Installation guide

Direct Access Storage Devices (or DASDs) are hard disks that allow a maximum of three (3) partitions per DASD. For

example, dasda has dasda[123].

Using the zFCP driver over fiber and a dedicated switch, SCSI LUNs can be presented to the linux guest as if they

were locally attached SCSI drives.

Chapter 16. Steps to Get You Started

1. Pre-Installation

The installation process assumes a basic familiarity with the IBM eServer System z platforms.

For additional information on these platforms, refer to the IBM Redbooks available online at:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/ [http://www.redbooks.ibm.com]

This manual assumes you are familiar with the related Redbooks and can set up logical parti-

tions (LPARs) and virtual machines (VMs) on an IBM eServer System z system.

Note

For the most current IBM resources, visit http://www.ibm.com/eserver/zseries/.

Before you install Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you must perform the following steps:

1. Allocate sufficient Disk Storage Space using DASDs

or SCSI

partitions to provide suit-

able disk space (for example, 2 GB is sufficient for server installations, while 5 GB is minim-

ally required to install all packages).

2. Acquire a minimum of 512 MB RAM (1 GB is strongly recommended) to designate for the

Linux virtual machine.

3. Determine if you need swap space and if so how much. While it is possible (and recom-

mended) to assign enough memory to z/VM and let z/VM do the necessary swapping, there

may be cases where the amount of required RAM is not predictable. Such instances should

be examined on a case-by-case basis.

4. Decide on the environment under which to run the operating system (on an LPAR or as a

guest operating system on one or more virtual machines).

5. Finally, it is important to review sections 3.3 through 3.8, and Chapters 5 and 6 of the IBM

Linux for System z Redbook, as it explains the different configurations and install scenarios

available on the zSeries platform as well as how to setup an initial LPAR or Linux virtual

machine (z/VM).

2. Additional System z Hardware Prepara-

tion for Installation Notes

The network configuration must be determined beforehand. Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM

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