I received the following question from an AIX administrator in Germany.   “ Hi Chris,   on your blog, you explain how to find out the active value of num_cmd_elems of an fc-adapter by using the kdb. So you can decide, if the value of lsattr is active or not ... I wonder if you can find out the values fc_err_recov and dyntrk of the fscsiX device.?   # lsattr -El fscsi0 attach       switch       How this adapter is CONNECTED         False dyntrk       yes          Dynamic Tracking of FC Devices        True fc_err_recov delayed_fail FC... [More]

Tags:  fc_error_recov chris_gibson dyntrk fscsi num_cmd_elems attributes kdb aix

Came across the following IBM Wiki site which is dedicated to all things related to Live Partition Mobility (LPM) on IBMs Power6 (and Power7) platform.   http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/virtualization/Live+Partition+Mobility Lot's of really interesting and useful information regarding LPM. If you are planning on implementing LPM, or even if you are already using it, I recommend you take a look at this site. Cheers. Chris

I was attempting to configure a new installation of lpar2rrd (version 2.65) for a customer today when I encountered the following error during the initial load of data from the HMC:   lpar2rrd@nim [/home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd]$ ./load.sh LPAR2RRD version 2.65 HMC            : hmc01 managed system : 750-1 (type_model*serial : 8233-E8B*0646D0P) HMC version    : 77301 There is no RRD: attempting to do initial load, be patient, it might take some time sample rate    : 60 seconds fetching HMC   : hmc01:750-DR CPU lpar config fetching HMC   :... [More]

Tags:  argument while at 532. "strict ref a ("") as /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/l... numeric in scalar line 533. can't "" (<=) refs" le string use isn't

I came across this strange LPM issue recently. Thought I’d share it with you.   All the customers VIOS were configured with the viosecure level set to high .   When the VIOS is configured with a security profile set to high , PCI or DoD , a new feature is enabled during LPM. This new feature is called “ Secure LPM ”. As a result when you initiate an LPM operation, the “Secure LPM” feature automatically enables the VIOS firewall and configures a secure (ipsec) tunnel for all LPM traffic over the network.... [More]

Tags:  lpm ipsec firewall vios hscla230

If you come across the following LPM issue with IVM and JS22 blades, IZ63357: LPM HUNG AT 100% ON BOTH SOURCE AND DESTINATION IVMS Error description The problem that these customers are seeing is the same As described in this particular defect.   Migrating mobile partition from one IVM to another:   The destination IVM GUI shows the migration is complete, but the percent complete is "unknown".   The source IVM GUI shows the "migration status" as Migration Complete and "percent Complete" as 100%.   Once the recover... [More]

The lsdevinfo utility appears to an undocumented command. However it looks like it could come in handy occasionally. Here are some examples of using it on AIX 7.1:   # oslevel -s 7100-00-01-1037   # lslpp -w /usr/sbin/lsdevinfo   File                                         Fileset                Type   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------   /usr/sbin/lsdevinfo                          bos.rte.methods        File   # lsdevinfo -h   Usage: lsdevinfo [-q Criteria] [-F Format] [-R] [-c] [-h]  ... [More]

Tags:  chris aix gibson lsdevinfo

Make sure you are monitoring file system space on your VIOS.   Why?   If you run out of space in the root file system, odd things can happen when you try to map virtual devices to virtual adapters with mkvdev .   For example, a colleague of mine was attempting to map a new hdisk to a vhost adapter on a pair of VIOS. The VIOS was running a recent version of code. He received the following error message (see below). It wasn’t a very helpful message. At first I thought it was due to the fact that he had not set the reserve_policy attribute... [More]

Tags:  root_filesystem_is_full this_may_or_may_not_indic... vios aix mkvdev cli_debug=33 powervm 0514-548 chris_gibson the_command's_response_wa...

It’s possible, with PowerVC, to manage existing AIX and Linux partitions in your environment. This may be useful for customers that have recently installed PowerVC in their environment and have existing AIX partitions. The question that is often asked is “ Can I manage these existing partitions with PowerVC? ”. These existing partitions were deployed outside of PowerVC, often long before PowerVC was even available as product from IBM. Fortunately the answer to this question is most likely yes!   Before you add an existing... [More]

Tags:  powervc virtual aix machines managing existing

Starting with AIX 7.1, CSM is no longer supported or available. It has been replaced by Distributed Systems Managment (DSM).    Section 5.2 of the IBM AIX 7.1 Differences Guide Redbook provides details of the new DSM capabilities.   Fortunately DSM still provides access to the dsh command.   I’ve written about how I’ve used this utility in the past . The new dsh command (and other tools) are provided in the new DSM filesets named dsm.core and dsm.dsh .   root@nim# lslpp -L dsm*   Fileset                       Level   State   Type... [More]

Tags:  run if remote exit installed pwdadm a accepted. code expired dping csm has not been you aix have license had dsh shell -l new release admchg 255 csmconfig 2651-095 or chpasswd

I like using the IBM Microcode Discovery Service ( MDS ) to perform spot checks on POWER system and adapter firmware levels. This tool gives me snapshot of a POWER systems current firmware levels. I can tell almost immediately if I need to update the firmware on the system or any device installed in the server. This report is especially useful when performing a health check on a customer’s system.   The tool is easy to use. First you need to download the latest inventory scout catalog file from the IBM website. The most current... [More]

Tags:  invscout device report file mup gibson adapter mic power aix firmware microcode mds catalog chris

Last year I wrote an article on using nimadm to migrate to AIX 6.1 . The procedures outlined how to migrate a live system with nimadm and a spare disk. Another method that I have found to be extremely useful is the migration of mksysb images from one version of AIX to another using (you guessed it) nimadm . In the following example I migrated an AIX 6.1 mksysb image to AIX 7.1 and then used that image to install a new LPAR via NIM. The source LPAR was running AIX 6.1 TL6 SP3. I took a mksysb of this system to my NIM master. # oslevel -s... [More]

Tags:  gibson migration chris nimadm aix

On more than one occasion I’ve written articles and blogs on how to migrate AIX systems to a new version of the AIX operating system. You can find a list these articles (and others) here . Each of the NIM articles focuses on migrating AIX systems (which are configured as NIM clients). The approach is always the same; use a NIM master to migrate the NIM clients to the next release of AIX. What they don’t discuss is how to migrate your NIM master to a new version of the OS. This is the very first step you should take before you... [More]

Tags:  master using sddpcm 7.2 vml chris the nimadm to you migrating gibson nim vios aix

AIX 7.2 requires 2GB of memory to boot, but this minimum is not enforced in the LPAR profile except by Live Update (to ensure we'll be able to boot the surrogate LPAR). You can check your Minimum Memory setting in your LPARs profile by running the lparstat command (as shown below).   # lparstat -i | grep Memory Online Memory                              : 4096 MB Maximum Memory                        ... [More]

Tags:  gibson minimum aix partition for live memory chris profile 7.2 updates

A colleague was attempting to recreate a WPAR. The WPAR had previously been removed using the WPAR Manager Web GUI. This worked, or so he tells me!   Anyway, when he tried to create the WPAR again from the GUI, using the same WPAR name ( wpar20 ), it failed. The error claimed that /wpars/wpar20 already existed. But it didn’t!   Now, before I go any further, looking back at the issue now, it is pretty obvious what the problem might have been. However, the solution was not evident at first. This proves one thing for certain: some problems... [More]

Tags:  0960-288 /wpars/wpar20 mkwpar: file gibson mkwpar system chris wpar exists. already aix the

A quick tip for monitoring Multiple Shared Processor Pools with topas . Execute topas from the AIX command line. Press the ‘ p ’ key to toggle on ‘pool metrics’. You will see the default pool (pool id 0) and any other pools defined on your system. In the example below, there are two pools, the default (0) and a user defined pool (1). The default display shows the LPARs in the default pool (0), which in this case is sys06_partition8 .   Using the up and down arrow keys, I place the cursor on pool ID number one, in the pool column on the... [More]

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” :  ... [More]

Tags:  resource to filesystem m_mk_lpp_source: oslevel space failed all check a "master" 0042-185 on nim already copy due not exists aix c_ch_nfsexp: instfix rest or permissions link filesets 0042-081 nfs found. for /etc/.tmp.nim.exports export were and

A colleague of mine was planning to modify the max_xfer_size attribute on a couple of FC adapters in one of his AIX LPARs. As he was describing his plan to me, I asked him how he intended to back out of the change should the LPAR fail to boot after the modifications. “ But, what could possibly go wrong?” he fired back. I advised him to use multibos to create a standby (backup) instance of the AIX OS, just in case. He begrudgingly did so, just to keep me happy.   The next day he told me the following tale.   He had modified the FC... [More]

Tags:  bacon max_xfer_size multibos chris_gibson aix

Thanks to the IBM Virtual Loaner Program, I was able to try out my first POWER7 LPAR today.  Some interesting items for me to research.   # lparstat -i Node Name                                  : node1 Partition Name                             : node1 Partition Number                           : 5 Type                                       : Shared-SMT-4 Mode                                       : Uncapped Entitled Capacity                          : 0.50 Partition Group-ID                         : 32773 Shared Pool ID          ... [More]

If you turn on Multiboot from within the SMS menu (as shown below), your LPAR will always boot into SMS, regardless of your AIX boot list and/or LPAR profile settings.    PowerPC Firmware Version EM310_048 SMS 1.6 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2005 All rights reserved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Multiboot 1. Select Install/Boot Device 2. Configure Boot Device Order 3. Multiboot Startup <ON> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Navigation keys:... [More]

So, your root volume group is called old_rootvg not rootvg?   Wait……what!?   aixlpar1 : # lspv hdisk0           00c342c68dfcbdfb              old_rootvg       active   < This is BAD! hdisk1           00c342c6161c6b47              appvg            active   How did you end up in this situation? Did you reinstall AIX with some strange incantation or did some alternate disk activity go horribly wrong? Not sure? Me neither!   Fortunately the following tech-note and associated script can help.  ... [More]

Tags:  aix importvg old_rootvg chris_gibson rootvg synclvodm odmdelete

I NEVER thought this would happen! But, “NEVER SAY NEVER!”.  IBM just announced that AIX 5.3 can now run on POWER8.   http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=872&letternum=ENUSAP16-0152   As you’d expect, there are some caveats!   A special PTF (U86665.bff) provides POWER8 support on AIX  5.3 with the following limitations:   The LPAR must be at AIX 5.3 TL12 SP9 (latest 5.3 release). The POWER8 LPAR will run in POWER6... [More]

    IBM recently announced some significant changes to their ‘AIX Release and Service Delivery’ strategy. Starting February 2011, the following changes will apply for both AIX 6 and AIX 7.                 •           Three years of support for each Technology Level (TL). •           A single Technology Level per AIX version, per year. •           Service Packs will be released approximately 4 times per year per Technology Level.   Some of the benefits of the new strategy are:   Longer support for Technology Levels. –       More... [More]

# fcstat –D fcs0 FIBRE CHANNEL STATISTICS REPORT: fcs0 …  FC SCSI Adapter Driver Queue Statistics     Number of active commands:   0     High water mark of active commands:   17     Number of pending commands:   0     High water mark of pending commands:   1     Number of commands in the Adapter Driver Held off queue:  0     High water mark of number of commands in the Adapter Driver Held off... [More]

Today, IBM announced AIX version 7.   http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/aix/v71/preview.html Several new features were mentioned in the launch, but there were two new features that I found particularly interesting:   - AIX 5.2 WPARs for AIX 7 - Cluster Aware AIX   I thought I would briefly describe each feature in this post.   AIX 5.2 WPARs for AIX 7   In AIX version 7, administrators will now have the capability to create Workload Partitions (WPARs) that can run AIX 5.2, inside an AIX 7 operating system instance. This will... [More]