Steps for defining a master virtual machine for Linux

Before you begin

Log on to MAINT.

About this task

These steps tell you how to define a master virtual machine that uses the default 2.2 GB space on a 3390-3 DASD. This procedure describes a directory entry for a guest on which you will install SLES 11 SP1.

Note: Later releases of Linux® might require additional disk space or memory, so check your Linux distribution's notes before continuing. Additional space requirements will be directly related to the packages that are installed.

In this procedure, you modify two DirMaint sample files, LINDFLT DIRECT and LINUX PROTODIR. LINDFLT DIRECT is a shared profile for all Linux systems and defines common definitions for all your Linux virtual servers. LINUX PROTODIR is designed to define unique characteristics of a virtual machine, such as the DASD definitions.

These sample files can be found on the 7VMDIR10 2C2 disk as LINDFLT SAMPDVH and LINUX SAMPDVH and should then be copied to the DIRMAINT 1DF disk as LINDFLT DIRECT and LINUX PROTODIR.

Procedure

Get the LINDFLT and LINUX samples from DirMaint.
1. From the command line, type the following commands and press the Enter key:
```
dirm send lindflt direct
dirm send linux protodir
```
  Result: DirMaint sends the sample files to MAINT's reader.
  Note: If the LINDFLT profile already exists in the directory and you want to use that instead of the sample file, you can get a copy by issuing the following command instead of the DIRM SEND command:
```
dirm for lindflt get lock
```
2. If you have other files in your reader, queue the two files you get from DirMaint with the ORDER command.
  Example: DirMaint sent you LINDFLT DIRECT and LINUX PROTODIR with spool identifiers 0004 and 0005, and you already have spool files 0001, 0002, and 0003 in your reader. Issue this command to queue the two files from DirMaint:
```
order rdr 4 5
0000002 FILES ORDERED
Ready;
```
3. Receive the sample files.
  From the command line, type these commands and press the Enter key:
```
receive
File LINDFLT DIRECT A1 created from LINDFLT DATADVH A1 received from DIRMAINT at system
receive
File LINUX PROTODIR A1 created from LINUX DATADVH A1 received from DIRMAINT at system
```
Edit LINDFLT DIRECT.
From the command line, type this command and press the Enter key:
```
xedit lindflt direct a
```
Result: Your LINDFLT DIRECT looks like the following:
```
PROFILE LINDFLT                             
CLASS G                                     
COMMAND CP TERM LINEND %                    
COMMAND CP SET PF12 RETRIEVE                
COMMAND CP TERM MORE 1 0                    
COMMAND CP SET RUN ON                       
COMMAND CP TERM HOLD OFF                    
IPL 150                                     
MACHINE ESA                                 
MAXSTORAGE 2047M                            
OPTION CHPIDV ONE                           
STORAGE 256M                                
CONSOLE 0009 3215 T                         
NICDEF 600 TYPE QDIO LAN SYSTEM VSWITCH1    
SPOOL 000C 2540 READER *                    
SPOOL 000D 2540 PUNCH A                     
SPOOL 000E 1403 A                           
```
Notes:
1. The CP TERM LINEND % command changes the logical line-end symbol to % (from the # system default).
2. The name of the virtual switch must match the name you used when you defined the virtual switch for the system. See Steps for defining a virtual switch and defining equivalency IDs for OSA devices.
3. For all virtual machines that you clone using LINDFLT DIRECT, you cannot define other devices at virtual addresses 600, 601, and 602. All those virtual machines will have the same virtual device addresses for the virtual switch.
4. For production Linux servers and server virtual machines that perform critical system functions, you can add OPTION QUICKDSP to the directory entry. This option favors the dispatching of the virtual machine over others, thereby assuring good response time for the virtual machine with the option.
  Note: CP's virtual processor management has been improved so that no user stays in the eligible list more than an instant before being added to the dispatch list. Therefore the QUICKDSP option is now less meaningful, although it does get the virtual machine a different size elapsed time slice.

If you want to give all your cloned Linux virtual machines access to the cryptographic facility:

Add a line before the STORAGE statement:

00000 * * * Top of File * * *      
00001 PROFILE LINDFLT              
00002 CLASS G                      
00003 COMMAND CP TERM LINEND %     
00004 COMMAND CP SET PF12 RETRIEVE 
00005 COMMAND CP TERM MORE 1 0     
00006 COMMAND CP SET RUN ON        
00007 COMMAND CP TERM HOLD OFF     
00008 IPL 150                      
00009 MACHINE ESA                  
a     MAXSTORAGE 2047M             
00011 STORAGE 256M                 
00012 * * * End of File * * *

On the new line, type:
```
CRYPTO APVIRT
```

For more information about the cryptographic facility, see Giving Linux virtual servers access to crypto resources for SSL acceleration.

If you make any changes to LINDFLT DIRECT, save the file with the XEDIT FILE command.
From the XEDIT command line, type the following command and press the Enter key:
```
====> file
```
Edit LINUX PROTODIR.
1. From the XEDIT command line, type the following command and press the Enter key:
```
xedit linux protodir
```
  Result: Your LINUX PROTODIR looks like the following:
```
USER LINUX NOLOG                         
INCLUDE LINDFLT                          
MDISK 150 3390 AUTOG 3088 LINGROUP MR    
MDISK 151 3390 AUTOG 0200 LINGROUP MR
```
2. Change each occurrence of LINGROUP to GRPLNX:
```
MDISK 150 3390 AUTOG 3088 GRPLNX   MR
MDISK 151 3390 AUTOG 0200 GRPLNX   MR
```
Notes:
1. For the swap disk 151, you could use a virtual disk, but be aware of the impact a virtual disk has on your system. See Linux Performance when running under VM.
2. GRPLNX matches the region name you created in Steps for controlling where DirMaint creates minidisks.
Save the file.
From the XEDIT command line, type the following command and press the Enter key:
```
====> file
```
Install the LINDFLT DIRECT and LINUX PROTODIR files.
1. Start by testing for the existence of a directory entry called LINDFLT.
  Issue:
```
dirm for lindflt get lock
```
  Note: You can omit the GET LOCK command if you issued it in Step 1.
  - If the GET LOCK command succeeded (that is, you want to overlay the existing LINDFLT profile with the version you just updated), issue:
```
dirm for lindflt replace
```
  - If the LINDFLT entry does not exist, issue:
```
dirm add lindflt
```
2. Install LINUX PROTODIR.
  Issue:
```
dirm file linux protodir
```
Use DirMaint to define the master virtual machine (LINMSTR).
Type this command and press the Enter key:
```
dirm add linmstr like linux pw new_password
```
where new_password is the password for logging on LINMSTR. new_password must be 8 characters long and must contain both numbers and letters.

Results

You know you are done when DirMaint tells you LINMSTR is created.

What to do next

Guidelines:

You might want to create additional prototypes (fn PROTODIR) for meeting differing processing requirements of your Linux virtual servers. You can use naming conventions that indicate the processing requirements satisfied by each prototype. For instance, you might want to create a small memory prototype (128 MB virtual machine called LINUX128), a medium memory prototype (256 MB virtual machine called LINUX256), and a large memory prototype (512 MB virtual machine called LINUX512), then create small, medium, and large master virtual machines, into which you can install the Linux operating system and appropriate application packages or middleware (the large master could have WebSphere®, for instance). Then, during the cloning process, you can select the master prototype that meets the needs of your clone.
The LINUX PROTODIR consumes an entire 3390-3 volume. To help slow the consumption of 3390-3 volumes, you can split the Linux file system into read-only and read/write portions and share the read-only portion. You should be familiar with Linux file system usage practices before attempting to set up read-only portions of the file system. To do this, you need to create a master Linux virtual server that can update the minidisk to which other Linux virtual servers are linked in read-only mode through the LINK command or LINK directory statement.
Note: There are important maintenance issues here: running Linux virtual servers do not get updates to the read-only disk until those servers are recycled. Also, a running Linux system linked to read-only disks might crash if those disks are updated while it is running. So, you need to develop a maintenance plan to determine how to update the read-only disk and when to recycle Linux virtual servers.