Installation guide
Chapter 19. Sample Parameter Files
The IBM System z architectures use a special parameter file to set up networking before the in-
stallation program (anaconda) can be started. This section describes the contents of the para-
meter file.
The parameter file has a limit of 32 total parameters. To accommodate limitations of the para-
meter files, a new configuration file on a CMS DASD should be used to configure the initial net-
work setup and the DASD specification. The .parm file should contain the real kernel paramet-
ers, such as root=/dev/ram0 ro ip=off ramdisk_size=40000, and single parameters which are
not assigned to variables, such as vnc. Two new parameters which point the installation pro-
gram at the new configuration file need to be added to the .parm file. They are CMSDASD and CM-
SCONF .
CMSDASD=cmsdasd_address
Where cmsdasd_address represents the list of the device ID of the CMS DASD device which
contains the configuration file. This is usually the CMS user's 'A' disk. This option is applic-
able only for users who have a CMS formatted disk (z/VM) available.
For example: CMSDASD=191
CMSCONFFILE=configuration_file
Where configuration_file represents the name of the configuration file. This value must be
specified in lower case. It is specified in a Linux style file name format. The CMS file REDHAT
CONF is specified as redhat.conf. This option is applicable only for users who have a CMS
formatted disk (z/VM) available.
For example: CMSCONFFILE=redhat.conf
DASD=dasd-list
Where dasd-list represents the list of DASD devices to be used by Red Hat Enterprise
Linux.
Although automatic probing for DASDs is done if this parameter is omitted, it is highly re-
commended to include the DASD= parameter, as the device numbers (and therefore the
device names) can vary when a new DASD is added to the guest. This can result in an un-
usable system.
For example: DASD=0.0.0100,0.0201-0.0.0204
The following parameters are required to set up networking:
SUBCHANNELS=
Provides required device bus IDs for the various network interfaces.
qeth: SUBCHANNELS="read_device_bus_id,write_device_bus_id,
data_device_bus_id"
lcs: SUBCHANNELS="read_device_bus_id,write_device_bus_id"
Due to the length of the qeth command line, it has been broken into two lines.
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