This Redpaper provides information to help readers plan for and exploit Internet Protocol (IP) broadcast support that was made available to z/VM Guest LAN environments with the introduction of the z/VM 4.3 Operating System.

Using IP broadcast support, Linux guests can for the first time use DHCP to lease an IP address dynamically from a DHCP server in a z/VM Guest LAN environment. This frees the administrator from the previous method of having to hardcode an IP address for every Linux guest in the system. This new feature enables easier deployment and administration of large-scale Linux environments.

z/VM Guest LAN

Introduction

Guest LAN configuration

IP addressing

An introduction to DHCP

Obtaining configuration information

Lease renewal

DHCP relay agent

DHCP in a z/VM Guest LAN

Implementing DHCP in a z/VM Guest LAN

Linux installation using DHCP

Summary