Basic Overview Of The Boot Method; Preparing For A Network Installation - Red Hat ENTREPRISE LINUX 5 Installation Manual

Chapter 16. Steps to Get You Started
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.

16.3. 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
parameter file. Sample parameter and CMS configuration files are provided (redhat.parm and
redhat.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 started on
the IBM System z, the networking is configured. You can then use ssh on another computer to log into
your installation image. Now you can start an installation script to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

16.4. Preparing for a Network Installation

Note
Make sure an installation CD (or any other type of CD) is not in your hosting partition's
drive if you are performing a network-based installation. Having a CD in the drive may
cause unexpected errors.
Ensure that you have boot media available on CD, DVD, or a USB storage device such as a flash
drive.
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation media must be available for either a network installation (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 installation 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 directory that
will be made publicly available via FTP, NFS, or HTTP will be specified as /publicly/
available/directory. For example, /location/of/disk/space may be a
directory you create called /var/isos. /publicly/available/directory might be
/var/www/html/rhel5, for an HTTP install.
To copy the files from the installation DVD or CD-ROMs to a Linux machine which acts as an
installation staging server, perform the following steps:
• Create an iso image from the installation disk(s) using the following command (for DVDs):
dd if=/dev/dvd of=/location/of/disk/space/RHEL5.iso
where dvd refers to your DVD drive device.
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