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It’s no secret that I like NIM. I’ve written about NIM on several occasions, in Redbooks, technical articles and on my blog. It’s a great tool for installing and maintaining AIX. Occasionally though, it can throw you an unusual error or two when things go wrong. For the uninitiated resolving these errors can be challenging.
Here’s a couple of NIM related questions I received recently. Both are troubleshooting queries.
“I'm getting the following error when trying to create a NIM lpp_source for AIX 6.1”:
Define a Resource
Type or select values in entry fields.
Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.
[Entry Fields]
* Resource Name [6100-06_lpp]
* Resource Type lpp_source
* Server of Resource [master] +
* Location of Resource [/export/eznim] /
NFS Client Security Method [] +
NFS Version Access [] +
Architecture of Resource [] +
Source of Install Images [/dev/cd0] +/
Names of Option Packages []
Show Progress [yes] +
Comments []
...
Preparing to copy install images (this will take several minutes)...
0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-081 m_mk_lpp_source: a resource already exists on "master" at
location "/export/eznim/bid_ow"; due to NFS export restrictions, the
new location "/export/eznim" may not be used
...
I could see what could be causing the issue but I first asked to see the contents of the /etc/exports file. Just to make sure that /export/eznim was not explicitly exported. It wasn’t.
# grep eznim /etc/exports
/export/eznim/vios/mksysb_image -ro,root=vio1,access=vio1
/export/eznim/bid_ow -ro,root=nim1,access=nim1
I suggested they re-try the operation again but this time specify the full path to the lpp_source directory, like so:
Define a Resource
Type or select values in entry fields.
Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.
[Entry Fields]
* Resource Name [6100-06_lpp]
* Resource Type lpp_source
* Server of Resource [master] +
* Location of Resource [/export/eznim/6100-06_lpp] /
NFS Client Security Method [] +
NFS Version Access [] +
Architecture of Resource [] +
Source of Install Images [/dev/cd0] +/
Names of Option Packages []
Show Progress [yes] +
Comments []
This worked fine. And the lpp_source was created successfully.
# lsnim -l 6100-06_lpp
6100-06_lpp:
class = resources
type = lpp_source
locked = 26738726
Rstate = unavailable for use
prev_state =
location = /export/eznim/6100-06_lpp
alloc_count = 0
server = master
The second issue related to down-level filesets after an AIX 6.1 migration with nimadm. There was also an issue with disk space that generated an error during NIM operations.
“Hi Chris,
Thanks for replying back to my post. I am a newbie to AIX/pSeries world.
I was following your document on upgrading AIX 5.3 to 6.1 using nimadm, it seemed to have worked partially for me, as I got to AIX 6100-00-00. The mksysb and the SPOT I created were for AIX 6100-06-05.
Before I re-attempt the upgrade, is there anything I need to be clean up on AIX 5.3 side that could have perhaps caused issues with the upgrade.
Thanks”
I recommended that the following command be run on the NIM client, to determine which filesets were down-level after the migration.
# oslevel -s
# instfix -i | grep AIX
# instfix -i | grep SP
If the output contained messages like "Not all filesets for 6100-06_AIX_ML were found", or something similar, then they should run the following command against each line (there could be more than one).
# instfix -icqk 6100-06_AIX_ML | grep ":-:"
This will tell you which filesets were not updated.
The output from ‘oslevel –s’and ‘instfix –i | grep AIX’ looked OK.
# oslevel -s
6100-06-04-1112
# instfix -i | grep AIX
All filesets for 6100-00_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 6100-01_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 6100-02_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 6100-03_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 6100-04_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 6100-05_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 6100-06_AIX_ML were found.
But the output from ‘instfix –i | grep SP’ indicated an issue with 61-06-051115_SP.
# instfix -i | grep SP
All filesets for 61-00-010748_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-020750_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-030808_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-040815_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-01-010823_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-050822_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-060834_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-01-020834_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-070846_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-01-030846_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-010847_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-020849_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-080909_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-01-040909_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-030909_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-03-010921_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-090920_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-01-050920_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-040920_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-100939_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-01-060939_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-050939_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-03-020939_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-04-010944_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-04-021007_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-04-031009_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-00-110943_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-01-081014_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-060943_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-03-030943_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-03-041014_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-04-041014_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-05-011016_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-01-091015_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-081015_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-03-051015_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-04-051015_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-01-070943_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-071014_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-091034_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-03-061034_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-04-061034_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-05-021034_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-06-011043_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-02-101036_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-03-071036_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-04-071036_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-05-031036_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-06-021044_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-06-031048_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-05-041048_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-04-081048_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-03-081048_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-03-091112_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-04-091112_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-05-051112_SP were found.
All filesets for 61-06-041112_SP were found.
Not all filesets for 61-06-051115_SP were found.
The culprit was the csm.hc_utils fileset from TL6 SP5. It was still at level 1.7.1.0 instead of the expected 1.7.1.1.
# instfix -ciqk "61-06-051115_SP" |grep ":-:"
61-06-051115_SP:csm.hc_utils:1.7.1.1:1.7.1.0:-:AIX 6100-06-05 Service Pack
I recommended that the csm.hc_utils 1.7.1.1 fileset be added to the AIX 6.1 lpp_source. The migration was attempted again and the client migrated to AIX 6.1 TLP6 SP5 successfully. I also suggested they determine if this fileset was really used and/or needed (CSM is no longer supported/available starting with AIX 7.1 anyway).
And just when I thought all his problems were resolved, he replied with: “however upon trying to install these from the NIM server, I get errors on NIM”.
*********************************************************
errors:
0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master": |
| 0042-001 m_showres: processing error encountered on "master": |
| 0042-185 c_ch_nfsexp: Failed to link or copy /etc/.tmp.nim.exports. |
| 12451894 to /etc/exports |
| Check permissions and filesystem space
*********************************************************
Fortunately a quick look at the output from the df command highlighted the problem immediately.
He was out of space in the root file system. The very place that /etc/exports, and the NIM database (/etc/objrepos), reside.
# df -g
Filesystem GB blocks Free %Used Iused %Iused Mounted on
/dev/hd4 2.50 0.00 100% 3388 1% /
/dev/hd2 4.50 1.74 62% 42150 4% /usr
/dev/hd9var 1.00 0.52 48% 3262 2% /var
/dev/hd3 4.00 3.84 5% 74 1% /tmp
/dev/hd1 0.50 0.37 27% 479 1% /home
/proc - - - - - /proc
/dev/hd10opt 0.75 0.21 73% 5698 3% /opt
/dev/livedump 0.25 0.24 4% 17 1% /var/adm/ras/livedump
/dev/exportlv 136.25 124.03 9% 20128 1% /export
After cleaning up unwanted files in / and making sure there was plenty of free space, the error no longer appeared in future NIM operations.
