Network Configuration

Wait until the kernel has completed its start-up routines. If you are installing in basic mode or in an LPAR, open the Operating System Messages on the HMC or SE.

First, choose Start Installation or System in the linuxrc main menu then Start Installation or Update to start the installation process. Select Network as your installation medium then select the type of network protocol you will be utilizing for the installation. Section 2.1, “Making the Installation Data Available” describes how to make the installation data available for the various types of network connections. Currently, FTP, HTTP, NFS, and SMB/CIFS (Windows file sharing) are supported.

Now set up the network device over which to receive the installation data: OSA-2 or OSA Express or HiperSockets. The following network adapters are still available and usable, but no longer supported: CTC, ESCON, IUCV. Next, choose the CCW bus interface and the physical medium (for example, Ethernet or Token Ring). As a result, the respective driver is installed and you see the corresponding kernel messages.

Proceeding with the installation, linuxrc displays a list of potential usable read, write, and, if applicable, data channels. After entering the addresses for each channel, you may also need to enter additional information, such as the port name for OSA ethernet cards.

The IP address of the system to install
The corresponding netmask
The IP address of a gateway to reach the server
The IP address of your domain name server (DNS)

When using an OSA Express Network Card you are now prompted for a relative port number. This was added to support the new 2 port OSA Express 3 Network devices. If you are not using an OSA Express 3 device, please enter 0. OSA Express cards also have the option of running in an “OSI layer 2 support” mode or using the older more common “layer 3” mode. The card mode affects all systems that share the device including systems on other LPARs. If in doubt, please specify 2 for compatibility with the default mode used by other operating systems such as z/VM and z/OS. Consult with your hardware administrator for further information on these options.

z/VM Installation

After the kernel has completed its start-up routines, answer a few questions regarding the network setup. First, select the type of network connection to use: OSA Express or HiperSockets. In this example installation, OSA Express is used.

The system now displays a possible OSA configuration. Choose first whether to use QDIO or LCS OSA. Next, choose the physical medium to use and enter the device addresses. If you prefer another setup, enter the device address of the OSA read channel (0.0.0700 in this example) then the one of the OSA write channel (0.0.0701) and the OSA control channel (0.0.0702). After entering the channels, insert the name of the port to which the OSA card is connected.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server now tries to load the network module by building a parameter line with the information provided then displays all loaded modules. Loading was successful if you get an output like:

Example 2.6. Network Device Driver Parameters

qeth: Device 0.0.0700/0.0.0701/0.0.0702 is a Guest LAN QDIO card (level: V448)
with link type GuestLAN QDIO (portname: VSW1)
qeth: Hardware IP fragmentation not supported on eth0
qeth: VLAN enabled
qeth: Multicast enabled
qeth: IPV6 enabled
qeth: Broadcast enabled
qeth: Could not set up broadcast echo filtering on eth0: 0x2
qeth: Using SW checksumming on eth0.
qeth: Outbound TSO not supported on eth0

Next, enter your IP address, netmask, and default gateway. To install over token ring, iucv, or ctc, enter additional information, like the the peer address (for a point-to-point adapter) or the port name.

Finally, the IP address of the DNS server and the MTU size are requested. The MTU size should always match the one used by the network to which you are connecting.

Now a summary is displayed. Confirm if your input is correct. Before the network is started, enter a password that is valid only during the installation. After having IPLed the installed system, enter the real root password.

With all basic parameters set up, the network is started. Check the output of ifconfig, which should contain two entries: a loopback (lo) connection and one connection (tr0, eth0, ctc0, escon0, iucv0, or hsi0) with correct settings.

Example 2.7. Example ifconfig

/sbin/ifconfig eth0 : 
	Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:00:01:00:00:27  
        inet addr:192.168.0.1  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
        inet6 addr: fe80::200:100:100:27/64 Scope:Link
        UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1492  Metric:1
        RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
        TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
        RX bytes:0 (0.0 Mb)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 Mb)