VIO technologies consist of servers, software, and various commands.

VIO servers

VIO technology is based on the idea of having special LPARs that manage the disk and network resources that other LPARs use on the same pSeries or IBM System p servers. Instead of the individual network and disk resources being carved out on an LPAR-by-LPAR basis (especially in cases where there wouldn't be sufficient resources for all the LPARs to possess what they require to function), one or two VIO servers are given control of these resources and share them out to the other LPARs (VIO client LPARs).

VIO software

This VIO server runs a special version of the AIX operating system, with an additional software package called IOS. This software comes bundled and is managed independent of the usual operating system commands (for example, installp) and versioning structure (technology levels). It is similar to how HMCs have specialized software loaded onto a Linux kernel for a specific purpose.

Note: Installing third-party software or altering the operating system through any means outside of the IOS typically invalidates support from IBM, so it's best to avoid modifying the server in any nonstandard, non-VIO way.

The VIO user ID and commands

Instead of using the root user ID to issue commands, an administrative user ID—padmin—is used for all of the VIO controls. This user ID has a shell called the IOS command-line interface (ioscli) that runs a unique set of commands for managing devices assigned to the VIO servers. Many of these commands are similar to regular AIX commands (for example, lsdev) but use different flags and command structures (for example, lsdev –dev). But, most of the superuser level commands are new and perform many different operations at once. In fact, when administered properly, systems administrators will rarely have to become root. Helpful padmin commands include:

• help: This command lists all of the commands available in the ioscli. If you pass a specific command into it, such as help updateios, you can see the specific flags and syntax for that command.
  
• cfgdev: This command is the equivalent of the cfgmgr command and detects new physical and logical devices added to the VIO server.
  
• oem_setup_env: This command is the equivalent of running su – root but without the need to enter a password. Again, you will rarely have to become root on a VIO server.
  
  
• mkvdev: This command manages the virtual devices that you create and serve up to the VIO client LPARs.
  
• mktcpip, lstcpip, and rmtcpip: These commands manage your networking from the command line and circumvent the need for utilities such as smitty tcpip.
  
• lsmap: This command shows the relationships between disk resources and VIO client LPARs.
  
  
  

If you want to use unix and OpenSSH to automize your tasks. Therefore you need an automatic login from host A / user a to Host B / user b. You don't want to enter any passwords, because you want to call ssh from a within a shell script.

First log in on A as user a and generate a pair of authentication keys. Do not enter a passphrase:

a@A:~> ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/a/.ssh/id_rsa): 
Created directory '/home/a/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
Your identification has been saved in /home/a/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/a/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
3e:4f:05:79:3a:9f:96:7c:3b:ad:e9:58:37:bc:37:e4 a@A

Now use ssh to create a directory ~/.ssh as user b on B. (The directory may already exist, which is fine):

a@A:~> ssh b@B mkdir -p .ssh
b@B's password: 

Finally append a's new public key to b@B:.ssh/authorized_keys and enter b's password one last time:

a@A:~> cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh b@B 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'
b@B's password: 

From now on you can log into B as b from A as a without password:

a@A:~> ssh b@B hostname
B

Depending on your version of SSH you might also have to do the following changes:

• Put the public key in .ssh/authorized_keys2
• Change the permissions of .ssh to 700
• Change the permissions of .ssh/authorized_keys2 to 640
  
  
  

Vi is present on any Unix installation and it is therefore useful to know some basic
commands. There are two modes: command mode and insertion mode. The commands mode is
accessed with [ESC], the insertion mode with i.appending mode with a .

Quit

:w	newfilename save the file to newfilename
:wq or :x	save and quit
:q!	quit without saving

Search and move

/string	Search forward for string
?string	Search back for string
n	Search for next instance of string
N	Search for previous instance of string
{	Move a paragraph back
}	Move a paragraph forward
1G	Move to the first line of the file
nG	Move to the n th line of the file
G	Move to the last line of the file
:%s/OLD/NEW/g	Search and replace every occurrence

Delete text

dd	delete current line
D	Delete to the end of the line
dw	Delete word
x	Delete character
u	Undo last
U	Undo all changes to current line

 One of the unique facilities available on AIX is System Resource Controller (SRC). The SRC gives a set of commands that make it very easy for the system administrator to maintain and manage the subsystems and subservers running on your AIX system.

What is a subsystem ?
Subsystem is a set of related programs designed to perform one particular function. The subsystems can be sub divided into subservers(daemons).
SRC helps you to manage the whole subsystems and their respective subservers by creating subsystem groups. You can use SRC related commands to start/stop/refresh the subsystems and subservers.
In the example above, there is a subsystem group called tcpip. Under the subsystem group called tcpip you have a subsystem called inetd. Under the subsystem called inetd you have a subserver called telnet.
So to work with either the group called tcpip or the subsystem called inetd or the subserver called telnet, you need to use the SRC set of commands.
In other words, the SRC (System Resource Controller) is a process manager that is used to spawn, monitor and control services. Many of the standard Unix daemons are managed via this interface on AIX.
SRC does not have a persistent "service profile" and therefore does not comprehend persistence beyond the current boot. For this reason, it is necessary to find where the service is started and add or remove the startsrc (service start) command there. The most popular locations for this are rc.tcp and inittab.

SRC controlled processes must be started and stopped via the SRC interface. If a SRC process dies or is killed the srcmstr daemon will re-spawn that process and log an error to the system error log.

The core process for SRC (srcmstr) is spawned from /etc/initttab. Services that run under SRC control do not leave their process group (ie: have a PPID of 1), but instead, stay children of srcmstr.

I have attached here the picture showing the AIX evolution over 20 years of progress.

mkdir - make directories


Usage : mkdir [OPTION] DIRECTORY 

Options

Create the DIRECTORY(ies), if they do not already exist.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.


-m, mode=MODE set permission mode (as in chmod), not rwxrwxrwx - umask

-p, parents no error if existing, make parent directories as needed

-v, verbose print a message for each created directory

-help display this help and exit

-version output version information and exit

cd - change directories

Use cd to change directories. Type cd followed by the name of a directory to access that directory.Keep in mind that you are always in a directory and can navigate to directories hierarchically above or below.

mv- change the name of a directory

Type mv followed by the current name of a directory and the new name of the directory.

Ex: mv testdir newnamedir

pwd - print working directory

will show you the full path to the directory you are currently in. This is very handy to use, especially when performing some of the other commands on this page

rmdir - Remove an existing directory

rm -r  - Removes directories and files within the directories recursively.

rm -rf - Forcefully removes directories and files within the directories recursively

chown - change file owner and group

Usage

chown [OPTION] OWNER[:[GROUP]] FILE

chown [OPTION] :GROUP FILE

chown [OPTION] --reference=RFILE FILE

Options

Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to OWNER and/or GROUP. With --reference, change the owner and group of each FILE to those of RFILE.

-c, changes like verbose but report only when a change is made

-dereference affect the referent of each symbolic link, rather than the symbolic link itself

-h, no-dereference affect each symbolic link instead of any referenced file (useful only on systems that can change the ownership of a symlink)

-from=CURRENT_OWNER:CURRENT_GROUP

change the owner and/or group of each file only if its current owner and/or group match those specified here. Either may be omitted, in which case a match is not required for the omitted attribute.

-no-preserve-root do not treat `/' specially (the default)

-preserve-root fail to operate recursively on `/'

-f, -silent, -quiet suppress most error messages

-reference=RFILE use RFILE's owner and group rather than the specifying OWNER:GROUP values

-R, -recursive operate on files and directories recursively

-v, -verbose output a diagnostic for every file processed

The following options modify how a hierarchy is traversed when the -R option is also specified. If more than one is specified, only the final one takes effect.

-H if a command line argument is a symbolic link to a directory, traverse it

-L traverse every symbolic link to a directory encountered

-P do not traverse any symbolic links (default)

chmod - change file access permissions

Usage

chmod [-r] permissions filenames

r Change the permission on files that are in the subdirectories of the directory that you are currently in. permission Specifies the rights that are being granted. Below is the different rights that you can grant in an alpha numeric format.filenames File or directory that you are associating the rights with Permissions

u - User who owns the file.

g - Group that owns the file.

o - Other.

a - All.

r - Read the file.

w - Write or edit the file.

x - Execute or run the file as a program.

Numeric Permissions:

CHMOD can also to attributed by using Numeric Permissions:

400 read by owner

040 read by group

004 read by anybody (other)

200 write by owner

020 write by group

002 write by anybody

100 execute by owner

010 execute by group

001 execute by anybody

ls - Short listing of directory contents

-a list hidden files

-d list the name of the current directory

-F show directories with a trailing '/'

executable files with a trailing '*'

-g show group ownership of file in long listing

-i print the inode number of each file

-l long listing giving details about files and directories

-R list all subdirectories encountered

-t sort by time modified instead of name

cp - Copy files

cp myfile yourfile
Copy the files "myfile" to the file "yourfile" in the current working directory. This command will create the file "yourfile" if it doesn't exist. It will normally overwrite it without warning if it exists.

cp -i myfile yourfile

With the "-i" option, if the file "yourfile" exists, you will be prompted before it is overwritten.

cp -i /data/myfile

Copy the file "/data/myfile" to the current working directory and name it "myfile". Prompt before overwriting the file.

cp -dpr srcdir destdir

Copy all files from the directory "srcdir" to the directory "destdir" preserving links (-poption), file attributes (-p option), and copy recursively (-r option). With these options, a directory and all it contents can be copied to another dir

ln - Creates a symbolic link to a file.

ln -s test symlink

Creates a symbolic link named symlink that points to the file test Typing "ls -i test symlink" will show the two files are different with different inodes. Typing "ls -l test symlink" will show that symlink points to the file test.

locate - A fast database driven file locator.


more - Allows file contents or piped output to be sent to the screen one page at a time

less - Opposite of the more command

cat - Sends file contents to standard output. This is a way to list the contents of short files to the screen. It works well with piping.

whereis - Report all known instances of a command wc - Print byte, word, and line counts

bg

bg jobs Places the current job (or, by using the alternative form, the specified jobs) in the background, suspending its execution so that a new user prompt appears immediately. Use the jobs command to discover the identities of background jobs.

cal month year - Prints a calendar for the specified month of the specified year.

cat files - Prints the contents of the specified files.

clear - Clears the terminal screen.

cmp file1 file2 - Compares two files, reporting all discrepancies. Similar to the diff command, though the output format differs.

diff file1 file2 - Compares two files, reporting all discrepancies. Similar to the cmp command, though the output format differs.

dmesg - Prints the messages resulting from the most recent system boot.

fg

fg jobs - Brings the current job (or the specified jobs) to the foreground.

file files - Determines and prints a description of the type of each specified file.

find path -name pattern -print

Searches the specified path for files with names matching the specified pattern (usually enclosed in single quotes) and prints their names. The find command has many other arguments and functions; see the online documentation.

finger users - Prints descriptions of the specified users.

free - Displays the amount of used and free system memory.

ftp hostname

Opens an FTP connection to the specified host, allowing files to be transferred. The FTP program provides subcommands for accomplishing file transfers; see the online documentation.

head files - Prints the first several lines of each specified file.

ispell files - Checks the spelling of the contents of the specified files.

kill process_ids

kill - signal process_ids

kill -l

Kills the specified processes, sends the specified processes the specified signal (given as a number or name), or prints a list of available signals.

killall program

killall - signal program

Kills all processes that are instances of the specified program or sends the specified signal to all processes that are instances of the specified program.

mail - Launches a simple mail client that permits sending and receiving email messages.

man title

man section title - Prints the specified man page.

ping host - Sends an echo request via TCP/IP to the specified host. A response confirms that the host is operational.

reboot - Reboots the system (requires root privileges).

shutdown minutes

shutdown -r minutes

Shuts down the system after the specified number of minutes elapses (requires root privileges). The -r option causes the system to be rebooted once it has shut down.

sleep time - Causes the command interpreter to pause for the specified number of seconds.

sort files - Sorts the specified files. The command has many useful arguments; see the online documentation.

split file - Splits a file into several smaller files. The command has many arguments; see the online documentation

sync - Completes all pending input/output operations (requires root privileges).

telnet host - Opens a login session on the specified host.

top - Prints a display of system processes that's continually updated until the user presses the q key.

traceroute host - Uses echo requests to determine and print a network path to the host.

uptime - Prints the system uptime.

w - Prints the current system users.

wall - Prints a message to each user except those who've disabled message reception. Type Ctrl-D to end the message.

 it will be shown as
stty erase ^H

If you have a problem using the backspace it should display you the above output.
If not, it will just perform a backspace.


After doing that press CTRL+c . And now type anything and try backspace, you can see the backspace working...

Daemon : sendmail

To start the daemon :

# startsrc -s sendmail -a "-bd -q30m"
where
bd - To start the sendmail as a SMTP mail relay router
q - Is the interval in which the sendmail daemon processes the saved messages

To start the daemon automatically after the system boot:

a. # vi /etc/rc.tcpip

b. Uncomment the below line
start /usr/lib/sendmail "$src_running" "-bd -q${qpi}"

To display the status of the daemon :

# lssrc -s sendmail
# ps -ef | grep sendmail

To stop the daemon :

# stopsrc -s sendmail
# kill -1 `cat /etc/sendmail.pid`

Configuration File:

/etc/sendmail.cf - Where the hostname, Relay server name,... are stored.

Alias File :

/etc/aliases - Where the group(alias) to member mapping is stored.


To Add the hostname in the sendmail configuration :

a. Vi /etc/sendmail.cf

b. Change "#DwYourHostName" to "Dw{hostname of local server}"

c. # refresh -s sendmail


To Add the mail (relay) server in the sendmail configuration :

a. Vi /etc/sendmail.cf

b. Change "#DSrelayhostname" to "DS{hostname of the Relay Server}"

c. # refresh -s sendmail


To send the mails,

# echo "Test Message" | sendmail -v raja@server1.domain.com

If you add any alias in /etc/aliases file, then do the following

# sendmail -bi

This will make the sendmail daemon to re-read the aliases file.

To display the list of messages in the mail queue :

# mailq (or) # sendmail -bp

Directory containing log files and temp files associated with messages in the mail queue :

/var/spool/mqueue

To delete the first 1000 messages in the root's mail queue :

# mail -u root , then enter "d 1-1000"

The command find is used to search a given directory for a file or a given expression mentioned in the command. we can also do necessary actions on the output files using xargs

Some important options:

     -xdev                                          Stay on the same file system (dev in fstab).
    -exec cmd {} \;                           Execute the command and replace {} with the full path
    -iname                                        Like -name but is case insensitive
    -ls                                                Display information about the file (like ls -la)
    -size n                                         n is +-n (k M G T P)
    -cmin n                                      File's status was last changed n minutes ago.

find . -type f ! -perm -444	Find files not readable by all
find . -type d ! -perm -111	Find dirs not accessible by all
find /home/user/ -cmin 10 -print	Files created or modified in the last 10 min.
find . -name '*.[ch]' | xargs grep -E 'expr'	Search 'expr' in this dir and below.
find / -name "*.core" | xargs rm	Find core dumps and delete them
find / -name "*.core" -print -exec rm {} \;	Other syntax
find . \( -name "*.png" -o -name "*.jpg" \) -print	iname is not case sensitive
find . -type f -name "*.txt" ! -name README.txt -print	Exclude README.txt files
find /var/ -size +1M -exec ls -lh {} \;
find /var/ -size +1M -ls	Find in /var files above 1M and longlist them
find . -size +10M -size -50M -print
find /usr/ports/ -name work -type d -print -exec rm -rf {} \;	Clean the ports

Find files with SUID; those file have to be kept secure.

Some more Examples:

1 .To list all files in the file system with a given base file name, type:
find / -name .profile -print

This searches the entire file system and writes the complete path names of all files named .profile.
The / (slash) tells the find command to search the root directory and all of its subdirectories.
In order not to waste time, it is best to limit the search by specifying the directories where you think the
files might be.

2. To list files having a specific permission code in the current directory tree, type:
find . -perm 0600 -print

This lists the names of the files that have only owner-read and owner-write permission. The . (dot) tells the find command to search the current directory and its subdirectories. See the chmod command for an explanation of permission codes.

3. To search several directories for files with certain permission codes, type:
find manual clients proposals -perm -0600 -print

This lists the names of the files that have owner-read and owner-write permission and possibly other permissions. The manual, clients, and proposals directories and their subdirectories are searched. In the previous example, -perm 0600 selects only files with permission codes that match 0600 exactly.
In this example, -perm -0600 selects files with permission codes that allow the accesses indicated by 0600 and other accesses above the 0600 level. This also matches the permission codes 0622 and 2744.

4 .To list all files in the current directory that have been changed during the current 24-hour period, type:
find . -ctime 1 -print

5 .To search for regular files with multiple links, type:
find . -type f -links +1 -print

This lists the names of the ordinary files (-type f) that have more than one link (-links +1). Note: Every directory has at least two links: the entry in its parent directory and its own . (dot) entry. The ln command explains multiple file links.

6 . To find all accessible files whose path name contains find, type:
find . -name '*find*' -print

7. To remove all files named a.out or *.o that have not been accessed for a week and that are not mounted using nfs, type:
find / \( -name a.out -o -name '*.o' \) -atime +7 ! -fstype nfs -exec rm {} \;

Note: The number used within the -atime expression is +7. This is the correct entry if you want the command to act on files not accessed for more than a week (seven 24-hour periods).

8 . To print the path names of all files in or below the current directory, except the directories named SCCS or files in the SCCS directories, type:
find . -name SCCS -prune -o -print

To print the path names of all files in or below the current directory, including the names of SCCS directories, type:
find . -print -name SCCS -prune

9. To search for all files that are exactly 414 bytes long, type:
find . -size 414c -print

10. To find and remove every file in your home directory with the .c suffix, type:
find /u/arnold -name "*.c" -exec rm {} \;

Every time the find command identifies a file with the .c suffix, the rm command deletes that file. The rm command is the only parameter specified for the -exec expression. The {} (braces) represent the current path name.

11 .In this example, dirlink is a symbolic link to the directory dir. You can list the files in dir by refering to the symbolic link dirlink on the command line. To do this, type:
find -H dirlink -print

12 . In this example, dirlink is a symbolic link to the directory dir. To list the files in dirlink, traversing the file hierarchy under dir including any
symbolic links, type:
find -L dirlink -print

13 . To determine whether the file dir1 referred by the symbolic link dirlink is newer than dir2, type:
find -H dirlink -newer dir2
Note: Because the -H flag is used, time data is collected not from dirlink but instead from dir1, which is found by traversing the symbolic link.

14. To produce a listing of files in the current directory in ls format with expanded user and group name, type : find . -ls -long

15 .To list the files with ACL/EA set in current directory, type:
find . -ea

Traditionally the default dump device for system dumps was: /dev/hd6 (paging space) and still is on a lot of systems. If there is not enough space to copy over the dump file after a crash, then the system administrator is prompted upon restart to copy the dump file over to some removable media , like a tape or DVD. This can be time consuming and it is sometimes the case that you want to get your system back up quickly. I can sympathise with system administrators who just ignore the prompt to get the system back up due to business pressure, thus deleting the dump, so then one does not know why it crashed in the first place. If you do not have enough space on your dump device to copy the dump, then during the start-up process, the copydumpmenu menu utility is invoked to give the system administrator the opportunity to copy the dump to a removable media, for example to a tape device if present. The copydumpmenu utility can also be called from the command line when the system is up. The copy directory by default is /var/adm/ras with the file-name:vmcore.<X>.BZ , where X is a sequence number. The dump file is a BZ (BZIP) and not a Z compressed file format.

The snap command can be used to gather information about the dump file, be-sure to include the -D flag, it gathers the information from the primary dump device.

With systems now having more memory available, this has provided more flexibility as to where the primary dump device could be placed. Typically, for systems with over 4 GB of memory there is now a dedicated dump device, called: lg_dumplv

# lsvg -l rootvg |grep sysdump

Using the sysdumpdev command, one can determine what devices are used for the system dumps.

The following output shows a system using AIX 7.1 having the lg_dumplv as its primary dump device:
# sysdumpdev -l 

Looking more closely at the above output fields. Notice that an extra field is now present for AIX 6.1 onwards: type of dump. Currently set to traditional, here you can have it set at (firmware) fw-assisted, if your hardware supports it. For the secondary field, there is no dump device. This is denoted by using the sysdumpnull device. This means all system dumps are lost if it goes to that device. The copy directory is /var/adm/ras, this is where the system dump will be copied to , for either further examination, or to be copied off to go to IBM support. Note that 'always allow dump' is set to true, this must be the case if a dump is to be successfully initiated. Dump compression is on by default.

Common settings using sysdumpdev are:
To change the primary device use: sysdumpdev -P -p <device_name>
To change the secondary device use: sysdumpdev -P -s <device_name>
To change the copy directory use: sysdumpdev -D <path_name>
To change the always dump condition use: sysdumpdev -k for false, sysdumpdev -K for true
To change the type of dump use: sysdumpdev -t <fw-assisted | traditional>


Few Commands:

1. To view the current dump configuration :

# sysdumpdev -l

primary /dev/hd6
secondary /dev/sysdumpnull
copy directory /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag TRUE
always allow dump FALSE
dump compression OFF

2. To change the primary dump device temporarily :

# sysdumpdev -p /dev/dumplv

3. To change the primary dump device permanently :

# sysdumpdev -P -p /dev/dumplv

4. To change the secondary dump device temporarily :

# sysdumpdev -s /dev/dumplv

5. To change the secondary dump device permanently :

# sysdumpdev -P -s /dev/dumplv

6. To set the copy flag :

# sysdumpdev -K

7. To unset the copy flag :

# sysdumpdev -k

8. To estimate the dump size :

# sysdumpdev -e

9. To list the last dump information :

# sysdumpdev -L
Device name: /dev/lg_dumplv
Major device number: 12
Minor device number: 4
Size: 42123543 bytes
Date/Time: Wed Jan 01 12:03:00 CDT 2009
Dump status: 0
dump completed successfully
Dump copy filename: /var/adm/ras/vmcore.1

10. To copy the saved vmcoren file to tape :

# snap -gfkD -o /dev/rmt0

11. To read the dump file :

# crash dump unix
>

12. To change the dump file location and if the copy fails it should ask external media to copy the dump file:

# sysdumpdev -D /opt/dumpfiles

13. To change the dump file location and if the copy fails it should ignore the system dump:

# sysdumpdev -d /opt/dumpfiles

14. To specify the dumps should not be compressed :

# sysdumpdev -c

15. To specify the dumps should be always compress :

# sysdmpdev -C

16. To find out whether a new systemp dump has occured before the last reboot :

# sysdumpdev -z

The compressed dump is now on the LV lg_dumplv. The dump was not copied across to the copy directory when issuing a user initiated dump. To copy the most recent system dump from a system dump device to a directory, use the savecore command. For example, to copy the dump to the directory /var/adm/ras. I could use:

# savecore -d /var/adm/ras vmcore.0.BZ

If you need to uncompress the file use the dmpuncompress utility. The format of the command is:

dmpuncompress < filename>

After uncompressing, the dump file is now ready for further investigation using kdb or for transfer to IBM support.

# dmpuncompress vmcore.0.BZ
replaced with vmcore.0

Alternatively you can use the smit dump menu option and select,Copy a system dump. The following screen displays:

Copy dump image to: Type or select values in entry fields. Press Enter after making all desired changes. [Entry Fields] * Copy dump image from: [/dev/lg_dumplv] / * Copy dump image to: [/var/adm/ras/dump_fil> * Input and output file blocksize for copy [4096] # Size in bytes of dump image 63894528 Date of last dump Thu Oct 27 18-02-28 B>

The fields are populated with the current dump that is on the primary dump device. This is the default setting, after the copy, the dump file is present in: /var/adm/ras:

# ls -l dump_file_copy.BZ -rw-r--r-- 1 root system 63894528 Oct 27 18:15 dump_file_copy.BZ

After a dump has occurred there may well be a minidump generated as a well. Contained in the errorlog output listing earlier in the article, there was an entry for:

F48137AC 1027180411 U O minidump COMPRESSED MINIMAL DUMP

The minidump is a small compress dump that will be present in: /var/adm/ras. This file contains a snapshot of the system when the system was dumped or crashed. This file can be used for diagnosing if the main dump is not present, due to the dump being removed or not captured.

1. Pre-installation checks

To check packages/file set consistency
# lppchk –v

If we found some errors. We can get more information about problem & resolve it before continue with installation.
# lppchk -v -m3

Check the current installed ML/TL
# instfix -i|grep ML
# oslevel –s

Check Rootvg

Commit all package/fileset installed on the servers
# smit maintain_software

Check if rootvg is mirrored and all lv's are mirrored correctly (excluding dump and boot volumes). If your rootvg is not mirrored we can skip later in document part for alt_disk_install,
# lsvg -p rootvg
# lsvg rootvg
# lsvg -l rootvg


2. Preinstallation Task

Check for HACMP cluster

Check if cluster software is installed .Check for HACMP running on server.

# lslpp -l | grep -i cluster
Check if the cluster processes are active
# lssrc -g cluster

If HACMP is used, a current fix pack for HACMP should be installed when a new AIX Technology Level is installed. Currently available HACMP fix packs can be downloaded via http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/hacmp/home.html


3. Check for IBM C/C++ compiler

Updates needs to be installed with TL up gradation. Same can be downloaded from below mentioned links.
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=2239&uid=swg21110831

4. Check for Java Version

If Java is used, current software updates for the Java version(s) should be installed when a new AIX Technology Level is installed. If Java is being used in conjunction with other software, consult the vendor of that software for recommended Java levels

The Java version(s) installed on AIX can be identified with the commands
# lslpp -l | grep -i java

Default Java version can be identified with the
# java -fullversion command.
Java fixes can be downloaded from below link.
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/hacmp/home.html

5. Check for recommended TL/SP for system

Gets information of latest TL/SP for system using Fix Level Recommendation Tool available in below link
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/flrt/home

Download latest updates from IBM fix central website & dump in NIM server.

Create resources in NIM servers.

Run mksysb backup of servers on safer side.

Check for running application compatibility if any. Confirm it with application owner.
Free hdisk1 for alternate disk installation

Remove the secondary dump device if present from hdisk1. Then change the settings for secondary dump device to /dev/sysdumpnull.
# sysdumpdev –P –s /dev/sysdumpnull

Unmirror rootvg
#unmirrorvg rootvg

migrate logical volume from hdisk1 to hdisk0 which are not mirrored.
# migratepv hdisk1 hdisk0.

Clear boot record from hdisk0
# chpv -c hdisk1

Add new boot image to the first PV to have “fresh” boot record just for safer side
# bosboot –ad /dev/hdisk0

Set bootlist to hdisk0
# bootlist –m normal hdisk0 hdisk1 (hdisk1 after installation will contain upgraded OS)

Removes the second PV from rootvg
# reducevg rootvg hdisk1

7. Alternate disk migration

Carry out alternate disk installation via nim on hdisk1. We will carry out preview install. If it gets succeed we will go ahead & install TL/SP in applied mode
# smit nimadm

Reboot system. It will be booted from hdisk1 which contains upgraded OS.
# shutdown -Fr

8. Recreate the mirror of rootvg

After few days of stable work and some tests from application users.

Remove alternate disk installed disk
# alt_disk_install –X

Add disk hdisk0 in rootvg
# extendvg rootvg hdisk0

Check for estimated dump
# sysdumpdev –e

Re-create secondary dump device
# sysdumpdev –P –s “dump_device”

Mirror rootvg with hdisk1 in background.
# nohup mirrorvg '-S' rootvg hdisk1 &

Create bootimage on hdisk1
# bosboot -ad /dev/hdisk1

Add hdisk1 to bootlist
# bootlist -m normal hdisk0 hdisk1

Synchronize rootvg
# nohup syncvg -v rootvg &