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Chris Gibson's AIX and PowerVM blog.
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Migrating to AIX 7.1 with nimadm.

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (26) | Visits (48751)

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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

Tuning Virtual Ethernet adapters for (even) better backup performance.

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (23) | Visits (58740)

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Are you backing up your AIX systems over Virtual Ethernet adapters? Of course you are, who isn’t right? Are your backup server and clients on the same physical POWER system? You are most likely backing up over Virtual Ethernet to another AIX LPAR that is running your enterprise backup software, such as TSM or Legato Networker for example. And you probably have a dedicated private virtual network (and adapters) on both the clients and the server to handle the traffic for the nightly backups. The next question is, have you tuned your... [More]

Tags:  min_buf_huge=96 backup netstat slow hypervisor -a aix max_buf_huge=128 tsm chris_gibson min_buf_large=96 max_buf_large=256 networker min_buf_medium=512 -l adapter max_buf_medium=1024 virtual ent1 chdev –a ethernet

Renaming devices in AIX 7.1

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (20) | Visits (69935)

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I remember reading this interesting document about some challenges renaming AIX devices.   http://gibsonnet.net/aix/ibm/The_Fun_of_Oracle_RAC_ASM_and_Device_Names.doc   This poor guy had to jump through some hoops to rename some disk and network devices in a clustered AIX (Oracle RAC) environment.   This comment stayed with me:   “ The easy way to get network adapters and disk names to match between systems would be to run something like   # chdev –l old_name –n new_name   Except, this command option does NOT exist. ”   Since then I’ve... [More]

Tags:  7.1 gibson aix chris rendev

DLPAR not doing it for you anymore?

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (18) | Visits (94143)

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I received an email from one of my customers recently that simply said:   “mate …on lpar30, for some reason the IBM.DRM and others are failing to start .. um .. any chance you could have a quick look at that ?”   So I asked, “OK, so this use to work right?”. To which I received a relatively confused reply, ” .....yep it did....actually no....it’s never worked....or has it???...I’m not sure... ”.   Based on my experience, the most common issue that prevents DLPAR operations... [More]

Tags:  gibson chris dlpar aix

Replicated rootvg, ghostdev and NPIV

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (13) | Visits (46107)

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My team and I have recently been trying to stream line our AIX disaster recovery process. We’ve been looking for ways to reduce our overall recovery time. Several ideas were tossed around such as a) using a standby DR LPAR with AIX already installed and using rsync/scp to keep the Prod & DR LPARs in sync and b) using alt_disk_copy (with the –O flag for a device reset) to clone rootvg to an alternate disk which is then replicated to DR. These methods may work but are cumbersome to administer and (in the case of alt_disk_copy) require... [More]

Tags:  chris hds recovery led rootvg fc support ghostdev replication lpar hung gibson 554 boot replicated chris_gibson vfc vsp aix san channel virtual fibre dr disaster npiv hang

Cluster Aware AIX

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (13) | Visits (81984)

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Using Cluster Aware AIX with AIX 7.1 you can create a cluster of AIX nodes. This interconnected cluster of nodes can immediately provide several capabilities, such as:   ·          Clusterwide event management. ·          Communication and storage events: o    Node UP and node DOWN o    Network adapter UP and DOWN o    Network address change o    Point-of-contact UP and DOWN o    Disk UP and DOWN o    Predefined and user-defined events ·          Clusterwide storage naming service ·          Clusterwide command... [More]

Tags:  caa_private0 caa event aware ahafs cluster mkcluster aix cldisk1 7.1 lscluster

AIX 7.1 – DSM dgetmacs.

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (12) | Visits (17026)

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I received an email this week from a colleague that worked with me on the NIM Redbook back in 2006. He was experiencing an issue with DSM and NIM. He was attempting to use the dgetmacs command to obtain the MAC address of the network adapters on an LPAR. The command was failing to return the right information.   This was the output from his attempt with dgetmacs :   # dgetmacs -n lpar1 Using an adapter type of "ent". Could not dsh to node lpar1. Attempting to use openfirmware method to collect MAC addresses. Acquiring adapter... [More]

Tags:  nim aix chris dgetmacs 7.1 gibson dsm

How much memory or CPU will that CoD code activate anyway?

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (11) | Visits (34955)

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This little tip was passed on to me by a friendly IBM hardware engineer many years ago.   When entering a capacity on demand (CoD) code into a Power system, you can tell how many processors and how much memory will be activated, just by looking at the code you’ve given by IBM.   For example, the following codes, when entered for the appropriate Power system, will enable 4 processors (POD) and 64GB of memory (MOD). I can also tell* that once the VET code is entered, this system will be licensed for PowerVM Enterprise Edition (2C28).  ... [More]

Tags:  power cod gibson mod demand activation aix pod capacity chris code on powervm vet

fatal: PRNG is not seeded.

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (11) | Visits (28109)

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  The /dev/*random* devices were missing…….and I had to recreate them! # tail /var/log/syslog Oct 15 16:36:01 lpar1 auth|security :crit sshd [380976]: fatal: PRNG is not seeded # odmget CuDvDr | grep -p random CuDvDr :         resource = " ddins "         value1 = "random"         value2 = " 32 "         value3 = "" # mknod /dev/random c 32 0 # mknod /dev/ urandom c 32 1 # randomctl -l # stopsrc -s sshd # startsrc -s sshd  

Simplifying AIX Live Update with PowerVC

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (10) | Visits (7138)

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Starting with AIX Version 7.2, the AIX operating system provides the Live Update function which eliminates downtime required when patching the AIX operating system kernel. Your application workloads are not stopped, yet they can take advantage of the new fixes immediately after the Live Update operation, without a reboot. Administrators can use the Live Update feature to install AIX interim fixes, service packs and technology levels.   In a nutshell, Live Update allows AIX administrators to install AIX updates in-place, but instead of... [More]

Tags:  7.2 blog openstack pvcauth powervc aix live update novalink hmc tl2 power8 chris vios cloud geninstall powervm gibson power

How to live update your AIX system without rebooting the server.

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (9) | Visits (8723)

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A little over a year ago, I wrote about the new AIX Live Update feature , available with the AIX 7.2. I discussed how to use this new feature to install an interim fix (ifix) on a running AIX system without a reboot.  On October 11th, 2016, IBM announced the next exciting step in AIX Live Updates .   Introducing IBM AIX 7.2.1 Live Update http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-aix7.2.1-liveupdate-trs/index.html?ca=drs-&ce=ism0070&ct=is&cmp=ibmsocial&cm=h&cr=crossbrand&ccy=us   This is a... [More]

In a perfect world....rootvg would always reside on hdisk0.

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (9) | Visits (33472)

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In a perfect world, 99.9% of AIX administrators would prefer their systems to look like this:   # lspv | grep rootvg hdisk0          00c342c68dfcbdfb                     rootvg           active   However, in reality, 99.9% of AIX administrators live with systems that look something like this:   # lspv | grep rootvg hdisk39... [More]

Tags:  hdisk0 chris_gibson rendev rootvg aix

Convert rootvg file systems to JFS2 using alt_disk_copy

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (9) | Visits (27663)

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Q: Does alt_disk_copy convert JFS filesystems to JFS2? A: Yes! Starting at 6100-04 , a new flag was introduced that would convert JFS filesystems to JFS2. We now have the -T which does the conversion. http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg3T1011055   Here’s an example of converting rootvg file systems from JFS to JFS2 using alt_disk_copy .   My lab system was migrated from AIX 5.3 to 7.1 via nimadm . Unfortunately, nimadm does not convert JFS file systems to JFS2 during the migration. So, in this case, even though... [More]

Tags:  convert chris_gibson aix jfs2 alt_disk_copy jfs conversion

nimadm - multibos error!?

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (9) | Visits (22057)

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  I’ve been working with a customer recently on an issue with nimadm . They were attempting to migrate a system from AIX 5.3 to 7.1 using nimadm . The NIM client AIX level was 5.3 TL12 SP4 and the NIM master was running AIX 7.1 TL1 SP1.   lpar1 : / # oslevel -s 5300-12-04-1119   root@nim1 : / # oslevel -s 7100-01-01-1141   They were running the following nimadm command:   # nimadm -j nimadmvg -c lpar1 -s spotaix710101 -l lpp_sourceaix710101 -d hdisk1 -Y   The nimadm operation would always fail at phase 11:  ... [More]

Tags:  altinst_rootvg attention: client nimadm: cloning error returned multibos 6 unexpected init_multibos() 11 7.1 phase alt_disk_copy: nimadm on result an .1 0505-218 5.3 aix 0505-187

IVM and VLAN Tagging

cggibbo 270000TMUJ | | Comments (9) | Visits (38626)

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I was working with a customer recently on a Power Blade that was running the Integrated Virtualisation Manager (IVM). They’d installed a VIO partition onto the Blade and had hoped to install a couple of AIX LPARs on the system. However they didn’t get very far.   As soon as they attempted to NIM install the LPARs, they would get stuck at trying to ping the NIM master from the client. Basically, the Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) was not working properly and none of the LPARs could communicate with the external network. So they asked for... [More]

Tags:  ivm chhwres vlan lshwres aix tag vios sea
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