually em1 or eno1, the first NIC]
Hostname (FQDN):       pve.local
IP Address:            192.168.1.10    ← change to an IP on your network
Netmask:               255.255.255.0
Gateway:               192.168.1.1     ← your router's IP
DNS Server:            192.168.1.1     ← your router's IP (or 8.8.8.8)

Choosing a static IP for Proxmox:

• Log into your router and find its DHCP range
• Pick an IP outside that range (same subnet)
• Example: if DHCP is 192.168.1.100–200, use 192.168.1.10
• This IP is how you will reach the Proxmox web UI and SSH from now on

Click Next.

---

Step 5.10 — Summary and install

The installer shows a summary of everything you chose. Confirm:

• Target disk: your small RAID1 virtual disk
• Filesystem: ext4
• Hostname and IP look correct

Click Install.

The installation takes 5–10 minutes. A progress bar shows the steps:

• Formatting disk
• Copying files
• Setting up bootloader
• Configuring system

When it finishes you will see:

Installation successful!
Remove the installation medium and press Enter to reboot.

Pull the USB drive out, then press Enter.

---

Step 5.11 — First login to the Proxmox web UI

The server reboots. After about 60 seconds it shows a text console with Proxmox's login prompt and this message:

Welcome to the Proxmox Virtual Environment.

Please use your web browser to configure this server -
connect to: https://192.168.1.10:8006/

On your other computer, open a browser and go to:

https://192.168.1.10:8006

(Use the IP you set in Step 5.9.)

Certificate warning: Your browser will show a security warning because Proxmox uses a self-signed SSL certificate. This is expected and safe on your local network.

• Chrome/Edge: click Advanced → Proceed to 192.168.1.10 (unsafe)
• Firefox: click Advanced → Accept the Risk and Continue

The Proxmox login page appears — a dark interface with two fields:

User name:  root
Password:   [the password you set in Step 5.8]
Realm:      Linux PAM standard authentication   ← leave this as-is

Click Login.

Subscription nag: A popup immediately appears saying "No valid subscription". Click OK to dismiss it. This appears every login until you fix the repos in Phase 6. It does not affect anything.

You are now looking at the Proxmox web interface — the main dashboard.

---

Phase 6 — Proxmox Post-Install

From this point you will use SSH instead of the web console for most tasks. SSH is faster and lets you paste commands directly.

---

Step 6.1 — Connect via SSH

On your other computer, open a terminal (Mac/Linux) or PuTTY/Windows Terminal (Windows) and run:

ssh root@192.168.1.10

Type yes when asked to confirm the host fingerprint. Enter your root password.

You will see the Proxmox shell prompt:

root@pve:~#

All the commands in the rest of this guide are typed here.

---

Step 6.2 — Fix the package repositories

Proxmox installs with "enterprise" apt repositories configured. These require a paid subscription and will fail with an authentication error when you try to update. We switch them to the free community repositories.

Run these commands one at a time:

# Disable the enterprise repo (comment it out)
echo "# disabled - no subscription" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list

# Disable the enterprise Ceph repo
echo "# disabled - no subscription" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ceph.list

# Add the no-subscription community repo
echo "deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-no-subscription" \
  > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-no-subscription.list

Now update and upgrade all packages:

apt update && apt dist-upgrade -y

This will download and install updates. It may take 5–15 minutes depending on your internet speed. Answer Y if prompted about any config file changes (just press Enter to accept the default).

When it finishes, reboot:

reboot

Wait about 60 seconds, then SSH back in:

ssh root@192.168.1.10

---

Step 6.3 — Install the tools the scripts need

apt install -y ipmitool lsscsi ledmon hdparm git curl

What each tool does:

Tool	Used for
ipmitool	Fan control — sends IPMI commands to iDRAC
lsscsi	build-bay-map.sh — lists SCSI drives with details
ledmon	build-bay-map.sh — blinks drive bay LEDs for identification
hdparm	stagger-spinup.sh — checks drive power state, wakes drives
git	Cloning this repo onto the host
curl	Downloading packages and health checks

---

Step 6.4 — Clone this repo onto the Proxmox host

git clone https://github.com/outis1one/local_proxmox.git /opt/local_proxmox
chmod +x /opt/local_proxmox/scripts/*.sh
cd /opt/local_proxmox

All scripts and configs are now at /opt/local_proxmox/.

---

Step 6.5 — Dismiss the subscription warning permanently (optional)

If the "No valid subscription" popup annoys you every time you log into the web UI, you can remove it with one command. This does not affect functionality:

sed -i.bak "s/data.status !== 'Active'/false/g" \
  /usr/share/javascript/proxmox-widget-toolkit/proxmoxlib.js
systemctl restart pveproxy

After running this, refresh the Proxmox web UI — the popup will be gone.

---

Phase 6 complete — where you are now

What is done	Status
Proxmox VE 9.1 installed on RAID1 OS mirror	✓
Free community repos configured	✓
All packages up to date	✓
Tools installed	✓
Repo cloned to /opt/local_proxmox	✓

Next: Phase 7 — Run perc-nonraid.sh to convert the 3.5" drives to non-RAID/per-disk mode, then map the physical bays. That walkthrough is in docs/walkthrough-phases-7-9.md.