Hardware requirements

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You require hardware that supports the SCSI IPL feature.

To be able to IPL a Linux™ system from a SCSI disk, the following hardware is required:

  • The SCSI IPL hardware feature.
    • As of z10™ machines, SCSI IPL is a base function.
    • On z9® machines, you require the no-charge feature FC 9904.
    • On z990 and older machines, you need to order and install SCSI IPL separately using Feature Code FC 9904. Models z800 and z900 require an initial, one-time power-on-reset (POR) of the machine to activate the feature. Activating the SCSI IPL feature is concurrent on z890, z990, or newer, machines.
  • An FCP channel. You must configure the hardware as an FCP channel within your IODF.
  • One or more FCP-attached SCSI disks from which to IPL.

Also see your Linux distribution for further prerequisites.