Installing AIX by using a USB device

Before you assign a USB device to a logical partition (LPAR), ensure that the USB device drivers are installed in the current operating system (OS). Assign a USB device to an LPAR by using one of the following ways:

• Assign a USB device to an LPAR from the HMC
• Map the USB device by using VIO server

Assign a USB device to an LPAR from the HMC

The following steps describe the method to assign a USB device to an LPAR from the Hardware Management Console (HMC)

1. Login to your HMC.
2. In the selected LPAR window, select Configuration > Manage Profiles.
3. In the Manage Profiles window, select Edit under the Actions tab.
4. In the I/O tab, select the USB bus and assign it to the LPAR.

   

   Note: If the LPAR to which you want to assign the USB device is active, add the USB device through Dynamic Partitioning. Select LPAR > Dynamic partitioning > Physical Adpaters > Add.
5. In the next window, select the USB bus and click OK.

   

6. Configure the USB device after it is assigned to an LPAR by using the following command:

   # lsdev | grep usb 
   # 
   # cfgmgr 
   # 
   # lsdev | grep usb 
   usb0 Available USB System Software 
   usbhc0 Available 01-08 USB Host Controller (33103500) 
   usbhc1 Available 01-09 USB Host Controller (33103500) 
   usbhc2 Available 01-0a USB Enhanced Host Controller (3310e000) 
   usbms0 Available 2.1 USB Mass Storage

Map the USB device by using VIO server

You can map the USB device to only one LPAR by using the virtual input/output (VIO) server.

The AIX® firmware can recognize only physical USB devices. The virtual USB (mstor) devices cannot be used to boot the system as the AIX firmware does not recognize the mstor devices. To boot the system by using the mstor device, add the mstor device to the list of possible boot devices from which the system can be booted by using the bootlist command. An up and running operating system (OS) is required to boot the system from a mstor device. The AIX firmware still cannot discover the mstor device that is added to the list of possible boot devices. For more information of mstor devices, see the mstor Special File topic.

The following steps describe the procedure to map a USB device to an LPAR by using the VIO server:

1. To add a virtual USB device, mstor0, to the list of possible boot devices from which the system can be booted, enter the following command:

   # bootlist -m normal /dev/mstor0

2. To get the list of available LPARs (vhost), enter the following command:

   lsmap -all

   From the displayed list of the LPARs, make a note of the name of the LPAR to which the USB device must be mapped.

3. To get the list of USB drives, enter the following command:

   lsdev | grep usb

   An output similar to the following output is displayed:

   usb0 Available USB System Software 
   usbhc0 Available USB Host Controller (33103500) 
   usbhc1 Available USB Host Controller (33103500) 
   usbhc2 Available USB Enhanced Host Controller (3310e000) 
   usbms0 Available USB Mass Storage

   From the displayed list of the USB devices, make a note of the name of the USB device that must be mapped to the LPAR.

4. To map the USB device, usbms0, to the LPAR vhost5, enter the following command:

   mkvdev -vdev usbms0 -vadapter vhost5

5. On the VIO server, verify the USB device and LPAR mapping. The USB device is mapped to the LPAR as a virtual USB device.

   $ lsmap -vadapter vhost5
   SVSA               Physloc                           Client Partition ID 
   ------------------ --------------------------------- ------------------- 
   vhost5             U8202.E4C.10F474R-V1-C8           0x00000006 
   VTD                nim1hdisk0 
   Status             Available 
   LUN                0x8200000000000000 
   Backing device     nim1root 
   Physloc 
   Mirrored           N/A 
   
   VTD                nim1hdisk1 
   Status             Available 
   LUN                0x8300000000000000 
   Backing device     nim1data 
   Physloc 
   Mirrored           N/A
   
   VTD                vtopt5 
   Status             Available 
   LUN                0x8100000000000000 
   Backing device 
   Physloc 
   Mirrored           N/A 
   
   VTD                vtusbdd0 
   Status             Available 
   LUN                0x8400000000000000 
   Backing device     usbms0 
   Physloc            U78AA.001.WZSHYWU-P1-T7-L1 
   Mirrored           N/A

   $ lsdev | grep usb 
   usb0 Available USB System Software 
   usbhc0 Available USB Host Controller (33103500) 
   usbhc1 Available USB Host Controller (33103500) 
   usbhc2 Available USB Enhanced Host Controller (3310e000) 
   usbms0 Available USB Mass Storage 
   vtusbdd0 Available Virtual Target Device - USB Disk

   On the AIX LPAR, the mapped USB device is recognized as a mstor device. To view the list of mstor devices on the AIX LPAR, enter the following command:

   lsdev | grep mstor 
   # 
   # cfgmgr 
   # 
   # lsdev | grep mstor 
   mstor0 Available Virtual SCSI Removable Disk

To copy the ISO image to the USB flash drive, use the following syntax:

# dd if=<Path to ISO file> of=<usb device> bs=4k

In the following example, /export/installs/AIX_v7.1_Base_Install_DVD_1_of_2_TL_7100-04-04_042017.iso is the path of the ISO image and /dev/usbms0 is the path of the USB flash drive:

# dd if=/export/installs/AIX_v7.1_Base_Install_DVD_1_of_2_TL_7100-04-04_042017.iso of=/dev/usbms0 bs=4k

The time taken to copy the ISO image to the USB flash drive depends on the following factors:

• The size of the ISO image that is copied.
• The type of the USB flash drive.
• The system performance.

The following steps describe the procedure to restore or install AIX from a USB device

1. Boot the system and start the system management services (SMS).
2. In the SMS screen, type 5 to select Select Boot Options.

   Version AL740_161 SMS 1.7 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2008 All rights reserved. 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Main Menu 
   1. Select Language 
   2. Setup Remote IPL (Initial Program Load) 
   3. Change SCSI Settings 
   4. Select Console 
   5. Select Boot Options 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Navigation Keys: X = eXit System Management Services 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key: 5

3. In the Boot Options screen, type 1 to select Select Install/Boot Device.

   Version AL740_161 SMS 1.7 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2008 All rights reserved. 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Multiboot 
   1. Select Install/Boot Device  
   2. Configure Boot Device Order 
   3. Multiboot Startup <OFF> 
   4. SAN Zoning Support 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Navigation keys: M = return to Main Menu ESC key = return to previous screen X = eXit System Management Services 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key: 1

4. In the Install/Boot Device screen, type 5 to select Hard Drive.

   PowerPC Firmware Version AL740_161 SMS 1.7 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2008 All rights reserved. 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Select Device Type 
   1. Diskette 
   2. Tape 
   3. CD/DVD
   4. IDE 
   5. Hard Drive 
   6. Network 
   7. List all Devices 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Navigation keys: M = return to Main Menu ESC key = return to previous screen X = eXit System Management Services 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key: 5

5. In the Hard Drive screen, type the number for USB. In the following example, type 6 to select USB.

   PowerPC Firmware Version AL740_161 SMS 1.7 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2008 All rights reserved. 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Select Media Type 
   1. SCSI 
   2. SSA 
   3. SAN 
   4. SAS 
   5. SATA 
   6. USB  
   7. IDE 
   8. ISA 
   9. List All Devices ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Navigation keys: M = return to Main Menu ESC key = return to previous screen X = eXit System Management Services 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key: 6

   In the USB screen, all the USB devices that are listed as a bootable device are displayed. In the following example, only one USB device is listed as a bootable device:

   PowerPC Firmware Version AL740_161 SMS 1.7 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2008 All rights reserved. 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Select Device Device Current Device Number Position Name 
   1. - USB Disk ( loc=U78AA.001.WZSHYWU-P1-T7-L1-L0-L0 ) 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Navigation keys: M = return to Main Menu ESC key = return to previous screen X = eXit System Management Services 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key:

   From the displayed list of bootable USB devices, select the USB device that must be used to restore or install AIX.

   The procedure to restore or install AIX by using the selected USB device is the same as booting from any AIX DVD or AIX Network Installation Management (NIM).

   Welcome to Base Operating System Installation and Maintenance 
   Type the number of your choice and press Enter. 
   Choice is indicated by >>>. 
   1 Start Install Now with Default Settings 
   >>> 2 Change/Show Installation Settings and Install 
   3 Start Maintenance Mode for System Recovery 
   4 Make Additional Disks Available 
   5 Select Storage Adapter 88 Help ? 99 Previous Menu 
   >>> Choice [1]:

   The Change/Show Installation Settings and Install (option 2) is selected to verify the installation target disk and to check whether other installation options are set correctly.

The following steps describe the procedure to format a USB drive or a CD/DVD to user-defined functions (UDF) and use it for data storage:

1. To format a USB device, usbms0, to UDF, enter the following command:

   # udfcreate -d /dev/usbms0

2. To mount the device as a UDF file system, enter the following command:

   # mount -V udfs -o rw /dev/usbms0 /mnt    
   # df -tg /mnt  
   Filesystem       GB blocks    Used    Free %      Used     Mounted on  
   /dev/usbms0      28.64        0.01     28.63       1%       /mnt