Initial program loader for IBM Z® - zipl

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 LPAR mode z/VM guest KVM guest

Use zipl to prepare a boot device (with a Linux® program loader) or to prepare a dump device.

Linux on IBM® Z as a KVM guest does not support dump devices with stand-alone dump tools. Instead of preparing a dump device with the zipl tool you can also use the kdump infrastructure. To use kdump, no preparation with zipl is necessary. For more information about the kdump infrastructure and the dump tools that zipl installs, see Using the Dump Tools on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2, SC34-7751.

You can simulate a zipl command to test a configuration before you apply the command to an actual device.

Tip: Use the -V option to confirm that the zipl command works as intended.
zipl supports the following devices for Linux on z/VM® and Linux in LPAR mode:
  • Enhanced Count Key Data (ECKD) DASDs with fixed block Linux disk layout (LDL)
  • ECKD DASDs with z/OS®-compliant compatible disk layout (CDL)
  • Fixed Block Access (FBA) DASDs
  • Magnetic tape subsystems compatible with IBM3480, IBM3490, or IBM3590
  • SCSI disk with PC-BIOS disk layout or GPT layout
  • PCIe-attached NVMe devices.

For supported IPL devices for Linux on KVM, see KVM Virtual Server Management, SC34-2752.