Make way for rootvg!
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TRACING YOUR ROOTS Every AIX system has a volume group (a logical group of disks) called rootvg, which is created automatically at
the time you install AIX. The rootvg may be made up of one or several physical disks or virtual disks (SAN LUNs, Logical volumes on the VIO Server). Whatever "disks" make up rootvg,... [More]
Tags:  file_systems delivering_baby chfs logical_volume_manager paging_space obstetrics_down_under volume_group multibos dump_devices size rootvg lvm aix |
Cancel that outage: we'll use the HMC
PREVENTING SPOF ATTACKS When you
think about it, our first job is to keep our systems up and running. Or
at least walking, crawling, even staggering. But keep them up we must. The mail
must get through, the system must stay up. We build redundancy at all
sorts of levels into our systems because we want to avoid that dreaded disease known as SPOF - the Single Point of Failure. Outages
are expensive Unscheduled outages bring your computer
system to its knees. They can have similar effects on your nervous
system. There is the... [More]
Tags:  mpio ibm hardware_management_conso... virtual_io hmc integrated_virtualization... dual_vios spof concurrent multi_path failover firmware shared_ethernet_adapter sea aix scheduled_outage vio single_point_of_failure ivm redundance dual_vio_server |
Putting the X in AIX
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Install X-Windows without the pane However hardline you are about the command line, there may just be a time when you need to use X-Windows. Alright, you might not actually need to, but it might just be good to know how to set it up anyway. The Windows menu utility WebSM comes in handy sometimes. I used it recently for the aixpert tool . It allowed me to have a... [More]
Tags:  aix x-windows websm x11_forwarding x11 putty wsm cde common_desktop_environmen... x-server |
Auditors at the door? Let aixpert answer.
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CAREFUL, THEY MIGHT HEAR YOU The
word “auditor”, of course, comes from the Latin audire 'to hear', since audits were originally presented orally. Hearing is
the auditors' profession, so there's no need to shout at them. If you say your system is... [More]
Tags:  security aix_security_expert sox auditor fpm xml sox_corbit aixpert sarbanes_oxley system_hardening aix |
Fire up another Power
A NEW ADDITION You have a p5 or p6 which has been running fine for 2, 3 or 4 years but new applications or business expansion mean you're getting a brand new server as well. You have an HMC which is fairly up to date. How quickly can you get the server going, ready to install your first LPAR? E.T.A.: "pretty quickly" Assuming you've done your homework on sizing the system, cabling and power needs etc, you can get your system online pretty quickly. Rack-mount the server. This should be by far the slowest step. The reason is simple: you... [More]
Tags:  hmc power7 aix ibm power power6 |
High Availability (Wanted - Dead or Alive)
High Level high[-er] availabilty options IBM HACMP (High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing) has been available since 1991. It was renamed to IBM PowerHA and, more recently PowerHA System Mirror for AIX. While studying up on this recently, I came across some excellent comparisons between PowerHA , Live Partition Mobility and migration of Worload Partitions (WPARs) . This is a high-level comparison of how the three might help with managing outages and make for high er availability, even if they aren't all PowerHA. LPM and HA First, Live... [More]
Tags:  powerha live lpm migrate cookbook high_availability aix hacmp workload_partition uptime migration wpar outage live_partition_mobility |
A nice clean dump
What? A
dump? AIX, like many other operating
systems, provides the capability of making a system dump. This is
nothing to do with the Windows Recycle bin or a Trash folder, a kind
of holding place in case you want to undelete something. ("Undelete"?
Who invented that word?). This IBM
technote on Managing System Devices explains that you need a
system dump which "automatically copies selected areas of
kernel data to the primary dump device." Care factor zero? Now "automatically copying selected areas of kernel... [More]
Tags:  kernel support aix device sysdumpdev dumpcheck capture dump crash operating_system data system |
Managing WPARs on AIX 7 Open Beta
"AIX7 OB boarding now" Are you someone who is always behind the times? Do you buy the last ticket on the last train into the evacuated
city? Well, take off your N minus ten leadweight and join the discerning passengers of AIX Down Under on our first flight on AIX 7 Open Beta. AIX 7 Open Beta is available from a free download in ISO format, which means you could burn it onto a DVD or (better still) use the VIO server virtual media library . Of course you'll need to boot off the DVD / virtual optical device. It's a mksysb restore.... [More]
Tags:  install beta aix workload_partition mksysb open_beta aix7 wpar |
Playing with Putty
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When it comes to connecting to your AIX
system, Putty is a very popular option. It allows you to use an ssh
connection, with cut-and-paste facilities and the ability to
customise your sessions. You download Putty for free from the Putty
Download Page and there are lots of sites out there which... [More]
Tags:  terminal ssh backspace tty cut_and_paste emulator aix selection box telnet unix rectangle putty |
UPDATED: A SPOT of confusion about NIM
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Using
(or not using) NIM NIM
- the AIX N etwork I nstallation M anager - allows you to install and
maintain multiple hosts from the one master. Among people newer to
AIX, NIM is often left on the backburner. With the VIO
Virtual Media Library , a good deal of the NIM master's
functionality has alternatives, at least if you're building LPARs
which are VIO clients on the same system as the VIO... [More]
Tags:  vmlibrary network_installation_mana... nim resource aix lpp_source vio virtual_media_library spot |