Installation guide

16.6. Inst alling under z/VM
Log onto z/VM as the Linux guest account. You can use x3270 or c3270 (from the x3270-text
package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux) to log in to z/VM from other Linux systems. Alternatively, use the
3270 terminal emulator on the IBM System z management console. If you are working from a
Windows based machine, Jolly Giant (http://www.jollygiant.com) offers an SSL-enabled 3270
emulator.
If you are not in CMS mode, enter it now.
i cms
If necessary, add the device containing z/VM's TCP/IP tools to your CMS disk list. For example:
vmlink tcpmaint 592 592
If using any of the qdio/qeth based network connection types (such as OSA express or hipersockets),
set the VM guest qioassist parameter off:
set qioassist off
FTP to the machine containing the boot images (kernel.img and initrd.img), log in, and
execute the following commands. Use the (repl option if you are overwriting existing kernel.img,
initrd.img, generic.prm, or redhat.exec files:
cd /location/of/boot/images//images/
locsite fix 80
bin
get kernel.img (repl
get initrd.img (repl
ascii
get generic.prm (repl
get redhat.exec (repl
quit
You may now create the parameter file (for example, redhat.parm). Refer to Chapter 19, Sample
Parameter Files for sample parm files. Below is an explanation of the parm file contents.
There is a limit of 32 total parameters in the parameter file. In order to accommodate limitations with
parameter files, a new configuration file on a CMS D ASD should be used to configure the initial
network setup and the DASD specification.
A .parm file is still required for the real kernel parameters, such as root=/dev/ram0 ro ip=off
ramdisk_size=40000, and single parameters which are not assigned to variables, such as vnc.
Two parameters which are used in z/VM installs to point the installation program at the new CMS
configuration file need to be added to the .parm file:
CMSDASD=191 CMSCONFFILE=redhat.conf
CMSDASD is the device ID of the CMS formatted D ASD which contains the configuration file.
CMSDASD is often the 'A' DASD (usually disk 191) of the z/VM guest account. The name of the
configuration file must be set with CMSCONFFILE and needs to be all lowercase.
The syntax of the CMSCONFFILE is bash style with variable="value" pairs, one on each line.
Example redhat.parm file:
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