Installation guide
System z supports QDIO-enabled (Queued Direct I/O) and LCS (LAN channel station) devices.
The CTC (channel-to-channel) and IUCV (inter-user communication vehicle) are deprecated
and are not supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
For the purposes of this installation, it is recommended that at least 4 GB of disk space (such as
two 2 GB DASD, direct access storage device, partitions or equivalent IBM System z SCSI
LUNs) be allocated for the installation process. All DASD disk allocations should be completed
prior to the installation process. After the installation, more DASD or SCSI (for IBM System z
only) disk partitions may be added or deleted as necessary.
3. Basic Overview of the Boot Method
To prepare for installation, you must have the Linux kernel (kernel.img), the ram disk
(initrd.img), and if using z/VM, an optional CMS configuration file (redhat.conf) and a paramet-
er file. Sample parameter and CMS configuration files are provided (redhat.parm and red-
hat.conf). You should edit the CMS configuration file and add information about your DASD.
You may also want to add some information about your network configuration. Once this is star-
ted on the IBM System z, the networking is configured. You can then use ssh on another com-
puter to log into your installation image. Now you can start an installation script to install Red
Hat Enterprise Linux.
4. Preparing for a Network Installation
Note
Make sure an installation CD (or any other type of CD) is not in your hosting parti-
tion's drive if you are performing a network-based installation. Having a CD in the
drive may cause unexpected errors.
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation media must be available for either a network installa-
tion (via NFS, FTP, or HTTP) or installation via local storage. Use the following steps if you are
performing an NFS, FTP, or HTTP installation.
The NFS, FTP, or HTTP server to be used for installation over the network must be a separate
machine which can provide the complete contents of the installation DVD-ROM or the installa-
tion CD-ROMs.
Note
In the following examples, the directory on the installation staging server that will
contain the installation files will be specified as /location/of/disk/space. The dir-
ectory that will be made publicly available via FTP, NFS, or HTTP will be specified
as /export/directory. For example, /location/of/disk/space may be a directory
you create called /var/isos. /export/directory might be /var/www/html/rhel5, for
3. Basic Overview of the Boot Method
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