Welcome to the AIX World

How to manage CDROM in AIX - HD Video

2010-08-18T09:17:00.001+05:30

How to define, undefine a NIM Client and unconfigure a NIM Server - HD Video

2010-08-18T01:02:00.004+05:30

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Configuring a NIM Server - HD Video

2010-08-17T10:49:00.002+05:30

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Paging Space - HD Video

2010-07-11T13:02:00.002+05:30

LVM - Part 1 - HD Video

2010-07-11T01:35:00.002+05:30

AIX Tips - HD Video

2010-07-11T00:42:00.001+05:30

AIX as DNS client - Tips & Tricks

2010-06-22T18:19:00.012+05:30

nslookup is the command used to query DNS servers. Normally nslookup looks up the hostname for a ip address or IP address for a hostname.

DNS server IP address/hostnames are defined in /etc/resolv.conf in AIX servers.

Here is an example of /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 192.168.2.12
nameserver 192.168.2.13
nameserver 192.168.2.14
search india.cope.com usa.cope.com uk.cope.com

Let us see few tips and tricks on using nslookup.

1. To look up address in non interactive way,

$ nslookup webserv
Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

Name:    webserv.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.211
$

2. To look up address in interactive way,

$nslookup
Default Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

> websrv
Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

Name:    webserv.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.211

> exit
$

3. To look up hostname in non interactive way,

$ nslookup 192.168.2.211
Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

Name:    webserv.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.211
$

4. To look up hostname in interactive way,

$ nslookup
Default Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

> 192.168.2.211
Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

Name:    webserv.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.211

> exit
$

4. To look up MX data,

$ nslookup
Default Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

> set q=mx
> rajs
Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

Name:    rajs.india.cope.in
Address: 0.0.0.0
> exit
$

5. How to query a specific DNS server for an address ?

We can do in both interactive and non-interactive ways.
Below example will query for the IP address of the host websrv using the DNS serer "192.168.2.15" which is not specified in the /etc/resolv.conf file.

Interactive Way:

$nslookup
Default Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

> server 192.168.2.15
Default Server: dnserver4.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.15

> websrv
Server: dnserver4.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.15

Name:    webserv.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.211

> exit
$

Non-Interactive Way:

$nslookup - websrv 192.168.2.15

Server: dnserver4.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.15

Name:    webserv.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.211

6.What is the difference between Authoritave and Non-authoritative answers ?

When you query for something for the first time, we get the answer from the DNS server and it will be displayed as well as stored in the local cache. This is called as authoritative answer. ie., getting the answer directly from the DNS server. This answer will be kept in cache for certain time.

But when you do the same query for the second time, we get the answer from the cache instead of the DNS server. This is called as non-authoritative answer.

7. How will you specify an alternate DNS server when using nslookup ?

For using 192.168.2.24 as an alternate DNS server,
$ nslookup - 192.168.2.24

This will query the alternate server instead of the DNS servers configured in /etc/resolv.conf file.

8. How will you query a MX record in an alternate server ?

$ nslookup - type=mx bashi.usa.cope.com 192.168.2.24

9. How will you debug while querying a DNS server ?

$ nslookup
Default Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12
> set debug
> webserv

Server: dnserver1.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.12

;; res_nmkquery(QUERY, websrv.india.cope.com, IN, A)
------------
Got answer:
    HEADER:
        opcode = QUERY, id = 54305, rcode = NOERROR
        header flags: response, authoritive answer, want recursion, recursion available
        questions = 1, answers = 1, authority records = 0, additional = 0

    QUESTIONS:
        websrv.india.cope.com, type = A, class = IN
    ANSWERS:
    -> webserv.india.cope.com
        internet address = 192.168.2.211
        ttl = 3600 (1H)

------------
Name:    webserv.india.cope.com
Address: 192.168.2.211

10.
Each DNS packet is composed of 5 sections as given below

Header Section
Question Section
Answer Section
Authority Section
Additional Section

11. You can use options with the nslookup command using 'set' sub-command.
Here are few options ...

port=53        By default, DNS service uses port 53. If you have a DNS service on a different port, you can sue the port option to specify the prot number.

timeout=10    It is used to specify the timeout value. If the name server doesn't respond in 10 seconds, nslookup will send the query again.

debug      To turn on debug mode

nodebug         To turn off debug mode

querytype=A By default, nslookup looks for A record. If you type the IP address, it will look for PTR record.. You can change the querytype to MX or SOA.

12. How will you come out of the interactive nslookup session.

You can use exit command or type ^D (control+D) to come out of the session.

Mirroring a rootvg in AIX

2010-01-25T16:45:00.003+05:30

User and Group Administration - Part 2

2009-11-30T11:38:00.005+05:30

GROUP ADMINISTRATION

Few Restrictions on the Group Name:

1. Group names cannot start with the below signs:

Dash or minus sign (-).
Plus sign (+)
At symbol (@)
Tilde (~)

2. Groups cannot be named ALL or default, as these names are reserved for the AIX OS.

3. Group names cannot include :

Colon (:)
Quotation marks—single or double (' or ")
Pound or hash sign (#)
Comma (,)
Equal sign (=)
Slashes—back or forward (\ or /)
Question mark (?)
Back quote or tick (`)
White space (space or tab)
New-line characters

4. Group names can have max. 8 characters in AIX V 5.2 or earlier. Starting with AIX 5.3, you can have a
max. of 255 characters.

Now let us look at the configuration files for groups.

/etc/group :

This file contains the basic group configuration details in the following format.

Group Name : Password Flag : GID : User(s)

where
Password Flag - This field is not used in AIX.
GID - Group ID is the unique identification number for every group. 0 is the gid for system group.
User(s) - List of users belonging to the group

/etc/security/group :

This file contains the extended attribtues for the groups.
Here are the parameters used in this file.

adms - List of users with admin rights to ths group
admin - If set to true, this group will have administrative rights.

There are 4 main commands used in the administration of group :

mkgroup - Add a group
chgroup - Change an attribtue of a group
lsgroup - List the attribtues of a group
rmgroup - Remove a group

These words can also be used as fastpaths for smitty.

For example, # smitty mkgroup will open a form to create a group.

For doing the whole group administration, you can use

# smitty group and go thru the menu items for various operations.

Now let us see the commands to administrate groups ...

1. To create a group called dba :

# mkgroup dba

2. To create a admin group called admin1 :

# mkgroup -a admin1

3. To create dba group and add jack as the admin :

# mkgroup adms=jack dba

4. To change the members of dba group, you can use any of the below commands :

# chgroup users=jack,tom,michelle dba

# chgrpmem dba

# chgrpmem -m + raja dba

5. To remove the membership of a user from the dba group :

# chgrpmem -m - jack dba

6. To add a user as admin for the dba group :

# chgrpmem -a + raja dba

7. To remove the group administrator :

# chgrpmem -a - raja dba

8. To list the attributes of a group :

# lsgroup dba

9. To remove a group from the system :

# rmgroup test

User and Group Administration - Part 1

2009-11-27T12:11:00.008+05:30

USER ADMINISTRATION

Few Restrictions on the User Name:

1. User names cannot start with a

dash or minus sign(-)
plus sign (+)
At symbol (@)
Tilde (~)

2. User names cannot include

colon (:)
single or double quotation marks( ' or ")
hash symbol (#)
comma (')
equal sign
Back or forward Slashes ( \ or /)
Question mark (?)
Back quote (`)
White space (space or tab)

3. User names cannot be names ALL or default. Becoz those names are reserved for the AIX OS.

4. User names can have max. 8 characters in AIX V 5.2 or earlier. Starting with AIX 5.3, you can have a

max. of 255 characters. You can change this setting by using the below command,

# chdev -l sys0 -a max_logname=255

To view the setting, use any of the below commands

# lsdev -l sys0 -a max_logname
# getconf LOGIN_NAME_MAX

Configuration Files:

/etc/passwd :

Contains the basic user configuration details like user name, password flag, uid, gid, gecos (description), home directory, shell.

/etc/security/.profile :

It is the template for the user's .profile file. It has been copied to the user's home directory when we create the user.

/etc/security/limits :

It contains all the resource limits (ulimits) for the users.

Here are the various ulimit values ...

fsize, fsize_hard - Soft and hard limit for the size of a file a user can create

core, core_hard - Soft and hard limit for the Size of core file a user can create
cpu, cpu_hard - Soft and hard limit for the amount of system time allowed
data, data_hard - Soft and hard limit for the size of the process data segment
stack, stack_hard - Soft and hard limit for the size of the process stack segment
rss, rss_hard - Soft and hard limit for the physical memory allowed
nofiles, nofiles_hard - Soft and hard limit for the number of open file descriptors at one time
nproc, nproc_hard - Soft and hard limit for the number of running processes at one time

/etc/security/passwd :

This file contains the user's password information such as password, lastupdate and flags.

Here are the various flags user

ADMIN - It can be set so that only the root user can change the user's password.

ADMCHG - It can be set so that the user is prompted to change his or her password on the next login/su.

NOCHECK - It can be set so that any additional restrictions in /etc/security/user are ignored.

/etc/security/user : This file contains very very important settings for every user.

Here are the parameters configured in the file for each and every user :

account_locked - To lock the user account. This can takes values TRUE or FALSE

admin - To specify whether the user is admin or not. It can take calues TRUE or FALSE

expires - It is configured to set the expiration date for the user beyond which the user will be locked. It can take values in the format MMDDHHYY.

histexpire - To specify the # of weeks the user can't reuse a password. It can takes values between 0-260

histsize - To specify the # of passwords previously used that can't be reused. It can take values between 0-50

login - To specify whether a user can log in or not. It can take values TRUE or FALSE.

maxage - To specify the # of weeks a password is valid. It can take values between 0-52.

minage - To specify the # of weeks a user must wait before changing his or her password. It can take values between 0-52.

rlogin - To specify whether a user can be accessed remotely via telnet,ssh, ftp. It can take values TRUE or FALSE.

su - To specify whether other user can use su to access this account. It can take values TRUE or FALSE.

/usr/lib/security/mkuser.default : This file contains the default values that are set while creating an user.

/etc/security/login.cfg : This file contains the message that is displayed whenever you login to the system.
You can always change it using chsec command or by editing this file directly in vi editor.

Here are the few attributes of a user which you may be interested.

id - User Identification Number is a unique i dfor every user. root user's id is always 0.

pgrp - Primary Group of a user

groups - Secondary Groups of a user. An user can belong to maximum 128 groups in AIX 5.3 and 6.1.

home - Home directory to store the user's files

shell - Shell that runs when the user login

gecos - Description or some comments about the user

There are 6 main commands used in the administration of user :

mkuser     - Add a user
chuser      - Change an attribtue of a user
lsuser       - List the attribtues of a user
rmuser     - Remove a user
passwd    - To set password for a user and for various other purposes

These words can also be used as fastpaths for smitty.
For example, # smitty mkuser will open a form to create a user.

For doing the whole user administration, you can use

# smitty user and go thru the menu items for various operations.

Now let us see the commands to administrate users ...

1. To create a user called 'jack' with default settings and allocate the next available uid :

# mkuser jack

2. To create a user with home dir as /opt/$username, primay group as 'dba' :

# mkuser home=/opt/jack pgrp=dba jack

3. To know about the user :

# finger jack

4. To change the primary group for a user :

# chuser pgrp=oracle jack

5. To list the attributes of a user in stanza structure :

# lsuser -f jack

6. To list the attributes of a user delimited by comma :

# lsuser -c jack

7. To list home and shell attributes for the users jack and tom :

# lsuser -a shell home jack,tom

8. To set the password for a newly created user :

# passwd jack

9. To clear the flag ADMCHK for jack :

# pwdadm -c jack

If you dont do this after setting a password for jack, he will be prompted to change his password on the first login.

10. To change the gecoz for a user :

# passwd -f jack

11. To change the shell for a user :

# passwd -s jack

12. To list the last password update date/time and the flags for a user :

# passwd -q jack

13. To set the ADMIN flag for a user :

# passwd -f ADMIN jack

ADMIN flag ensures that only the root user can change the password for Jack.

14. To remove the user :

# rmuser jack

Note: rmsuer doesn't remove the home directory for a user.
You have to remove it may be after the backup.

15. To remove the user along with his password information :

# rmuser -p jack
16. To list the currently logged in users :

# who

Note: This command will show the contents of /etc/utmp which is a binary file.

17. To list the login and logout information for the machine :

# last

Note: This command will show the contents of /var/adm/wtmp file, which is a binary file. Over a period of time, this file will occupy the /var file system a lot. Hence nullify the file once in a 6 months or depending upon the # of login/logout actions in the system.

To clear(nullify) the wtmp file, you can use any of the below commands

# cp /dev/null /var/adm/wtmp
# > /var/adm/wtmp

18. To change the default message(herald) that is shown after user login :

# chsec -f /etc/security/login.cfg -a default -herald

19. As a user, you have to protect (lock) your terminal whenever you go for a coffee break.

# lock -> To lock your telnet or ssh terminal

If you use XWindowsm you can use the below command

# xlock

20. Sometimes you may want to login as root to execute some admin commands. For this you dont have to logout from current user and login as root.You can use su command to swtich user and execute the commands and say 'exit' to come out of the su window.

To su to root, you can use any of the below commands

# su - root
# su -

To su to other user called tom,
# su - tom
These su operations are logged into /var/adm/sulog file. You have to nullify this file on certain period of time to make some space in /var file system.

21. How to disable direct root login via telnet and ssh ?

To disable direct root login thru telnet or ssh, you have to set 'rlogin' attribtue for root user to false.
You can use the below command to do so.

# chuser rlogin=false root

22. How to enforce automatic logoff after certain timeout period ?

To enforce automatic logoff after timeout period of 10 minutes, enter the following line in /etc/security/.profile after the AIX installation.

TMOUT=600 ; TIMEOUT=600 ; export readonly TMOUT TIMEOUT

I will update this blog whenever I come across other commands.

We will talk about group administration in the next part.

Thanks for visiting.

- Raja

Sytem Dump in AIX

2009-11-24T14:14:00.002+05:30

               A system dump is created when the system gets an unexpected system halt or a crash. The dump will be written to the primary dump device, if not available then to the secondary dump device.
You can also initiate it using certain commands.

             After the reboot, if the cofy flag is set to TRUE, a menu will be displayed on the console requesting the removable media to copy the dump. It can be either /dev/rmtn or /dev/fd0. Otherwise, it will be copied to a file named vmcoren under /var/adm/ras.

Default Dump Device:

AIX V 4.1 and earlier :

Default dump device is /dev/hd7

AIX 5.1 and above :

Primary : /dev/hd6          Secondary : /dev/sysdumpnull
Note: If the real memory size is larger than 4GB, then a dedicated dump device called "lg_dumplv" will be created.

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

Sendmail Configuration in AIX

2009-11-20T12:33:00.004+05:30

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

Duirectory 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"

Please let me know for any improvements or addons.

Backup and Restoration

2009-11-17T14:07:00.012+05:30

System [rootvg] Backup :

Few Points:
a. rootvg backup can be taken thru mksysb command. Most people refer it as mksysb backup.
b. This type of backup on a tape is bootable. Hence its been widely used to restore the system incase of system crash.
c. Mksysb backup contains 4 images
i. BOS Boot Image - Kernel Device Drivers
ii. mkinsttape image - ./image.data, ./tapeblksz, ./bosinst.data and few other commands
iii. dummy .toc - Nothing but a dummy table of contents file
iv. rootvg data - This is where the actual data resides

Files used by mksysb:

/image.data :
Contains information about the image installed during the BOS installation process. This includes the sizes, names, mount points of LVs and file systems in the rootvg [Actually nothing but the rootvg structure]. It can be created using mkszfile command.

/var/adm/ras/bosinst.data :
It allows you to customize the OS installtion. Modified mostly to use the mksysb image to install new servers.

Few Commands :

To generate just /image.data :
# mkszfile

To create /image.data and generate a system backup on the tape :
# mksysb -i /dev/rmt0

To generate a system backup on the tape but to exclude /home directory and to create /image.data :
# echo /home > /etc/exclude.rootvg
# mksysb -ei /dev/rmt0

To list the contents of a mksysb image :
# lsmksysb -f /backup/system1.mksysb

To restore a specific file from mskysb image :
a. Rewind the tape :
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind
b. Move the tape forward to the end of 3rd image :
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0.1 fsf 3
c. Restore the specific file:
# restore -xqvf /dev/rmt0.1 /home/user1/file1

Non-rootvg Backup :

Few Points:
a. Volume groups other than rootvg can be backup'ed using savevg command.
b. You can exclude certain files by creating /etc/exclude.vgname.
c. VG data files are kept under, /tmp/vgdata/vg-name/vg-name.data.

Few Commands :

To backup a datavg to the tape drive :
# savevg -if /dev/rmt0 datavg

To backup a datavg to the tape drive and exclude certain files :
# savevg -ief /dev/rmt0 datavg

To restore the datavg image from the tape onto the disks specified in /tmp/vgdata/datavg/datavg.data file :
# restvg -f /dev/rmt0

To create the data file (/tmp/vgdata/oravg/oravg.data) for oravg :
# mkvgdata oravg

File System Backup :
File systems can be backup'ed using many ways.Few commands used for this are backup, cpio, dsm [TSM Client].

To back up all the files and subdirectories in the /home directory using full path names :
# find /home -print l backup -if /dev/rmt0

To back up all the files and subdirectories in the /home directory using relative path names :
# cd /home
# find . -print l backup -if /dev/rmt0

I have used "l" for the pipe symbol as it was not displaying properly in blog.

To backup a list of files:
# cat bakfile
/home/raja/file1.txt
/home/raja/file2.txt
/home/raja/file3.txt

# backup -iqvf /dev/rmt0

I-node Base Backup:

Here is the syntax for the backup command in case of inode based backup

Syntax:
# backup [-u] [-level] [-f device] filesystem

u -> Updates the /etc/dumpdates file
-level -> Values available from 0 to 9 where 0 is the full backup and 1-9 for backup the changes since the previous level.

To back up the /home file system by i-node :
# backup -0 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

i-node based backup has the advantage of making incremental and differential backups. Here we use the numeric flags (0 to 9) to make the difference in the way it back ups. It actually updates the date/time/mode of last backup in /etc/dumpdates when you use the 'u' flag.

Here are the different numeric flags used and their meanings,

0 - Full Backup
1 - Back ups the files created/modified from the date/time of 0th backup
2 - Back ups the files created/modified from the date/time of 1th backup
3 - Back ups the files created/modified from the date/time of 2th backup
4 - Back ups the files created/modified from the date/time of 3th backup
5 - Back ups the files created/modified from the date/time of 4th backup
6 - Back ups the files created/modified from the date/time of 5th backup
7- Back ups the files created/modified from the date/time of 6th backup
8 - Back ups the files created/modified from the date/time of 7th backup
9 - Back ups the files created/modified from the date/time of 8th backup

Few Examples for i-node based backup :

Scenario 1 - Full and Incremental Backup :

If you want to have full backup of /home on sunday night and incremental backup on other nights, then follow the below procedure.

Sunday Night - Full Backup :
# backup -0 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Monday Night - Incremental Backup :
# backup -1 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Tuesday Night - Incremental Backup
# backup -2 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Wednesday Night - Incremental Backup :
# backup -3 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Thursday Night - Incremental Backup :
# backup -4 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Friday Night - Incremental Backup
# backup -5 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Saturday Night - Incremental Backup :
# backup -6 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Advantages of Incremental Backup:
a. It takes lesser time to restore the specific data.For example, if you lose a file that was created on thursday morning, then you need only the wednesday night tape to restore the specific file.
b. This method consumes less tapes for backup. Hence its cost effective compared to differential backup.

Disadvantages of Incremental Backup:
a. You need more number of tapes (from sunday-full to last night-incre) to restore the entire file system.

Scenario 2 - Full and Differential Backup :

If you want to have full backup of /home on sunday night and differential backup on other nights, then follow the below procedure.

Sunday Night - Full Backup :
# backup -0 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Monday Night - Differential Backup :
# backup -1 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Tuesday Night - Differential Backup :
# backup -1 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Wednesday Night - Differential Backup :
# backup -1 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Thursday Night - Differential Backup :
# backup -1 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Friday Night - Differential Backup :
# backup -1 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Saturday Night - Differential Backup :
# backup -1 -uf /dev/rmt0 /home

Advantages of Differential Backup:
a. It takes less tapes (from sunday-full and last night-incre) to restore the entire file system.Hence it is easy for the backup operator to restore the data.

Disadvantages of Differential Backup:
a. It consumes more tapes for backup. (since we are going to backup the same old files again and again for the whole week).Hence cost is more in this type of backup.

To list the contents of backup on the tape :
# restore -Tvf /dev/rmt0

To restore individual files from backup created by 'backup -i' command :
# restore -xvf /dev/rmt0 /home/user1/file1

To restore the entire file system :
# restore -rvf /dev/rmt0

Other Unix Backup Commands:

TAR:
tar is the only command (i think so) in UNIX which doesnot require a dash(-) infront of a flag.

To create a tar image in /tmp for a directory :
# tar cvf /tmp/oradata.tar /opt/oradata

To view the contents of a tar image :
# tar tvf /tmp/oradata.tar

To restore the tar image :
# tar xvf /tmp/oradata.tar

CPIO :
cpio reads and writes from stdin and stdout.

To backup the current directory to a /tmp/file.cpio file :
# find . -print cpio -ov > /tmp/file.cpio
To view the table of contents of the cpio archived tape :
# cpio -itvcC1 < /dev/rmt0

To restore data from the cpio archive file :
# cpio -idv < /tmp/file.cpio

To restore a selective file from cpio archived tape :
# cpio -imv /home/roger/.profile < /dev/rmt0

To restore selectively only the *.c and *.cpp file :
# cpio -i "*.c" "*.cpp" < /dev/rmt0

DD Command :
'dd' command copies (also converts) from an input device to an output device. This command will not span multiple tapes.
To copy a file and converting all the chars to upper case :
# dd if=/tmp/unixfile.txt of=/tmp/dosfile.txt conv=ucase

Tcopy Command :
Copies from one tape device to another.
To list the contents of a tape media :
# tcopy /dev/rmt0
To copy all the data from one tape to another tape device :
# tcopy /dev/rmt0 /dev/rmt1

tctl Command :
tctl has been widely used to control tape drives.
To rewind a tape device :
# tctl -f /dev/rm0 rewind
To fast forward to the beginning of 2nd tape mark :
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0.1 fsf
To do retension :
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0 retension
Retension is nothing but moving the tape to beginning, end and again to the beginning. You have to do this, if you encounter multiple read errors during the restoration operation.
To display the status of atape device :
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0 status
To eject a tape device :
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0 offline
TSM Client :

Few Points:
a. It requires a connection to TSM server and also a registeration in the TSM server.
b. You can take the 'backup' and 'archive' based on the TSM server configuration.
c. Archive can be taken for 90 days, 180 days, ... based on the management class.
d. Backup can have different versions. Last backup is the new and current version and oldest backup is the old version for every file that is backed up.
e. Most of the small sized companies keep 3 versions of backup, that means can have 3 backup version for each file.

To Backup a file :
# dsm backup /tmp/file1

To archive a file :
# dsm archive /tmp/file1

To list all the backed up filesystems :
# dsm query filespace

To verify the backup of a file :
# dsmc query backup /tmp/file1

To verify the inactive version of a backup of a file :
# dsmc query backup -inactive /tmp/file1

To verify the archive of a file :
# dsmc query archive /tmp/file1

To backup VIO Server :

To take the OS backup in a CD ROM :
# backupios –cd /dev/cd1 -cdformat

To take the OS backup in a DVD-RAM :
# backupios –cd /dev/cd1 -udf

To take the OS backup in a tape drive :
# backupios –tape /dev/rmt0

To verify the backup available in a tape :
# backupios –tape /dev/rmt0 -verify

To generate vio backup (tar file) in a file :
# backupios –file /opt/file1

To generate vio backup (mksysb image) in a file :
# backupios –file /opt/file1 -mksysb

Note: To restore a backup image on vio server, you have to use "installios" command in HMC. installios is a menu driven command (tool) which will ask for machine name, vio server(lpar) name, profile name for restoring the mksysb image.

Please let me know for any comments or corrections.

Tips on VIrtualization and Micropartitioning

2009-11-13T15:19:00.012+05:30

1. What are the different types of installation of VIO server ?

a. Installation from CD
b. NIM Based installation

2. What is the maximum # of virtual processor per partition (lpar) ?

64 Virtual Processors

3. What is the maximum # of logical processor supported by AIX Operating System ?

128 Logical Processors

4. What are the different types of processor sharing modes ?

Capped or Uncapped modes

5. What are the different types of I/O virtualization that can be implemented in a p5 server ?

a. Virtual Ethernet
b. Shared Ethernet Adapters
c. Shared Fibre Channel Adapters
d. Virtual Disks

6. What is the range for variable capacity weight ?

0 to 255 is the range for the variable capacity weight.
128 is the default weight for uncapped partitions.
Weight 0 is equivalent to capped mode.

7. What is the LMB for Power 4 and Power 5 machines ?

Power 4 - 256 MB Logical Memory Block
Power 5 - 16 MB LMB

LMB is the minimum memory block that can allocatable to an LPAR.

8. What is the minimum allocatable processing unit for an lpar ?

Initial assignment is a minimum of 0.10 (1/10th) processing unit.
Increments can be made at a minimum of 0.01 (1/100th) proccessing unit.

9. How can we calculate hypervisor overhead for an lpar ?

It can be calculated by dividing the maximum memory setting by 64 and rounding up to the nearest logical memory block size.

10. TIP :

You can have maximum of 256 VIO slots per partition

11. TIP :

In VIO Server, you can have maximum of 65535 virtual I/O slots

12. TIP :

You can have maximum of 256 Virtual Ethernet Adapters per partition

13. TIP :

You can have 254 partitions or 10 * # processors per power machine

14.

Under construction ...

Performance Monitoring and Tuning in AIX

2009-11-13T13:54:00.019+05:30

Performance Monitoring :

1. How to find out the system-wide memory usage ?
# svmon -G -i 2 5

2. How to list top 10 memory consuming processes ?

You can use any of the below commands
# svmon -Put 10
# ps aux head -1; ps aux sort -rn +3 head

3. How to list top 10 cpu consuming processes ?

# ps aux head -1; ps aux sort -rn +2 head -10

4. What is the best command for general performance monitoring :

# topas

You can even use 'jtopas', which is a java based system monitoring tool.

5. How to start trace for the entire system ?

# trace -a

6. How to stop trace ?

# trcstop

7. Where is the log file for trace tool located ?

/var/adm/ras/trcfile

8. What is the command used to generate trace report from a trace log file ?

# trcrpt

9. How to generate report on utilization statistics related to an LPAR ?

# lparstat

10. How to display the LPAR configuration report ?

# lpstat -i

11. What are the mostly used commands to find the cpu, memory,disk i/o statistics ?

# sar -> CPU, Memory statistics
# vmstat -> CPU, Memory statistics
# iostat -> CPU, Disk I/O satistics
# topas -> CPU, Memory, Network and Disk I/O statistics
# ps aux -> CPU, Memory statistics

12. How to display processes related to a specific user ?

# ps -fu username

13. How to list all the 64bit processes running in a system ?

# ps -efM

14. How to enable Interface Specific Network Options in AIX ?
# no -o use_isno=1

By enabling use_isno option, you can set buffer settings on a specific interface, giving you better control over performance management of network interfaces.

15. What is 'thewall' and how to set ?
'thewall' in AIX defines the upper limit for network kernel buffers.

When running AIX 5L V5.3 running a 32 bit kernel is 1GB or half the size of real memory depending on which of the two is the smallest. If you have AIX 5L V5.3 running a 64bit kernel the size of thewall will be 65GB or half the size of real memory, depending on which of the two is smaller.
To display the size of the thewall,

# no -o thewall

Note:
the size of thewall is static from AIX 5L Version 5.1 and later, and cannot be changed, to reduce the upper limit of memory used for networking make use of the maxmbuf tunable.

16. What is maxbuf tunable variable and how to set it ?

The maxmbuf tunable used by AIX specifies the maximum amount of memory that can be used by the networking subsystem.

It can displayed by using the below command,
# lsattr -El sys0 -a maxbuf

By default the maxmbuf tunable is disabled, it is set to 0, this means that the value of thewall will be used to define the maximum amount of memory used for network communications. By setting a non zero value to maxmbuf will override the value of thewall. This is the only way of reducing the value set by thewall.

The value of maxbuf's is defined by 1Kb units. To set its value to 1GB,
# chdev -l sys0 -a maxmbuf=1000000

17. How to find out the media speed of a network interface ?

# netstat -v ent0 grep Media

18. How to view the statistics for a specific network adapter ?

# entstat -d ent1

You can also use "netstat -v ent1".

19. How to reset the above network statistics ?

# entstat -r ent1

20. How to start iptrace on a specific network adapter ?

To Start :
# startsrc -s iptrace -a "-i en0 iptrc.out" &

To Stop:
# stopsrc -s iptrace

21. How to generate report from the iptrace's output file ?

# ipreport -r -s iptrc.out > ipreport

22. How to get the NFS statistics ?

NFS server RPC statistics : # nfsstat -sr
NFS server NFS statistics : # nfsstat -sn
NFS client RPC statistics : # netstat -cr
NFS client NFS statistics : #netstat -cn
Statistics on mounted file systems : # nfsstat -m
To reset the nfsstat statistics : # nfsstat -z

23. How to list the current values of all the network tunables?

# no -a

24. How to display the current value of a specific network tunable?

# no -o tcp_recvspace

25. How to display all the values (current, default, boot, min, max..) values of a network tunable ?

# no -L tcp_recvspace

26. What is the file that holds the next boot tunables's values ?

/etc/tunables/nextboot

27. What is the file that automatically generated with all the values of the network tunables that were set immediately after the reboot ?

/etc/tunables/lastboot

28. How to change the current value of a network tunable's value as well as add the entry to the /etc/tunables/nextboot file ?

Use the 'p' flag in the no command.

For Ex., # no -p -o tcp_recvspace=16k

29. How to display all the NFS network variables ?

# nfs -a

30. How to enable the collection of disk input/output statistics ?

# chdev -l sys0 -a iostat=true

31. How to display the 5 busiest logical volumes in a VG ?

# lvmstat -v datavg -c 5

32. How to display, enable and disable the statistics collection for a VG ?

To enable: # lvmstat -v datavg -e
To disable: # lvmstat -v datavg -d
To show : # lvmstat -v datavg

33. How to display the statistics for a LV ?

# lvmstat -l lv001

34. How to report disk statistics ?

# sar -d 5 60
Abovc command displays the disk i/o statistics 60 times in 5 sec interval.

35. How to list top 10 real memory consuming processes ?

# svmon -Put 10

36. How to list top 10 paging space consuming processes ?

# svmon -Pgt 10

37. How to list the files opened by a process ?

# svmon -pP Process_id

38. How to find out the memory usage of a specific process ?

# svmon -wP

39. How to display the paging (swap) usage ?

# swap -s allocated = 4718592 blocks used = 1475527 blocks free = 3243065 blocks

#swap -l
device maj,min total free
/dev/paging02 38, 4 4608MB 3166MB
/dev/paging01 38, 3 4608MB 3168MB
/dev/paging00 10, 14 4608MB 3167MB
/dev/hd6 10, 2 4608MB 3167MB

40.

Under Construction ....

LDAP in AIX

2009-10-24T08:52:00.004+05:30

LDAP can be implemented in AIX using IBM Directory Server software which is available in the AIX installation CDs.

Required File Sets:
ldap.server - Fileset for IBM Directory Server software.
ldap.client - Fileset for IBM Directory client library, header files, utilities.
ldap.max_crypto_server - Fileset for IBM Directory server software, encryption version; Required for SSL setup.
ldap.max_crypto_client - Fileset for IBM Directory client software, encryption version; Required for SSL setup.
gskkm.rte - Fileset for IBM GSKit software; Required for IDS v4 SSL setup.
gskak.rte - Fileset for IBM GSKit software; Required for IDS v6 SSL setup.

DB2:
DB2 database is installed by default along with the ldap.server fileset.

mksecldap command creates the default db2 instance and database while setting up the LDAP server.

Default DB2 instance created, managed by LDAP: ldapdb2
Default DB2 database created, managed by LDAP: ldapdb2

LDAP Daemons in AIX :

slapd - Server Daemon :
It runs in LDAP server, processes the requests forwarded by secldapclntd.

secldapclntd - Client Daemon :
It accepts requests from the LDAP load module, forwards the request
to the LDAP Security Information Server, and passes the result from
the server back to the LDAP load module.
This daemon reads the configuration information defined in the /etc/
security/ldap/ldap.cfg file during its startup, and authenticates to
the LDAP Security Information Server using the server administrator's
distinguished name and password, and establishes a connection between
the local host and the server.

LDAP Configuration Files:

/etc/slapd32.conf
- Server Config File

/etc/security/ldap/ldap.cfg
- Client Config File contains ldap server names,port numbers, Admin
DN, Admin DN password, SSL key/path, user/group/id Attr Map Path, user/
group cache size, cache TTL, heart beat interval, # of thread.

/usr/lib/security/methods.cfg
- Loadable module config file contains the LDAP stanza.

LDAP module entry in /usr/lib/security/methods.cfg :

LDAP:
program = /usr/lib/security/LDAP
program_64 = /usr/lib/security/LDAP64

Attribute Map Files:
These map files are used by the /usr/lib/security/LDAP module and the secldapclntd daemon for translation between AIX attribute names to

LDAP attribute names.
Each entry in a mapping file represents a translation for an attribute.

For Example, "accountlocked" user attribute in AIX is mapped to
"isaccountenabled" LDAP attribute.

# /etc/security/ldap/2307aixuser.map
# /etc/security/ldap/2307aixgroup.map
# /etc/security/ldap/idmap.map

User Attributes related to LDAP:
1. hostsallowedlogin = List of hosts where login is enabled
2. hostsdeniedlogin - List of hosts where login is disabled
3. SYSTEM = LDAP
4. registery = LDAP

Management of secldapclntd daemon:

start-secldapclntd - Starts the daemon
stop-secldapclntd - Stops the daemon
restart-secldapclntd - Restarts the daemon
ls-secldapclntd - Lists the daemon status including current server,
port number, caching status, etc.
flush-secldapclntd - Clears the cache of the daemon

Note: secldapclntd daemon is started by "mksecldap -c" command and it
gets started on boot time thru /etc/inittab entry.

LDAP Server Commands:

To setup the server,
# mksecldap -s -a cn=admin -p pwd -S rfc2307aix

where
cn=admin is the administrator DN
pwd is the password
rfc2307aix is the schema. Other available schemas are aix and rfc2307.

This will export the locally defined users and groups to the LDAP server with RFC2307AIX schema.

To do the above task without migrating local users and groups,
# mksecldap -s -a cn=admin -p pwd -S rfc2307aix -u NONE

To undo a previous server setup,
# mksecldap -s -U

To generate/import SSL certificate,
# gsk5ikm

To export all locally defined users and groups to a ldif file,
# sectoldif -d cn=aixsecdb,cn=aixdata -S rfs2307aix > /tmp/ ldapusers.ldif

To import users and groups from ldif file to the LDAP server,
# Use ldif2db or ldapadd command

LDAP Client Commands:
To setup LDAP client without SSL,
# mksecldap -c -h servername -a adminDN -p passwd

To setup ldap client using SSL,
# mksecldap -c -h servername -a adminDN -p passwd -k /usr/ldap/etc/
mykey.kdb -p keypwd

To undo a previous client setup,
# mksecldap -c -U

DB2 commands for managing LDAP database:

To drop(delete) the ldapdb2 database:
# su - ldapdb2
$ db2 drop database ldapdb2
$ exit

To drop the ldapdb2 instance:
# /usr/lpp/db2_07_01/instance/db2idrop ldapdb2

User/Group Related Commands:

To create a LDAP user from a client:
# mkuser -R LDAP joe

To modify the authentication method to LDAP for user1:
# mkuser SYSTEM=LDAP registry=LDAP user1

To lock a LDAP user:
# chuser -R LDAP account_locked=true user2

To allow user1 to login from host1 and host2:
# chuser -R LDAP hostsallowedlogin=host1,host2 user1

To deny user1 to login from host2:
# chuser -R LDAP hostsdeniedlogin=host2 user1

To allow user1 to login from the machine with IP 192.9.200.1 :
# chuser -R LDAP hostsallowedlogin=192.9.200.1 user1

Please post your comments and questions.

My Notes on NIM - Network Installation Manager

2009-10-23T20:54:00.008+05:30

Required Filesets:

For Server - bos.sysmgt.nim.master and bos.sysmgt.nim.spot
For Client - bos.sysmgt.nim.client

Few Resource Definitions:

SPOT - Shared Product Object Tree is a directory containing files required to boot a machine and the boot image

LPP_SOURCE - Licensed Program Product source is a directory containing images/filesets that AIX uses to load software

MKSYSB - Mksysb resource used to build a machine

Requirements for NIM Server:

Disk Space :
1. 3 GB per base lpp_source resource
2. 500 MB + per mksysb resource
3. 500 MB per SPOT resource
4. Additional buffer space for future growth

Other Requirements:
# Minimum 512 MB real memory
# 10 or 100 MBPS ethernet adapter

My Recommendations for NIM VG and Filesystems :

1. Create a seperate VG called 'nimvg' with enough space.

2. Create the following filesystems in nimvg based upon your requirement

a. /tftpboot - To hold boot images
b. /export/nim - To hold the resources like SPOT, LPP, Mksysb

Directory Structure :
/export/nim/lpp_source - To hold lpp source resources
/export/nim/spot             - To hold spot resources
/export/nim/mksysb       - To hold the mksysb backup for clients

Naming Schemes:

Follow the below schemes to easily identify during regular operations :

spot530TL6              - SPOT for AIX V 5.3 TL 6
spot530TL9             - SPOT for AIX V 5.3 TL 9
lpp_source530TL6 - LPP_SOURCE for AIX V 5.3 TL 6
lpp_source530TL9 - LPP_SOURCE for AIX V 5.3 TL 6
client_server1          - Mksysb image of the host server1
client_server2          - Mksysb image of the hsot server2

How to setup the NIM Master :

0. Create the /tftpboot and /export/nim file systems as per yoru requirement

1. Initial setup of NIM Master
  a. ODM database
  b. Boot Area: /tftpboot directory that is used to store boot files (images)
c. /etc/niminfo         - Is the Key configuration file that exists on both master and clients
  d. nimesis daemon - This is the daemon which used to communicate with the nim clients

2. Insert the AIX CD into the master server's CD Drive

3. Create LPP_SOURCE and SPOT resources

Commands to manage NIM master and clients:

To setup NIM Server:
# nim_master_setup -B -a device=/dev/cd0 -a file_system=/nim -a volume_group=nimvg

To setup NIM installation in a client:
# smitty nim_bosinst

To view the status of NIM installation in a NIM client:
# lsnim -l client_hostname

To define a lpp_source resource:
# nim -o define -t lpp_source -a source=/dev/cd0 -a server=master -a location=/nim/lpp_source/AIX_5_3_4 AIX_5_3_4

To define a spot resource:

# nim -o define -t spot -a server=master -a location=/export/nim/spot -a source=lpp_source530 spot530

To remove a resource:
# nim -o remove AIX_5_3_4

To initialize a NIM client for diag operation:
# nim -o diag client_hostname

To initialize a NIM client for maintenance operation:
# nim -o maint client_hostname

To unconfigure a NIM server:
# nim -o unconfig master_server

To allocate a SPOT to a NIM client:
# nim -o allocate -a spot=AIX_5_3 client_hostname

To deallocate a SPOT from a NIM client:
# nim -o deallocate -a spot=AIX_5_3 client_hostname

To remove a NIM client after deallocating all its resources:
# nim -o remove client_hostname

To reboot a client:
# nim -o reboot client_hostname

To list all the NIM resources:
# lsnim

To list detailed information about a nim client:
# lsnim -l client_hostname

To list the resources allocated to a NIM client:
# lsnim -c resources client_hostname

This post is under construction. Please visit later for the upgraded version.

A Video on File / Directory Security

2009-08-07T07:59:00.009+05:30

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

A Video on User Administration

2009-08-05T19:37:00.021+05:30

Under Construction

User Administration - Part 1

User Administration - Part 2

User Administration - Part 3

User Administration - Part 4

User Administration - Part 5

User Administration - Part 6

Multibos - Video

2009-08-05T04:55:00.008+05:30

Volume Group - Video

2009-08-01T00:42:00.008+05:30

HMC Tips IX - System Plan

2009-04-10T01:08:00.000+05:30

1. How to make a system plan from a running machine ?

# mksysplan -f marc.sysplan -m Machine-Name -v

where
marc.sysplan is the file name.

2. How to list a system plan ?

# lssysplan

3. How to delete a particular system plan ?

# rmsysplan

4. How to reploy a system plan on a managed server ?

# deploysysplan

5. How to copy a system plan from/into the HMC ?

# cpsysplan

This post is under construction.
Please check the updated version in future.

HACMP Tips III - C-SPOC Commands

2009-04-10T01:06:00.001+05:30

CSPOC commands are located under /usr/es/sbin/cluster/sbin. If you need, please add this directory to your PATH.

1. To create a user in a cluster :

# cl_mkuser

2. To change/set passwd for a user in a cluster :

# cl_chpasswd

3. To change a user's attribute in a cluster :

# cl_chuser

4. To remove a user in a cluster :

# cl_rmuser

5. To list users in a cluster :

# cl_lsuser

6. To create a group in a cluster :

# cl_mkgroup

7. To change attributes of a group :

# cl_lsgroup

8. To remove a group in a cluster :

# cl_rmgroup

9. To create a shared VG in a cluster :

# cl_mkvg

10. To change the attributes of a shared VG :

# cl_chvg

11. To extend a VG (add a PV to a VG) :

# cl_extendvg

12. To reduce a VG (remove a PV from a VG) :

# cl_reducevg

13. To mirror a VG :

# cl_mirrorvg

14. To unmirror a VG :

# cl_unmirrorvg

15. To list VG's in a cluster :

# cl_lsvg

16. To sync a VG :

# cl_syncvg

17. To import a volume group :

# cl_importvg

18. To import a VG into a list of nodes :

# cl_updatevg

19. To activate/varyon a VG :

# cl_activate_vgs VG_name

20. To deactivate/varyoff a VG :

# cl_deactivate_vgs VG_name

21. To create a LV :

# cl_mklv

22. To change the attributes of a LV :

# cl_chlv

23. To list a LV :

# cl_lslv

24. To remove a LV :

# cl_rmlv

25. To make copies for a LV :

# cl_mklvcopy

26. To remove copies for a LV :

# cl_rmlvcopy

27. To extend a LV :

# cl_extendlv

28. To create a file system in a cluster :

# cl_crfs

29. To create a LV followed by a FS :

# cl_crlvfs

30. To change the attribute of a FS :

# cl_chfs

31. To lsit file systems :

# cl_lsfs

32. To remove a FS :

# cl_rmfs

33. To show JFS2 file systems with all attributes :

# cl_lsjfs2

34. To list JFS2 filesysems and their resource groups :

# cl_showfs2

35. To activate/mount a file system :

# cl_activate_fs /filesystem_mountpoint

36. To activate/mount a NFS file system :

# cl_activate_nfs retry NFS_Hostname /filesystem_mountpoint

37. To deactivate/unmount a file system :

# cl_deactivate_fs /filesystem_mountpoint

38. To deactivate/unmount a NFS file system :

# cl_deactivate_nfs /filesystem_mountpoint

39. To export(NFS) a file system :

# cl_export_fs hostname /filesystem_mountpoint

40. To list the process numbers using the NFS directory :

# cl_nfskill -u /nfs_mountpoint

41. To kill the processes using the NFS directory :

# cl_nfskill -k /nfs_mountpoint

This post is under construction.
Please check the updated version in future.

HACMP Tips II - Utility Commands

2009-04-10T01:05:00.004+05:30

Below mentioned utility commands are available under /usr/es/sbin/cluster/utilities.
If you need, please add it to your PATH variable.

1. To list cluster and node topology information :

# cltopinfo (or) cllscf

2. To show the config for the nodes :

# cltopinfo -n

3. To show all networks configured in the cluster :

# cltopinfo -w

4. To show resources defined for all groups :

# clshowres

5. To show resources defined to selected the group :

# clshowres -g

6. To list all resource groups :

# cllsgrp

7. To list all file systems :

# cllsfs

8. To list the service IPs configured for a node :

# cllsip nodename

9. To show the whole cluster configuration :

# cldump

10. To show adapter information :

# cllsif

11. To show network information :

# cllsnw

12. To show the status of resource groups :

# clfindres

13. To list all resources :

# cllsres

14. To list all tape resources :

# cllstape

15. To list all nodes in a cluster :

# cllsnode

16. To list all application servers alongwith their start and stop scripts :

# cllsserv

17. To list all logical volumes in a cluster :

# cllslv

18. To list all IP networks in a cluster :

# cllsipnw

19. To list all alive network interfaces :

# cllsaliveif

HACMP Tips I - Files and Scripts

2009-04-10T01:05:00.001+05:30

1. Where is the rhosts file located for HACMP ?

Location: /usr/es/sbin/cluster/etc/rhosts
Used By: clcomd daemon to validate the addresses of the incoming connections
Updated By:
It is updated automatically by clcomd daemon during the first connection.
But we should update it manually incase of configuring the cluster on an unsecured network.

2. What happened to ~/.rhosts file in the current version of HACMP ?

~/.rhosts is only needed during the migration from pre-5.1 versions of hacmp.
Once migration is completed, we should remove the file if no other applications need rsh.
From HACMP V5.1, inter-node communication for cluster services is handled by clcomd daemon.

3. What is the entry added to /etc/inittab for to IP Address Takeover ?

harc:2:wait:/usr/es/sbin/cluster/etc/harc.net # HACMP network startup

4. What is the entry added to /etc/inittab file due auto-start of HACMP ?
hacmp:2:once:/usr/es/sbin/cluster/etc/rc.init

5. What is the script used to start cluster services ?

/usr/es/sbin/cluster/etc/rc.cluster

6. rc.cluster calls a script internally to start the cluster services. What is that ?

/usr/es/sbin/cluster/utilities/clstart

7. What is the equivalent script for clstart in CSPOC ?

/usr/es/sbin/cluster/sbin/cl_clstart

8. What is the script used to stop cluster services ?

/usr/es/sbin/cluster/utitilies/clstop

9. What is the equivalent script for clstop in CSPOC ?

/usr/es/sbin/cluster/sbin/cl_clstop

10. What happens when clstrmgr daemon terminates abmornally ?

/usr/es/sbin/ckuster/utilities/clexit.rs script ahlts the system.
You can change the default behavior of the clexit.rc script by configuring
/usr/es/sbin/cluster/etc/hacmp.term

11. What script is invoked by clinfo daemon incase of a network or node event ?

/usr/es/sbin/cluster/etc/clinfo.rc

This post is under construction.
Please check the updated version in future.

HMC Tips VIII - DLPAR Requirements

2009-04-10T01:03:00.000+05:30

1. What is version requirment for DLPAR operations ?

a. A P4 processor based pSeries system or later
b. October 2002 or later system microcode update
c. A HMC at version R3V1.0 or later
4. AIX 5L Version 5.2 or later

2. What are the AIX filesets required for DLPAR ?

a. # lslpp -l rsct.core*
b. # lslpp -l csm.client

3. What are the daemons required for DLPAR ?

#lssrc -a | grep rsct
ctrmc rsct 21044 active
IBM.CSMAgentRM rsct_rm 21045 active
IBM.ServiceRM rsct_rm 11836 active
IBM.DRM rsct_rm 20011 active
IBM.HostRM rsct_rm 20012 active
IBM.DMSRM rsct_rm 906 active
IBM.LparCmdRM rsct_rm 901 active

4. On HMC, how to list partitions recognized by DLAPR ?

# lspartition -dlpar

If all active AIX 5.2 partitions are listed as Active<1>, ..., DCaps:<0xf> your system has been set up properly for DLPAR.
If you're missing some active partitions or some partitions are reported as Active<0>, your system probably still has a network/hostname set up problem.

5. How to resolve name resolution issues between LPARs and HMC ?

Step I :
# vi /etc/resolv.conf
1.Same DNS server for LPARs and HMC
2.Remove the duplicate entries.

Step II:
Please check to see the that ct_node_id is unique for each node in the environment:
"cat /var/ct/cfg/ct_node_id"\

If duplicate ct_node_id values are found issue a recfgct on the problem node(s) to have a new/unique ct_node_id generated.
# /usr/sbin/rsct/install/bin/recfgct

(This command will start/restart ctcas,ctrmc system and will generate a new id in the file /var/ct/cfg/ct_node_id )

Step III:
ping from aix.

Step IV:
Please also do the following steps on the LPAR(s) to refresh RMC subsystem
/usr/sbin/rsct/bin/rmcctrl -z ----> Stops the RMC subsystem and all resource managers.
/usr/sbin/rsct/bin/rmcctrl -A ----> Adds and starts the RMC subsystem
/usr/sbin/rsct/bin/rmcctrl -p ----> Enables remote client connections

Step V:
Ensure /var directory is not 100% full
After expanding the /var directory, execute the following command.
# /usr/sbin/rsct/bin/rmcctrl -z
# rm /var/ct/cfg/ct_has.thl
# rm /var/ct/cfg/ctrmc.acls
# /usr/sbin/rsct/bin/rmcctrl -A

Step VI:
If problem still persists, please run the below command to collect the DLPAR log in /tmp/ctsupt:
# /usr/sbin/rsct/bin/ctsnap

6. How to find the parent device of a device like cdrom in AIX ?

# lsdev -Cl cd0 -F parent

HMC Tips VII - General Terms

2009-04-10T01:02:00.000+05:30

1. What is the maximum number of servers managed by HMC ?

> Maximum of 48 non-590-595 servers
> Maximum of 32 590/595 servers

2. What is the maximum number of LPARs supported by a HMC ?

> Maximum of 254 LPARs

3. How many HMCs can manage a server at one time ?

> You can have a maximum of 2 HMCs manage a server at one time

4. What are the different types of dynamic operations you can do with CPU, Memory and I/O Adapter on a LPAR ?

> Add
> Remove
> Move

5. How do we connect the HMC to power machines ?

For Power-4 machines, we connect the hmc using serial cables.

But for Power-5 machines, HMC connects to service processors via SSL-encrypted Ethernet, replacing the serial cables.

6. Do we have firewall configured in HMC ?

Yes. Each network card has an integrated firewall.

7. Do we need to configure DHCP in HMC ?

HMC may be a DHCP server for entry and mid-range servers.

But for high-end servers like P595, HMC must be a DHCP server

8. can we have the same HMC to manage P4 and P5 machines ?

POWER5 HMCs cannot manage POWER4 servers, and vice versa.

9. Can we have the existing P4 HMCs upgraded to support P5 machines ?

Yes. We can. This involves a complete overwirte of teh disk and the loss of all previous configuration including user profiles.

10. What to do incase of disk failure in HMC ?

We can restore the HMC using recovery CD.
Then restore the latest Critical consule data backup which will restore the profiles, user ids, passwords, etc..

11. What is the default user id and password for the HMC ?

When the HMC is powered on the first time, login as hscroot and password as 'abc123'.

12. Can we manage a power machine without a HMC ?

Yes. We can run a server in manufacturing default mode, will all resources but no logical partitionings, CoD or Service Focal point,etc..
For entry level server, we can use the Integrated Virtualization Manager.

13. What is the network critetia for dual HMC connection ?

Dual HMCs require two different private networks.

14. What is the default service processor IP address in Power-5 Machines ?

Eth0 - HMC1 - 192.168.2.147 / 255.255.255.0
Eth1 - HMC2 - 192.168.3.147 / 255.255.255.0

15. What is the default user id and password for accessing service processor ?

User id - admin
Password - admin

16. Do we need a HMC for p5 model servers ?

One HMC is mandatory for 590, 595 or 575.
Dual HMC are recommended.

17. Do we need private network for HMc connectivity for p5-595 ?

One private network is mandatory for p5 590,595 or 575.

18. Can we have IVM support multiple servers ?

One IVM allowed per server and it only manages partitions on one server.

19. What does FSP (Flexible Service Processor) has ?

FSP has
a. Operating System
b. UserIds / Passwords
c. Filesystem
d. Networking
e. Firewall
f. Webserver
g. ASMI
h. Firmware

20. What to do if you forgot the admin password for FSP ?

If you do not know the admin password, place a hardware call to get 'celogin'

21. What to do if you forgot the HMC hostname/ipaddress for a long running LPAR ?

You can always get the HMC IPaddress from a LPAR if we have performed "handshake" with the HMC.

Issue the below command to get the HMC IPAddress

# lsrsrc IBM.ManagementServer
Resource Persistent Attributes for IBM.ManagementServer
resource 1:
Name = "169.121.54.48"
Hostname = "169.121.54.48"
ManagerType = "HMC"
LocalHostname = "169.121.54.59"
ClusterTM = "9078-160"
ClusterSNum = ""
ActivePeerDomain = ""
NodeNameList = {"SAP-PRodServer"}

22. One HMC should be within 8metres of Managed Server

23. Each FSP Ethernet port should be connected to only one HMC

AIX - Tips and Tricks - Part V

2009-03-25T20:38:00.005+05:30

1. How to force a failover of an EtherChannel ?
# /usr/lib/methods/ethchan_config -f Etherchannel_Device

2. How to add a backup adapter to an existing etherchannel device ?
# /usr/lib/methods/ethchan_config -a -b Etherchannel_Device Ethernet_Adapter

3. How to change the address to ping attribute of an EtherChannel ?
# /usr/lib/methods/ethchan_config -c Etherchannel_Device netaddr New_Ping_IP_Addr

4. How to list the available major numbers in a system ?
# lvlstmajor

5. How to list the major number of a volume group ?
# lvgenmajor rootvg

6. Consider a situation where you have a VG in a PV. But you have not imported that.
Now you need to find a list of attributes of that volume group before importing/varyon it.
Answer the below questions :

a. How to list the maximum number of logical volumes allowed in the VG ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -N

b. How to show the PP size ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -s

c. How to show the number of free PPs in the VG ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -F

d. How to show the current number of LVs in the VG ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -n

e. How to list the current number of PVs in the VG ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -c

f. How to list the total number of VGDAs for the VG ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -D

g. How to list each LVID, LV name, state for each logical volume ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -l

h. How to list each PVID, number of VGDAs and state for each PV in the VG ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -P

i. How to list all the attributes with tags for the vG ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -At

j. How to list the VGID from that physical volume ?
# lqueryvg -p PVname -v

7. How do you move a physical partition ( actually its just a data between PPs) ?
# lmigratepp -g VGID -p old_PVID -n old_PPNum -P new_PVID -N new_PPNum

8. How to retrive the VG name for a particular LV from ODM ?
# getlvodm -b LVID

9. How to retrive all configured PVs from ODM ?
# getlvodm -C

10. How to retrive the major number for a VGID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -d VGID

11. How to retrive the logical volume allocation characteristics for a LVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -c LVID

12. How to retrive the free configured PVs from ODM ?
# getlvodm -F

13. How to retrive the strip size for a LVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -F LVID

14. How to retrive the PV name for a PVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -g PVID

15. How to retrive all VG names from the ODM ?
# getlvodm -h

16. How to retrive the VGID for a PVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -j PVID

17. How to retrive the LVs and LVIDs for a VG name or VGID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -L VGDescriptor

18. How to retrive the LVID/LV Name for a LV Name or LVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -l LVDescriptor

19. How to retrive the mount point for a LVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -m LVID

20. How to retrive the stripe width for a LVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -N LVID

21. How to retrive the PVID/PN name for a PV name or PVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -p PVDesciptor

22. How to retrive the PV names, PVIDs and VGs of all configured PVs from ODM ?
# getlvodm -P

23. How to retrive the relocatable flag for a LVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -r LVID

24. How to retrive the VG state for a VG from ODM ?
# getlvodm -s VGDescriptor

25. How to retrive the timestamp for a VG from ODM ?
# getlvodm -T VGDescriptor

26. How to retrive the VG name for a VGID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -t VGID

27. How to retrive the auto-on value for a VG name or VGID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -v VGDesciptor

28. How to retrive the VGID for a vG name ?
# getlvodm -v VGDesciptor

29. How to retrive the PV names and PVIDs for a VG from ODM ?
# getlvodm -w VGDesciptor

30. How to retrive the LV type ffor a LVID from ODM ?
# getlvodm -y LVID

31. How to retrive the concurrent capable flag for a VG from ODM ?
# getlvodm -X VGDescriptor

32. How to retrive the auto-on concurrent flag for a VG from ODM ?
# getlvodm -x VGDescriptor

33. How to display the contents of LVCB ?
# getlvcb -A LVName

34. How to list the number of copies of a LV from LVCB ?
# getlvcb -c LVName

35. How to list the file system name of a LV from LVCB ?
# getlvcb -f LVName

36. How to list the label of a LV from LVCB ?
# getlvcb -L LVName

37. How to display the type of the file system from LVCB ?
# getlvcb -t LVName

38. How to display the upper limit from LVCB ?
# getlvcb -u LVName

39. How to list the current defrag state of a file system ?
# defrag -q Filesystem

40. How to lsit the current and future (if degragmented) state of a file system ?
# degrag -r Filesystem

41. How to defragment a file system ?
# defrag Filesystem

42. How to run fsck on 2 filesystems simultaneously on different drives ?
# dfsck FileSystem1 FileSystem2

43. How to list the superblock, i-name map, disk map information for a file system ?
# dumpfs Filesystem

44. Where is the magic file located ?
/etc/magic

45. How do you remove a file system data from /etc/filesystems ?
# imfs -x -l LVName

46. How do you list inode, last update/modify/access timestamp of a file ?
# istat FileName

47. How do you update the i-node table and write buffered files to the hard disk ?
# sync

48. How do you list the filesystems in a volume group ?
# lsvgfs VGName

49. How do you redefine the set of PVs of a VG in the ODM ?
# redefinevg -d PVName VGName

50. How do you replace a PV in a VG ?
# replacepv SourcePV DestinationPV

HMC Tips VI - Reference Code

2009-03-23T05:24:00.001+05:30

1. To list the current reference code for the managed system :

# lsrefcode -r sys -m Managed-System

2. To list last 10 reference codes for the managed system :

# lsrefcode -r sys -m Managed-System -n 10

3. To list the reference code (Its called as LED in old pSeries servers) for each partition in the managed system :

# lsrefcode -r lpar -m Managed-System -F lpar_name,time_stamp,refcode

4. To list last 25 reference codes (led) for partitions lpar-a and lpar-b :

# lsrefcode -r lpar -m Managed-System -n 25 --filter ""lpar_names=lpar-a,lpar-b""

HMC Tips V - DLPAR Operations

2009-03-23T05:20:00.002+05:30

1. To list the memory by system level :

# lshwres -r mem -m Managed-System --level sys

2. To list the memory by lpar level :

# lshwres -r mem -m Managed-System --level lpar

3. To list the processor / processing units by system level :

# lshwres -r proc -m Managed-System --level sys

4. To list the processor / processing units by lpar level :

# lshwres -r proc -m Managed-System --level lpar

5. To list the processor / processing units by pool level :

# lshwres -r proc -m Managed-System --level pool

6. To add 1GB of memory to an lpar dynamically :

# chhwres -r mem -m Managed-System -o a -p Lpar_name -q 1024

7. To remove 1GB of memory to an lpar dynamically :

# chhwres -r mem -m Managed-System -o r -p Lpar_name -q 1024

8. To move 1GB of memory from lpar_a to lpar_b dynamically :

# chhwres -r mem -m Managed-System -o m -p Lpar_a_name -t Lpar_b_name -q 1024

9. To add 1 dedicated cpu to an lpar dynamically :

# chhwres -r proc -m Managed-System -o a -p Lpar_name -procs 1

10. To remove 1 dedicated cpu to an lpar dynamically :

# chhwres -r proc -m Managed-System -o r -p Lpar_name -procs 1

11. To move 1 dedicated cpu from lpar_a to lpar_b dynamically :

# chhwres -r proc -m Managed-System -o m -p Lpar_a_name -t Lpar_b_name -procs 1

12. To add 0.5 processing unit to an lpar dynamically :

# chhwres -r proc -m Managed-System -o a -p Lpar_name -procunits 0.5

13. To remove 0.5 processing unit to an lpar dynamically :

# chhwres -r proc -m Managed-System -o r -p Lpar_name -procunits 0.5

14. To move 0.5 processing unit from lpar_a to lpar_b dynamically :

# chhwres -r proc -m Managed-System -o m -p Lpar_a_name -t Lpar_b_name -procunits 0.5

15. To restore memory resources on a lpar based on its profile :

# rsthwres -r mem -m Managed-System -p Lpar_name

16. To restore memory resources for all partitions in a managed system :

# rsthwres -r mem -m Managed-System

17. To restore processing resources on a lpar based on its profile :

# rsthwres -r proc -m Managed-System -p Lpar_name

18. To restore processing resources for all partitions in a managed system :

# rsthwres -r proc -m Managed-System

19. To restore physical I/O slots on a lpar based on its profile :

# rsthwres -r io -m Managed-System -p Lpar_name

20. To restore physical I/O slots for all partitions in a managed system :

# rsthwres -r io -m Managed-System

--- Rest In The Next ---

HMC Tips IV - Backup

2009-03-21T16:45:00.003+05:30

1. To backup HMC data on DVD :

# bkconsdata -r dvd

2. To backup HMC data to a ftp server :

# bkconsdata -r ftp -h ftp_server_name -u ftp_username --passwd ftp_password

3. To backup HMC data to a NFS mounted file system :

# bkconsdata -r nfs -n nfs_server_name -l Nfs_mount_point

4. To list storage media devices :

# lsmediadev

5. To backup profile data for a managed system :

# bkprofdata -m Managed-System -f File_name

Profile data files are kept under /var/hsc/profiles/Managed-Machine-Serial-Number

6. To restore a managed profile data :

# rstprofdata -m Managed-System -l restore_type -f File-Name

Valid restore types are

1 - Full restore from the backup file.

2 - Merge the current profile data and backup profile data, with priority to backup.

3 - Merge the current profile data and backup profile data, with priority to current data.

4 - Initialize the profile data. All partition, partition/system profiles will be deleted.

HMC Tips III - User Management

2009-03-20T22:18:00.004+05:30

1. To list all users in a HMC

# lshmcusr

2. To list only user names and managed resource roles for all HMC users :

# lshmcusr -F name:resourcerole

3. To create a user :

# mkhmcusr -u User_Id -a ROLE -d DESCRIPTION --passwd PASSWORD -M PASSWD_EXPIRATION_DAYS

3. To remove a user :

# rmhmcusr -u USER_NAME

4. To change an hmc user's password :

# chhmcusr -u User_Name -t passwd -v New_Password

5. To change the task role for the user "user1" to hmcoperator :

# chhmcusr -r user1 -t taskrole -v hmcoperator

Available task roles are
hmcsuperadmin, hmcoperator, hmcviewer, hmcpe, hmcservicerep or a user defined task role

6. To list all managed resource objects :

# lsaccfg -t resource

7. To list all managed resource roles :

# lsaccfg -t resourcerole

8. To create a task role using a config file :

# mkaccfg -t resourcerole -f /tmp/fil1

9. To create a task role :

# mkaccfg -t taskrole -i "name=tr1,parent=hmcsuperadmin,"resources=cec:chcod+lscod+lshwres,lpar:chssyscfg+lssyscfg+mksyscfg""

10. To change a task role :

# chaccfg -t taskrole -i "name=tr1,"resources=cec:chhwres+chsysstate,lpar:chssyscfg+chled+chhwres""

11. To remove a task role :

# rmaccfg -t taskrole -n tr1

--- Rest in the next ---

HMC Tips II - Partitions and Profiles

2009-03-20T22:17:00.005+05:30

1. To list all machines configured in a hmc

# lssyscfg -r sys

2. To list all lpars(partitions) in a power machine

# lssyscfg -r lpar -m Managed_System

3. To activate/start an LPAR :

# chsysstate -r lpar -m Managed_System -o on -n LPAR_Name -f Profile_ name

4. To deactivate/shutdown an LPAR :

# chsysstate -r lpar -m Managed_System -o shutdown --immed -n LPAR_Name

5. To open the console of a partition :

# mkvterm -m Managed_System -p LPAR_Name

6. To close the console of a partition:

# rmvterm -m Managed_System -p LPAR_Name

7. To list the profile of a partition:

# lssyscfg -r prof -m Managed_System --filter "lpar_names=LPAR_Name,profile_names=Profile_Name"

8. To change the min/desired/maximum memory settings of a partition profile :

# chsyscfg -r prof -m Managed_System -i "name=Profile_Name,lpar_name=LPAR_Name,min_mem=512,desired_mem=19456,max_mem=20480"

9. To change the min/desired/maximum processor units of a partition profile :

# chsyscfg -r prof -m Managed_System -i "name=Profile_Name,lpar_name=LPAR_Name,min_proc_units=0.2,desired_proc_units=0.5,max_proc_units=2.0"

10. To change the min/desired/maximum virtual processor of a partition profile :

# chsyscfg -r prof -m Managed_System -i "name=Profile_Name,lpar_name=LPAR_Name,min_procs=1,desired_procs=2,max_procs=6"

11. To change capped/uncapped setting in a partition profile :
# chsyscfg -r prof -m Managed_System -i "name=Profile_Name,lpar_name=LPAR_Name,sharing_mode=uncap,uncap_weight=128"

Possible values for sharing_mode are cap and uncap.
Possible values for uncap_weight are from 0 to 128.

12. To change the name of a partition profile :

# chsyscfg -r prof -m Managed_System -i "name=Profile_Name,lpar_name=LPAR_Name,new_name=New_Profile_Name"

13. To change the name of a partition :

# chsyscfg -r lpar -m Managed_System -i "name=LPAR_Name,new_name=New_LPAR_Name"

14. To change the default profile of a partition :

# chsyscfg -r lpar -m Managed_System -i "name=LPAR_Name,default_profile=Partition_Profile_Name"

15. To set "power off the machine after all partitions are shutdown" for a power machine :

# chsysscfg -r sys -m Managed_System -i "power_off_policy=0"

Possible values are

0 -> Power off after all partitions are shutdown
1 -> Do not power off after all partitions are shutdown

16. To rename a system profile :

# chsyscfg -r sysprof -m Managed_System -i "name=Sys_Prof_Name,new_name=New_Sys_Prof_Name"

17. To add 2 more partition profiles to a system profile :

# chsyscfg -r sysprof -m Managed_System -i "name=,"lpar_names+=partition3,partition4",
"profile_names+=profile3,profile4""

--- Rest in the next ---

HMC Tips I - HMC and Managed System

2009-03-20T22:16:00.003+05:30

1. To enable ssh in a hmc :

# chhmc -c ssh -s enable
You can disable it by replacing the word 'enable' with 'disable'

2. To enable xntp in a hmc :

# chhmc -c xntp -s enable
You can disable it by replacing the word 'enable' with 'disable'

3. To add an entry in the syslog config file :

# chhmc -c syslog -s add -a IP_Addr ( or '-h host_name' )
You can remove an entry by replacing the word 'add' with 'remove'

4. To add an entry in the ntp config file :

# chhmc -c xntp -s add -a IP_Addr ( or 'h host_name' )
You can remove an entry by replacing the word 'add' with 'remove'

5. To configure the network as a startup device :

# chhmc -c netboot -s enable
You can disable it by replacing the word 'enable' with 'disable'

6. To permit IP addresses from utilizing HMC services :

# chhmc -s ssh ( or any_service) -s add -a IP_Addr
You can remove an entry by replacing the word 'add' with 'remove'

7. To add a DNC_server or domain_suffix :

chhmc -c network -s add [-ns DNS_Server] [-ds domain_suffix ]
You can remove an entry by replacing the word 'add' with 'remove'

8. To change network settings for a specific network interface :

# chhmc -c network -s modify -i interface_name
[-a IP_Addr] [-nm network_mask] [ --lparcomm on|off]

Note: Network settings for the s10 interface cannot be changed.

9. To change other network settings :

# chhmc -c network -s modify
[-h hostname] [-d network-domain-name]
[-g gateway]

10. To change the locale for the HMC :

# chhmc -c locale -s modify -l locale

11. To change the HMC date and time, time zone :

# chhmc -c date -s modify
[ --datetime ]
[ --clock {local | utc} ]
[ --timezone {time-zone | none} ]

12. To list the BIOS Level of the HMC :

# lshmc -b

13. To list the current locale :

# lshmc -l

14. To list all of the locales supported by HMC :

# lshmc -L

15. To list network settings :

# lshmc -n

16. To list remote access settings :

# lshmc -r

17. To list VPD information :

# lshmc -v

18. To list version information :

# lshmc -V

19. List IP Connections to SP's and Bulk Power Controllers :

# lssysconn -r all

20. To list all machines configured in a hmc

# lssyscfg -r sys

21. To power on a managed system :

# chsysstate -r sys -m MANAGED_SYSTEM -o on -f SYS_PROF_NAME

22. To power on a managed system in standby mode :

# chsysstate -r sys -m MANAGED_SYSTEM -o onstandby -f SYS_PROF_NAME

23. To power off a managed system :

# chsysstate -r sys -m MANAGED_SYSTEM -o off --immed

24. To restart a managed system :

# chsysstate -r sys -m MANAGED_SYSTEM -o off --immed --restart

25. To recover partition data for a managed system :

# chsysstate -r sys -m MANAGED_SYSTEM -o recover

26. To initiate service processor failover for a managed system :

# chsysstate -r sys -m MANAGED_SYSTEM -o spfailover

27. To validate or activate a system profile :

# chsysstate -r sysprof -m MANAGED_SYSTEM -n SYS_PROF_NAME --test

28. To change the password of a managed system :

# chsyspwd -t {access | admin | general} -m MANAGED_SYSTEM --passwd Current_Password --newpassword New_Password

--- Rest in the next ---

AIX - Tips and Tricks - Part IV

2009-03-07T02:55:00.002+05:30

AIX Tips 'n' Tricks - Part IV

1. How to list IDE controllers in your system ?

lscfg -l ide*

Sample Output:

DEVICE LOCATION DESCRIPTION
ide0 01-00-00 ATA/IDE Controller Device
ide1 01-00-01 ATA/IDE Controller Device

It shows
Controller ide0 and ide1 are located on the system planar
(Notice 1st and 2nd digits in location code).
The planar indicator is the second digit in the location value with a value of 1.
6th digit indicates the controller number.

2. After a successful login, the login command displays the message of the day, the date and time of the last successful and unsuccessful login attempts for this user, and the total number of unsuccessful login attempts for this user since the last change of authentication information (usually a password).

How to supress these messages?

You can supress these messages by creating a .hushlogin file in your home directory.

At the prompt in your home directory, type the following:
# touch .hushlogin

The touch command creates the empty file named .hushlogin if it does not already exist. The next time you log in, all login messages will be suppressed. You can instruct the system to retain only the message of the day, while suppressing other login messages.

3. What are the files, system reads when you logon ?

First File : /etc/environment - contains variables specifying the basic environment for all processes.

Second File: /etc/profile - controls system-wide default variables

Third File : $HOME/.profile - lets you customize your individual working environment

Fourth File: $HOME/.env - lets you customize your individual working environment variables.

4. How to override variables defined in /etc/environment for a particular user?

A fourth file that the operating system uses at every user logon is the
$HOME/.env file, if your .profile contains the following line: export
ENV=$HOME/.env The .env file lets you customize your individual
working environment variables.

The .env file contains the individual user environment variables that override the variables set in the /etc/environment file. You can customize your environment variables as desired by modifying your .env file.

5. How to change the font in AIX ?

To change the font to an italic, roman, and bold face of the same size, type the following:

# chfont -n /usr/lpp/fonts/It114.snf /usr/lpp/fonts/Bld14.snf /usr/lpp/
fonts/Rom14.snf

You can also use smitty chfont.

6. How to run a process in the background ?

For Ex, to run script1.sh in background run

# script1.sh & -> But this script process gets killed if you close the terminal

So always run, # nohup script1.sh &

Usage of nohup doesn't kill the process if you close the telnet session.
Output from the process/script will be stored in a file called nohup.out in the directory from where you started the process.

So if you want to start backup using mksysb and close your terminal wihle leaving leaving office, you can safely use "nohup command &".

Next day morning, you can view the contents of nohup.out to know the status of the backup job.

7. Whats the default priority for a process?

Default priority is 0. Priority numbers is in the range of -20 to 20.
Highest number is the lowest priority and lowest number has hight priority.

To set the priority while start a process, use nice command.
If the process is already running, you can use "renice" command to change its priority.

8. How to stop, resume a process and to make it foreground process?

To stop(pause) a foreground process, use Cntrol + Z keys ie., Ctrl+Z.

Note: Ctrl+Z works in the Korn shell (ksh) and C shell (csh), but not in the Bourne shell (bsh). To restart a stopped process, you must either be the user who started the process or have root user authority.

To restart a stopped process, enter
# kill -19 pid

To run it in foreground, enter
# fg pid

where pid is the procedd id which can be obtained from "ps -ef | grep process_name"

9. How to display a program output as well as copying to a file ?

Normally usage of output redirection supresses the output on screen.
Ex. ls -l > file1

If we want to redirect the output as well as show the output in screen use the tee command.

Ex: ls -l | tee -a file1

10. How to capture the terminal screen to a file ?

To capture the screen of a terminal, at the prompt, type the following:

#script

The system displays information similar to the following:

Script command is started. The file is typescript.

Everything displayed on the screen is now copied to the "typescript" file.

To stop the script command, press Ctrl-D or type exit and press Enter.

The system displays information similar to the following:

^D
Script command is complete. The file is typescript.

Use the cat command to display the contents of your file.

11. How to number all lines in a file ?

# n1 -ba file1.txt

This will display all lines of file1.txt alongwith their line number.

12. What are the supported file systems in AIX ?

a) JFS (or) JFS2 - Disk based file system
b) NFS - Network based File system
c) CDRFS - CDROM based file system
d) UDFS - DVD-ROM based file system
e) RAMFS - RAM based file system used while booting the system

13. What are the different directory abbreviations ?

Abbreviation Meaning
. The current working directory
.. The parent of the current working directory
~ Your home directory
$HOME Your home directory

14. What are the different directory path names ?

Absolute path name - Traces the path from the /(root) directory.
Absolute path names always begin with the slash (/) symbol.
Ex. /home/raja/dir1

Relative path name - Traces the path from the current directory
through its parent or its subdirectories and files. As user "raja", I
can say ./dir1 since I'm already in /home/raja

15. How to move a directory ?

# mvdir book manual

This moves the book directory under the directory named manual, if the manual directory exists. Otherwise, the book directory is renamed to manual.

16. What the RAID groups AIX LVM supports?

RAID-0 - Striping
RAID-1 - Mirroring
RAID-10 (or) RAID 0+1 - Mirroring and striping

17. How to read and remove mails from my system mailbox?

At your system command line prompt, enter the mail command:
# mail

If there is no mail in your system mailbox, the system responds with a message:
No mail for YourID

If there is mail in your mailbox, the system displays a listing of the messages in your system mailbox:

Mail Type ? for help.
"/usr/mail/lance": 3 messages 3 new
>N 1 karen Tue Apr 27 16:10 12/321 "Dept Meeting"
N 2 lois Tue Apr 27 16:50 10/350 "System News"
N 3 tom Tue Apr 27 17:00 11/356 "Tools Available"

The current message is always prefixed with a greater-than symbol (>).

Each one-line entry displays the following fields:

status - Indicates the class of the message.
number - Identifies the piece of mail to the mail program.
sender - Identifies the address of the person who sent the mail.
date - Specifies the date the message was received.
size - Defines the number of lines and characters contained in the message (this includes the header).
subject- Identifies the subject of the message, if it has one.

The status can be any of the following:
N - A new message.
P - A message that will be preserved in your system mailbox.
U - An unread message. This is a message that was listed in the mailbox the last time you used the mail program, but the contents were not examined.
* - A message that was saved or written to a file or folder.

18. What is the difference between IBM system p5 570 and IBM System p570 Server models ?

IBM System p5 570 is the P5(Power5 Processor) server whereas System p
570 is the latest model from IBM containing POWER 6 Processor.

19. How to display the values of NFS tuning parameters?

# nfso -o

20. How to monitor the performance of file systems?

Use filemon command.

21. How to list the available memory slots (DIMM) in your pSeries box ?

# lscfg -vp | grep -e "Memory DIMM" -e "Size"

22. What are the login programs what do not need AIX license ?

ftp, rsh and recec.

23. Have you seen some people use rmt0.1 (or) rmt1.5 for tape device name. We know rmt0 or rmt5 is a tape drive name but whats the ".1" or ".5" that comes after the tape drive name.

Here is the logic

rmt0.x where x = A + B + C

A = density 0 = high 4 = low
B = retension 0 = no 2 = yes
C = rewind 0 = yes 1 = no

So rmt0.1 means tape drive rmt0 with no rewind.
Normally if we use rmt0 for taking backup, after the backup operaation
tape gets rewinded. IF you dont want to rewind, use rmt0.1

24. Tips on System Dump Device

a) Don't mirror the system dump device
b) Don't use compression on the dump device
c) Don't use a secondary dump device unless it is on a seperate device

25. How to monitor/obtain LVM performance?

Use lvmstat command.

26. How to monitor/obtain NFS performance statistics?

Use nfsstat command.

27. How to set the variables defined in a file to the current shell/ environment ?

Suppose you the following variable defined in file1.sh

LANG=jp_JP
TZ=CUT-5

To set them in current shell, run ". ./file1.sh"

28. How will you encode a binary file ?

uuencode command converts a binary file to ascii data. This is mainly used for sending a file thru mail.

For Ex.,
uuencode source_file output_file

29. How you decode a file (which was encoded using uuencode command) ?

# uudecode source_file

30. How to view a a compressed file without uncompressing it ?

Use "zcat file1.Z"

31. How to configure the system to send mails each time an error is added to error report

a. Create a file /tmp/mailtoroot

errnotify:
en_name = "mailtoroot"
en_persistenceflg = 1
en_method = "/usr/bin/errpt -a -l $1 | mail -s \"errpt: $9\" root"

b. odmadd /tmp/mailtoroot

c. Verify by creating a error message

# errlogger 'Test Error Message"

You can always remove this ODM entry using the below command:

# odmdelete -q 'en_name=mailtoroot' -o errnotify

AIX - Tips and Tricks - Part III

2009-02-10T07:57:00.006+05:30

1. To list machines configured in a NIM Server,
# lsnim -c machines

2. To list networks configured in a NIM Server,
# lsnim -c networks

3. To reset a machine (return to ready state)
# nim -Fo reset MachineName

4. To list core file settings for a user,
# lscore user1

The output will look like:
compression: on
path specification: default
corefile location: default
naming specification: off

5. To list the default settings for the system,

# lscore -d

The output will look like:
compression: off
path specification: on
corefile location: /corefiles
naming specification: off

6. To make any process run by root dump compressed core files and restore the location of the core files to the system default,

# chcore -c on -p default root
Note: If no default is specified, cores will dump in the current directory.

7. To enable a default core path for the system, type:

# chcore -p on -l /corefiles -d

8. To scan logical volume lv01, report the status of each partition, and have every block of each partition read to determine whether it is capableof performing I/O operations, type:

# mirscan -l lv01

9. To do the above operation in a PV,

# mirscan -p hdisk1

10. To do the above operation in a VG,

# mirscan -v vg01

11. To determine if the 64-bit kernel extension is loaded,

# genkex grep 64

12. To list all JFS file systems,

# lsjfs

13. To list all JFS2 file systems

# lsjfs2

14. To mirror a terminal1 on terminal2
a. Open terminal 1 and find the pts value (ps -ef grep pts)

b. Open terminal 2 and enter 'portmir -t pts/1'
c. Now you will see commands and outputs from terminal 1 in terminal 2.
This is basically monitor a terminal.
d. Say "portmir -o" to end the mirroring after the use

15. To identify the current run level,

# cat /etc/.init.state

16. To list the available CD ROM drives,

# lsdev -Cc cdrom

17. To find out the speed of your network adapter,

# entstat -d ent0 grep "Media Speed"

18. To find out when your system was last installed/updated

# lslpp -f bos.rte

19. To list the status of your tape drive,

# tctl -f /dev/rmt0 status

20. How to setup anonymous ftp in AIX

Run the below script to setup anon ftp,
# /usr/lpp/tcpip/samples/anon.ftp

21. If telnet takes more time to produce a prompt, do the below checks

a. do nslookup of the client ip from the aix serverb.
b. Check the nameservers in /etc/resolv.confc.
c. Check the 'hosts' entry in /etc/netsvc.conf or NSORDER variable

This issue might be due to the DNS configuration issue. Pointing to a good nameserver should solve the problem.

22. How to shutdown the system to maintenance mode ?

# shutdown -Fm

23. How to log ftp accesses to a file

a. Add the below line in /etc/syslog.confdaemon.debug /tmp/daemon.log
b. # touch /tmp/daemon.log
c. # refresh syslogd
d. Modify your inetd.conf so that ftpd is called with the "-l" flag.

24. How to find a file name from inode number ?

# ncheck -i xxxx /mountpoint
where xxxx -> inode number of the file

25. How to redirect the system console to a file or tty temporarily

# swcons /tmp/console.out

or

# swcons /dev/tty5

26. How to recreate a deleted /dev/null file ?

# /bin/mknod /dev/null c 2 2

27. How to add commands that should get executed during every system shutdown ?

Add them to /etc/rc.shutdown

28. How to reduce the size or do cleanup of /var/adm/wtmp ?

# > /var/adm/wtmp

29. How to find out the fileset a file belongs to ?

# which_fileset command_name

30. In which file, the mapping of file Vs fileset stored ?

# /usr/lpp/bos/AIX_file_list

31. How to set maximum logins for a user in a system ?

Change the value of "maxlogins" under "usw" stanza in /etc/security/login.cfg

32. How to change the initial message that prints while logging in ?

Change the value of "herald" in /etc/security/login.cfg

33. How to set the # of seconds the user is given to enter their password ?

Change the value of "logintimeout" under "usw" stanza in /etc/security/login.cfg

Links to my old tips

Tips and Tricks - Part I
Tips and Tricks - Part II

File System Snapshot

2008-12-15T21:43:00.003+05:30

File system snapshots are available from AIX 5L v5.2 in JFS2 file systems. Snapshots had to be created into separate logical volumes. This is called “JFS2 External Snapshot”.

Starting from AIX V6.1 IBM offers the ability to create snapshots with the file system. This is called as “JFS2 Internal Snapshot”. These internal snapshots are stored under /fsmountpoint/.snapshot/snapshotname.

Both the internal and the external snapshots keep track of the changes to the snapped file system by saving the modified or deleted file blocks. Snapshots provide point-in-time (PIT) images of the source file system. Basically snapshots are used for taking PIT images (backup) of a file system during production runtime.

Advantages of Internal Snapshot:

a) No super user permissions are necessary to access data from a snapshot, since no initial mount operation is required.
b) No additional file system or logical volume needs to be maintained and monitored.
c) Snapshots are easily NFS exported, since they are in held in the same filesystem.

Management of Internal snapshots:

A JFS2 file system must be created with the new -a isnapshot=yes option. Existing file systems created without the isnapshot option cannot be used for internal snapshots. They have to be recreated or have to use external snapshots.

To create an internal snapshot:

# snapshot -o snapfrom=/oracle -n snap10
Snapshot "snap10" for file system /oracle created.

To create an external snapshot:
# snapshot -o snapfrom=/oralce /dev/snaporacle
This command creates a snapshot for the /oracle file system on the /dev/snaporacle logical volume, which already exists.

To list all snapshots for a file system:

# snapshot –q /oracle
Snapshots for /oracle
Current Name Time
* snap10 Mon Dec 15 09:17:51 CDT 2008

Files under this snapshot “snap10” are available under /oracle/.snapshot/snap10 directory. These files are read only; no modifications are allowed.

To delete an internal snapshot:

# snapshot –d –n snap10 /oracle

SMIT Screens:

To access smitty menu items, following the below steps

smitty> system storage management> file systems> add change show delete filesystems> enhanced journaled filesystems

shows the below options

List Snapshots for an Enhanced Journaled File System
Create Snapshot for an Enhanced Journaled File System
Mount Snapshot for an Enhanced Journaled File System
Remove Snapshot for an Enhanced Journaled File System
Unmount Snapshot for an Enhanced Journaled File System
Change Snapshot for an Enhanced Journaled File System
Rollback an Enhanced Journaled File System to a Snapshot

Some points on Internal snapshots:

1. A snapped file system can be mounted read only on previous AIX 5L versions. The snapshot itself cannot be accessed. The file system must be in a clean state; run the fsck command to ensure that this is true.

2. A file system created with the ability for internal snapshots can still have external snapshots.

3. Once a file system has been enabled to use internal snapshots, this cannot be undone.

4. If the fsck command has to modify the file system, any internal snapshots for the file system will be deleted by fsck.

5. Snapped file systems cannot be shrunk.

6. The defragfs command cannot be run on a file system with internal snapshots.

Some points on Internal and External snapshots:

1. A file system can use exclusively one type of snapshot at the same time.

2. External snapshots are persistent across a system reboot.

3. Typically, a snapshot will need two to six percent of the space needed for the snapped file system. For a highly active file system, 15 percent is estimated.

4. During the creation of a snapshots, only read access to the snapped file system is allowed.

5. There is reduced performance for write operations to a snapped file system. Read operations are not affected.

6. Snapshots are not replacement for backups. A snapshot depends always on the snapped file system, while backups have no dependencies on the source.

7. Neither the mksysb nor alt_disk_install commands will preserve snapshots.

8. A file system with snapshots cannot be managed by DMAPI. A file system being managed by DMAPI cannot create a snapshot.

File systems on CD-ROM and DVD disks

2008-12-15T21:39:00.001+05:30

Normally we used to manually mount/unmount/eject media in CDs and DVDs. AIX offers an automatic management of cd/dvd media using cdromd daemon. This is done by a daemon called cdromd. Cdromd manages a set a cd/dvd drives.

You can manually mount a read/write UDFS with the following command:

# mount -V udfs DevName MtPt
where DevName is the name of the DVD drive and MtPt is the mount point for the file system.

To mount a media in cd0 which is managed by cdromd,
# cdmount cd0

To have the cdromd daemon enabled on each system startup, add the following line to /etc/inittab:

cdromd:23456789:wait:/usr/bin/startsrc -s cdromd

Use the below commands to start/sop/list cdromd daemon,

# startsrc -s cdromd

# stopsrc -s cdromd

# lssrc -s cdromd

Here are some examples to manage the media,

To eject a media from cd1,
# cdeject cd0

To ask cdromd if cd0 is managed,
# cdcheck –a cd0

To ask cdromd if a media is not present on cd0,
# cdcheck –e cd0

To unmount a file system on cd0,
# cdumount cd0

To suspend management of cd0 by cdromd, (this ejects the media)
# cdutil –s cd0

To suspend management of cd0 by cdromd without ejecting the media,
# cdutil –s –k cd0

To resume management of cd0 by cdromd,
# cdutil –r cd0

WPAR

2008-12-11T02:31:00.004+05:30

WPARs are a new term introduced within AIX 6.1. Prior to WPAR, we used logical partitions to isolate the operating environment. This is no longer necessary as we can have multiple WPARs running in a single LPAR. If you are Solaris or HP-UX admin, you would have seen zones in solaris and virtual machines in HP-UX. WPAR is more or less similar to them.

There are 2 types of wpars

a. System WPAR

System WPARs are autonomous virtual system environments with their own private file systems, users and groups, login, network space and administrative domain.
For system WPARs, local file system spaces, such as /home and /usr, are constructed from isolated sections of the file system space for the global environment. By default, these spaces are located in the /wpars directory of the global environment. All processes run within the WPAR appear in the base directory for the WPAR. For example, users in the WPAR “part1” would see the /wpars/part1/usr directory as the /usr directory.

b. Application WPAR

Application workload partitions (WPARs) provide an environment for the isolation of applications and their resources to enable checkpoint, restart, and relocation at the application level. These WPARs share the global environment's file system namespace. When an application WPAR is created, it has access to all mounts available to the global environment's file system.

Creating an application wpar:

You can create an application WPAR using the wparexec command.

You must supply the path to the application or command that you want to create an application WPAR for, and you must supply any command line arguments when you run the wparexec command. The application can either come from a specification file, or be specified on the command line. Unlike system WPARs, it is not necessary to assign an explicit name to an application WPAR. Although both WPAR types require a name, the names for application WPARs are generated based on the name of the application running in the WPAR.

Complete the following steps to create an application WPAR:

1. Log in as the root user to the system where you want to create and configure the workload partition. This login places you into the global environment.

2. To create and configure the workload partition, run the following command:
wparexec -n wparname -- /usr/bin/ps -ef > /ps.out

The output should look similar to the following:
wparexec: Verifying filesystems...
wparexec: Workload partition wparname created successfully.
startwpar: COMMAND START, ARGS: wparname
startwpar: Starting workload partition 'wparname'
startwpar: Mounting all workload partition file systems
startwpar: Loading workload partition
startwpar: Shutting down all workload partition processes
rmwpar: Removing workload partition firstapp
rmwpar: Return Status = SUCCESS
startwpar: Return Status = SUCCESS
You have now successfully created an application WPAR.
Application WPARs start as soon as the wparexec command is issued, and stop as soon as the application completes its operation. When the operation is complete, the configuration for the application WPAR is destroyed.

System WPAR:

To create a system WPAR:

Here is an example for the system WPAR creation,

# mkwpar -n system1
mkwpar: Creating file systems...
/
/home
/opt
/proc
/tmp
/usr
/var

<<>>

FILESET STATISTICS
------------------
241 Selected to be installed, of which:
241 Passed pre-installation verification
----
241 Total to be installed

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Installing Software...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Filesets processed: 6 of 241 (Total time: 2 secs).

installp: APPLYING software for:
X11.base.smt 6.1.0.1
Filesets processed: 7 of 241 (Total time: 3 secs).
installp: APPLYING software for:
X11.help.EN_US.Dt.helpinfo 6.1.0.0
Filesets processed: 8 of 241 (Total time: 3 secs).
installp: APPLYING software for:
bos.acct 6.1.0.1
Filesets processed: 9 of 241 (Total time: 3 secs).
installp: APPLYING software for:
bos.acct 6.1.0.2
Filesets processed: 10 of 241 (Total time: 4 secs).
installp: APPLYING software for:
bos.adt.base 6.1.0.0
bos.adt.insttools 6.1.0.0
Filesets processed: 12 of 241 (Total time: 4 secs).
installp: APPLYING software for:
bos.compat.links 6.1.0.0
bos.compat.net 6.1.0.0
bos.compat.termcap 6.1.0.0

Workload partition devpayrollWPAR01 created successfully.
mkwpar: 0960-390 To start the workload partition, execute the
following as root: startwpar [-v] system1

It normally takes 2 to 4 minutes for the creation of a system WPAR.

By default, the file systems for a new system WPAR are located in the /wpars/wpar_name directory.

You can override the default location using the following command:
mkwpar -n wpar_name -d /newfs/wpar_name

To change the name of a system WPAR:
chwpar -n wpar_name

Configure networks for system WPARs:
You can configure the network for a system WPAR using the -h flag or the -N flag for the mkwpar command or the chwpar command.

If you do not specify any network information when you create a system WPAR, the name of the WPAR resolves to an OP address on the same network as any active global interface.

Here is an example to create a system WPAR and configure a IP address on it,

# mkwpar -n wpar_name -N interface=en0 address=224.128.9.3 \
netmask=255.255.255.0 broadcast=224.128.9.255

This creates a alias ip on the network interface 'en0' in the base Operating system.

Using the below command you can change the ip address later on

# chwpar -N address=224.128.9.3 netmask=255.255.255.128 \
broadcast=224.128.9.127 wpar_name

Changing the hostname in a system WPAR:
By default, the name for a system WPAR is used as its host name. You can use the -h flag with the mkwpar command or the chwpar command to change the host name for a system WPAR.
Example: # chwpar -h new_hostname wpar_name

Removing a network from a system WPAR:
You can remove a network from a system WPAR using the chwpar command with the -K flag.

Example: # chwpar -K -N address=124.128.9.3 wpar_name

Configuring domain resolution for system WPARs:
You can configure the domain resolution for system WPARs using the -r flag for the mkwpar command.

Below command copies the global environment’s domain resolution configuration into the system wpars,

# mkwpar -n wpar_name -r

Configuring system WPAR-specific routing:
You can configure a WPAR to use its own routing table using the -i flag and the -I flag for the mkwpar command, the wparexec command, or the chwpar command.

Configuring resource controls for system WPARs:
You can configure the resource controls to limit the physical resources a system WPAR has access to using the -R flag for the mkwpar command and chwpar command.
To initialize resource control settings, run the following mkwpar command:
mkwpar -n wpar_name -R active=yes CPU=10%-20%,50% totalProcesses=1024
In this example, the WPAR is entitled to the following system resources:

· A minimum of 10% of the global environment’s processors upon request
· A maximum of 20% of the global environment’s processors when there is contention
· A maximum of 50% of the global environment’s processors when there is no contention
· A maximum of 1024 processes at a time
To change resource control settings dynamically for an existing active or inactive application WPAR run the following chwpar command:
chwpar -R totalThreads=2048 shares_memory=100 wpar_name
Note: You can also use the -K flag for the chwpar command to remove individual attributes from the profile and restore those controls to their default, as follows:
chwpar -K -R totalProcesses shares_CPU wpar_name

Starting a System WPAR:

After logging into the global environment, run the below command to start a system WPAR
# startwpar wpar_name

To start in a maintenance mode,
# startwpar –m wpar_name
Note: You cannot start WPARs that rely on NFS-mounted file systems in maintenance mode.

Stopping a System WPAR:

You can stop a WPAR from the global environment using the stopwpar command.
Stopping a system WPAR follows a similar paradigm to the shutdown command and the halt command for AIX®. For application WPARs, running the stopwpar command is equivalent to removing the WPAR with the rmwpar command.

To stop a system WPAR in the same way that the shutdown command stops a system, run the following command:
# stopwpar wpar_name

To stop a system WPAR quickly in the same way that the halt command stops a system, run the following command:
# stopwpar -F wpar_name

Software update in system WPARs:
When you install software in the global environment, it is not always automatically available for use within your system WPAR. You can use the syncwpar command or the syncroot command to make software available.

Application workload partitions share their file systems with the global environment and do not create new file systems. Therefore, the syncwpar command and the syncroot command are applicable only to system WPARs.

To make software available in one or more WPARs, run the following command in the global environment:

# syncwpar wpar_name1 wpar_name 2

The syncroot command performs the same function as the syncwpar command, but the syncroot command operates only within the WPAR where it is issued.

Listing WPARs:
You can list summary data for system WPARs and application WPARs using the lswpar command.

For example, to list the WPARs on a system with names that start with "mypar_", run the following command:
# lswpar 'mypar_*'

Listing WPAR identifiers:
You can list the identifiers for a WPAR using the lparstat command or the uname command using the ‘-W’ flag.

Logging into a WPAR:
After you configure and activate a system WPAR, you can log in to it locally using the clogin command.

To log in to a system WPAR and create a shell as the root user, run the following command:
# clogin wpar_name

To log in to a system WPAR and create a shell as a different user, run the following command:
# clogin -l username wpar_name

Note: You can also log into a system WPAR remotely using the a network-based login command, such as the rlogin command, the telnet command, or the rsh command.

Backing up WPARs:

You can back up a WPAR using the savewpar command, the mkcd command, or the mkdvd command.

The savewpar command uses the data created by the mkwpardata command to back up your WPAR. If these files are not already on your system, the savewpar command will call the mkwpardata command to create these files.

The image files contain the following information:
· A list of logical volumes and their sizes
· A list of file systems and their sizes
· A list of volume groups
· The WPAR name

To back up a WPAR to the default tape device, run the following command:
# savewpar wparname

To back up a WPAR to a file, run the following command:
# savewpar -f file wparname

You can also back up a WPAR to a CD device using the mkcd -W command or to a DVD device using the mkdvd -W command.

Restoring WPARs:
You can restore a WPAR using the restwpar command. You can restore a WPAR from a backup image created by the savewpar command, the mkcd command, or the mkdvd command.

To restore the backup image from the /dev/rmt1 device, run the following command:
restwpar -f/dev/rmt1

Removing WPARs:
You can remove a WPAR using the rmwpar command.

To remove a WPAR, it must be in the defined state, and you must provide the name of the WPAR.

To remove a WPAR, run the following command:
rmwpar wpar_name

To stop a WPAR before removing it, run the following rmwpar command with the -s flag:
rmwpar -s wpar_name

AIX Commands – Part I

2008-11-11T23:23:00.001+05:30

Volume Group Commands

Display all VGs:

# lsvg

Display all active VGs:

# lsvg –o

Display info about rootvg,

# lsvg rootvg

Display info about all LVs in all VGs,

# lsvg -o |lsvg –il

Display info about all PVs in rootvg

# lsvg -p rootvg

Create VG with name vgxx on hdisk1 with partition size 8MB,

# mkvg -s 8 hdisk1

Create VG with name sivg on hdisk1 with partition size 8MB,

# mkvg -s 8 -y sivg hdisk1

Create sivg on hdisk1 with PP size 4 and no of partions 2 * 1016,

# mkvg -s 4 -t 2 -y sivg hdisk1

To make VG newvg automatically activated at startup,

# chvg -a y newvg

To deactivate the automatic activation at startup,

# chvg -a n newvg

To change maximum no. of PP to 2032 on vg newvg,

# chvg -t 2 newvg

To disable quorum on VG newvg,

# chvg -Q n newvg

Reorganises PP allocation of VG newvg,

# reorgvg newvg

Add PV hdisk3 and hdisk4 to VG newvg,

# extendvg newvg hdisk3 hdisk4

Exports the VG newvg,

# exportvg newvg

Import the hdisk2 with name newvg, and assign major number 44,

# importvg -V 44 -y newvg hdisk2

Remove PV hdisk3 from VG newvg,

# reducevg newvg hdisk3

To deactviate VG newvg,

# varyoffvg newvg

To activate VG newvg,

# varyonvg newvg

To sync the mirrored LV in the VG sivg,

# syncvg -v sivg

To mirror LVs of sivg with hdisk2 (-m for exact mirror, -S forbackground mirror),

# mirrorvg -S -m sivg hdisk2

To remove the mirrored PV from the set,

# unmirrorvg sivg hdisk2

To synchronize ODM with LVM(VGDA) for datavg,

# synclvodm datavg

File System Commands … In next part

Multibos

2008-11-11T23:07:00.001+05:30

Is it possible to have 2 BOS instance in a single rootvg and do patching on only 1 instance.

Yes. It is possible with the introduction of multibos.

“multibos” command allows the administrator to create multiple instances of AIX on the same rootvg. multibos setup operation actually creates a standby BOS that boots from a distinct logical volume. This creates 2 bootable sets of BOS on a single rootvg. Administrator can boot from either instance of BOS by specifying the respective BLV as an argument to the bootlist command.

The multibos command allows the administrator to access, install maintenance and technology levels for, update, and customize the standby BOS either during setup or in subsequent customization operations. Installing maintenance and technology updates to the standby BOS does not change system files on the active BOS. This allows for concurrent update of the standby BOS, while the active BOS remains in production.

In addition, the multibos command has the ability to copy or share logical volumes and file systems. By default, the BOS file systems (currently /, /usr, /var, and /opt,) and the boot logical volume are copied. You can also make copies of other file systems using –L flag.

ll other file systems and logical volumes are shared between instances of BOS. Separate log device logical volumes (for example, those that are not contained within the file system) are not supported for copy and will be shared.

But there are some restrictions for implementing multibos.

The multibos command is supported on AIX 5L Version 5.3 with the 5300-03 Recommended Maintenance package and later.
The current rootvg must have enough space for each BOS object copy. BOS object copies are placed on the same disk or disks as the original.
The total number of copied logical volumes cannot exceed 128. The total number of copied logical volumes and shared logical volumes are subject to volume group limits.

Lets see some examples,

1. To preview the creation of a standby BOS,

# multibos –sXp

My recommendation: Always preview (-p flag) the setup operation becore proceeding with the actual operation

2. To create a standby BOS,

# multibos –sX

3. To mount a standby BOS,

# multibos –m

4. To unmount a standby BOS,

# multibos –u

5. To remove a standby BOS,

# multibos –R

6. To start a standby BOS shell,

# multibos –S

After starting a standby BOS shell, you can do patching or customize the BOS.

7. To setup bootlist for the standby BOS,

# bootlist pm normal hdisk0 blv=bos_hd5

whereas bos_hd5 is the BLV for the standby BOS which was created by multibos setup operation.

If you want to boot from the old BOS, please boot from hd5.

I started using multibos to avoid alt_disk_install during patching. This saves a lot of downtime for me. After the creation of standby BOS, we do patching in the standby bos which happens during production time with no downtime. We need downtime only to boot the machine in standby BLV. Its very simple. Have a try.

Man Page for multibos

IBM AIX - Features and Limits

2008-11-07T03:58:00.001+05:30

Its a bit old table. But its a really good doc for people working in different versions of AIX.

aix-features-limits

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Science Islam memory System

AIX Quick Sheet

2008-11-07T03:53:00.000+05:30

AIX Quick Sheet

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Technology Islam software language

How to get partition number on AIX Partitions

2008-11-07T03:48:00.003+05:30

I hope you guys already know about "lparstat -l" command which shows the details about a partition like partition id, cpu, memory allocations,etc..

Here is another option to get the partition id. OR You can make use of this option to find whether yoru server is an LPAR or not.

How to Get the Partition Number on Aix Partitions

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Technology General linux programming

AIX 5.1 Installation Document -

2008-11-07T03:30:00.002+05:30

Here is a nice doc on AIX 5.1 Installation. It got screen by screen slides

AIX 5 1 Installation Document

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Culture Technology software oracle

AIX Etherchannel Load Balancing Options

2008-11-07T03:24:00.001+05:30

Here is a cool document about Etherchannel Load Balancng options in AIX.

AIX EtherChannel Load Balancing Options

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Government Technology and Traffic

AIX Version 6.0 Study Materials

2008-10-30T20:29:00.002+05:30

Here are some study materials from IBM

AIX V6 Advanced Security Features - Introduction and Configuration

Introduction to Workload Partition Management in IBM AIX Version 6.1

IBM AIX Version 6.1 Differences Guide

Below are AIX v6 materials from rootvg

AIX V6 Beta - First experiances

AIX V6 Boot Messages - Whats New ?

WPAR For Begineers

AIX Security by Default - What is New ?

Introducing AIX Security Expert

AIX 6 Beta - chwpar

Trusted AIX Installed, now what ?

Few tips from other bloggers

2008-10-30T02:53:00.003+05:30

Few tips on AIX

1. AIX CPU deallocation: How would you replace failed CPU dynamically on aix

2. AIX 32 bit/64 bit Kernel Support

3. Directories to monitor in AIX

4. AIX/LVM Quick Reference

5. Change IP with one command

6. Display Slot information in AIX

7. Delete multiple gateways

8. How to set backspace in UNIX terminal

9. LVM information crash with ODM

10. Use "screen" to run programs in a dedicated session

Korn Shell Script Lessons 1-7

2008-10-30T02:23:00.001+05:30

Korn Shell - Lesson 1 - Print statements and Comment

Korn Shell - Lesson 2a - Variables

Korn Shell - Lesson 2b - Reading input

Korn Shell - Lesson 3 - Debugging

Korn Shell - Lesson 4 - A Little About Arrays/Lists

Korn Shell - Lesson 5 - Basic Math

Korn Shell - Lesson 6a - if statement

Korn Shell - Lesson 6b - if statement - compound tests

Korn Shell - Lesson 6c - if/else statement

Korn Shell - Lesson 6d - if/then/elif statement

Korn Shell - Lesson 6e - if/then/elif/else statement

Korn Shell - LEsson 7a - String Tests w/ if

Bourne Shell Scripting (Part 61-76)

2008-10-30T02:14:00.001+05:30

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 61:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 62:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 63:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 64:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 65:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 66:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 67:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 68:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 69:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 70:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 71:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 72:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 73:
File not found

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 74:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 75:
File not found

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 76:

Bourne Shell Scripting (Part 41-60)

2008-10-30T02:13:00.001+05:30

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 41:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 42:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 43:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 44:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 45:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 46:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 47:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 48:
File not found

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 49:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 50:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 51:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 52:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 53:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 54:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 55:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 56:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 57:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 58:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 59:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 60:

Bourne Shell Scripting (Part 21-40)

2008-10-30T02:12:00.000+05:30

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 21:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 22:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 23:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 24:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 25:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 26:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 27:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 28:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 29:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 30:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 31:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 32:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 33:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 34:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 35:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 36:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 37:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 38:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 39:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 40:

Bourne Shell Scripting (Part 1-20)

2008-10-30T02:05:00.003+05:30

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 1:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 2:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 3:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 4:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 5:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 6:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 7:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 8:
File not found

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 9:
File not found

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 10:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 11:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 12:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 13:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 14:File not found

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 15:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 16:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 17:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 18:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 19:

Bourne Shell Scripting - Part 20:

(bash) Shell Script Variables

2008-10-30T01:29:00.000+05:30

(bash) Shell Script Variables (Part 1):

(bash) Shell Script Variables (Part 2):

(bash) Shell Script Variables (Part 3):

Basic Work With Text Files (youtube video)

2008-10-30T01:26:00.001+05:30

Basic Work With Text Files (part 1/8):

Basic Work With Text Files (part 2/8):

Basic Work With Text Files (part 3/8):

Basic Work With Text Files (part 4/8):

Basic Work With Text Files (part 5/8):

Basic Work With Text Files (part 6/8):

Basic Work With Text Files (part 7/8):

Basic Work With Text Files (part 8/8):

Introduction to VI editor (youtube Video)

2008-10-30T01:25:00.000+05:30

Introduction to VI editor (Part 1):

Introduction to VI editor (Part 2):

Introduction to VI editor (Part 3):

Youtube video on Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions

2008-10-30T01:23:00.001+05:30

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 1):

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 2):

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 3):

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 4):

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 5):

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 6):

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 7):

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 8):

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 9):

Basic Unix/Linux File Permissions (Part 10):

Youtube video on Basic Unix/Linux Commands Arguments

2008-10-30T01:21:00.001+05:30

Basic Unix/Linux Commands Arguments (Part 1/6):

Basic Unix/Linux Commands Arguments (Part 2/6):

Basic Unix/Linux Commands Arguments (Part 3/6):

Basic Unix/Linux Commands Arguments (Part 4/6):

Basic Unix/Linux Commands Arguments (Part 5/6):

Basic Unix/Linux Commands Arguments (Part 6/6):

Youtube video on basic unix/Liux commands

2008-10-30T01:20:00.000+05:30

Basic Unix/Linux Commands (Part 1/4):

Basic Unix/Linux Commands (Part 2/4):

Basic Unix/Linux Commands (Part 3/4):

Basic Unix/Linux Commands (Part 4/4):

Some YOUTUBE videos on pSeries and AIX

2008-10-30T00:46:00.006+05:30

How to boot a pSeries/LPAR to AIX from Service Processor:

Tour of the new p695 pSeries Server:

Creation of LPAR via HMC:

Introduction to HMCv7:

Dynamically changing LPARs:

Installing AIX from CDROM:

Installing AIX from NIM:

Ethernet Options with Virtual Ethernet:

Setting up Virtual Ethernet via the Virtual I/O Server:

Virtual I/O Server - Some Commands

2007-11-04T02:04:00.008+05:30

Initialize the LPAR Configuration :

# mkgencfg -o init

[OS] Software Management :

To display VIO Server level:

# ioslevel

To update the IOS software:

# updateios –dev /update -

To installs a new filesets (mainly used for TL updates):

# updateios –dev /cd0 -install -accept

To commit all applied :

# updateios –commit

To rejects all uncommitted updates :

# updateios –reject

To clean all incomplete pieces of the previous installation :

# updateios –clean

To remove a fileset :

# updateios –remove fileset_name

To take the OS backup in a CD ROM :

# backupios –cd /dev/cd1 -cdformat

To take the OS backup in a DVD-RAM :

# backupios –cd /dev/cd1 -udf

To take the OS backup in a tape drive :

# backupios –tape /dev/rmt0

Just verifies the backup available in a tape :

# backupios –tape /dev/rmt0 -verify

Generates backup to a file. No user VGs are -nosvg back’d up :

# backupios –file /opt/file1

To display the underlying AIX OS version :

# oem_platform_level

To open a non-restricted root shell :

# oem_setup_env

This shell is used mainly for the installation of vendor software such as device drivers.

Remote Management :

To enable remote_management using NIM master :

# remote_management nim1

To disable remote management :

# remote_management –disable

License Management:

To display the current license :

# license –view

To accept the license :

# license –accept

To view if the license has been accepted :

# license

Software Management:

To list all the installed software :

# lssw

To list all the installed software and their history

# lssw –hist

Management of Virtual Terminals:

To open a virtual terminal for partition with id 2 :

# mkvt –id

To close a virtual terminal for a partition with id 2 :

# rmvt –id 2

Device Management:

To change the attribute of a device permanently.

# chdev -dev scsi0 -attr id=6 -perm

Sometimes it reboots the system if perm is used

To disable the path between hdisk1 and scsi0 :

# chpath -dev hdisk1 -pdev scsi0 -op disable

To configures the devices in the VIO server :

# cfgdev

To configures the devices attached to scsi0 adapter :

# cfgdev –dev

To unconfigure the cd-rom device :

# rmdev –dev cd0

To unconfigure scsi adapter and its child devices :

# rmdev –recursive –dev scsi1

To unconfigures the children of pci1 but not the PCI bus pci1 :

# rmdev –pdev pci1

Management of Virtual/Shared Devices:

To create a virtual target device that maps lv20 as a virtual disk for a client partition hosted by the vhost0 virtual server adapter :

# mkvdev -vdev lv20 -vadapter vhost0

Same as above except here hdisk is used instead of a logical volume :

# mkvdev -vdev hdisk6 -vadapter vhost2

To create a SEA that maps the physical Ethernet adapter ent4 as a virtual adapter for the client

partitions served by the virtual Ethernet adapters ent6 and ent7, using ent6 as the default adapter and 8 as the default id :

# mkvdev -sea ent4 -vadapter ent6,ent7 -default ent6 -defaultid 8

To remove a virtual target device vtscsi9 along with its backing lv :

# rmvdev –vdev vtscsi9 –

To remove all virtual target device associated with backing device lv001 :

# rmvdev –vdev lv001

To remove a specific virtual target device :

# rmvdev –vtd vtscsi10

List Device Mapping:

To list all virtual target devices and backing devices mapped to virtual server adapter vhost2 :

# lsmap -vadapter vhost2

To list SEA and physical device mapped to virtual Ethernet Adapter ent4 :

# lsmap -vadapter ent4 –net

To list all virtual target devices and backing devices where backing devices are of type LV :

# lsmap -all -type lv

To list all network mapping :

# lsmap –all –net

How to list Devices :

To display all the devices :

# lsdev

To display all the virtual devices :

# lsdev –virtual

To display all the virtual adapters :

# lsdev –type adapter –virtual

To display all the slots :

# lsdev –slot s

To display all the adapters :

# lsdev –type adapter

Few other device types: disk, lv, optical, tape, tty

To list all physical Ethernet adapters and Etherchannel available for creating a SEA :

# lsdev –type ent4sea

To list all virtual Ethernet adapters available for creating a SEA :

# lsdev –type ven4sea

To list all adapters over which ip address can be configured :

# lsdev –type ent4ip

To display parent device of a device :

# lsdev –dev hdisk0 –

To list disks names and physical location alone :

# lsdev -type disk -field name physloc

Logical Volume Manager :

Volume Group

To create a vg on hdisk1 :

# mkvg -vg newvg hdisk1

To drain I/O's for a vg and suspends future I/O's :

# chvg -suspend vg03

To resume normal I/O operations for a vg :

# chvg -resume vg03

Unlock a VG if left in a locked state by abnormal termination of another lvm operation :

# chvg -unlock vg03

To add a physical volume to a volume group :

# extendvg vg3 hdisk3

To remove a PV from a VG :

# reducevg vg01 hdisk1

To remove a PV and all residing LVs from a VG with no confirmation :

# reducevg –rmlv –f vg01

To activate a vg :

# activatevg vg03

To deactivate a vg :

# deactivatevg vg03

To mirror the VIO Server’s rootvg to hdisk4 and reboots VIO Server :

# mirrorios –force hdisk4

To mirror the VIO Server’s rootvg to hdisk4 but don’t reboot the server :

# mirrorios –defer hdisk4

To remove the rootvg mirror from hdisk4 :

# unmirrorios hdisk4

To import a VG from hdisk07 :

# importvg –vg vg001 hdisk07

To export a VG :

# exportvg vg3

Note: Volume Group containing a paging space can’t be exported

To sync a VG :

# syncvg –vg vg01

To sync a LV :

# syncvg –lv lv001

To sync a PV :

# syncvg –pv hdisk4 hdisk5

To redefine a VG based on the VGDA from hdisk04 :

# redefvg –dev hdisk04

Logical Volume :

To create a logical volume of size 1MB in vg01 :

# mklv –lv lv001 vg01 1M hdisk1

To create a logical volume with mirror in place in vg01 of size 1GB :

# mklv –mirror vg01 1G

To extend an LV by 3MB :

# extendlv lv01 3M

To extend an LV by 1GB with space taken from hdisk5 :

# extendlv lv01 1G hdisk5

To remove a logical volume :

# rmlv lv05

To display the properties of a logical volume :

# lslv lv03

To display info about LV by Physical volume :

# lslv –pv lv03

To display LVs that can be used as backing devices :

# lslv –free

To make a copy for lv01 in hdisk03 :

# mklvcopy lv01 hdisk03

To remove lv01’s copy from hdisk03 :

# rmlvcopy lv01 hdisk03

To copy the contents of lv01 to lv02 :

# cplv lv01 lv02

To copy the contents of lv01 to a new lv in vg01 :

# cplv –vg vg01 lv01

To change the name of oldlv to newlv :

# chlv –lv newlv oldlv

Physical Volume

To display all physical volumes in the system :

# lspv

To display the status and characteristics of hdisk03 :

# lspv hdisk03

To list all the available PVs used as virtual SCSI backing devices :

# lspv –avail

To list PVs that can be used as virtual SCSI backing devices and are not currently a backing device :

# lspv –free

To move physical partitions from hdisk1 to hdisk2 :

# migratepv hdisk1 hdisk2

To move physical partitions in lv01 from hdisk1 to hdisk2 :

# migratepv –lv lv01 hdisk1 hdisk2

Storage Pool Management:

To create storage pool “client_data” using hdisk3 hdisk4 hdisk3 and hdisk4 :

# mksp -f client_data

To set client_data storage pool as default :

# chsp –default client_data

To list all storage pools :

# lssp

To list the default storage pool :

# lssp –default

To list the backing device in rootvg storage pool :

# lssp –bd –sp rootvg

To attach a storage from a storage pool to a Virtual SCSI adapter:

# mkbdsp -bd lv001 -vadapter vthost2 -tn vtscsi9

To removes storage from a Virtual SCSI adapter, and removes the backing device :

# rmbdsp –bd lv001

To remove storage from a Virtual SCSI adapter, And makes sure backing device is not deleted :

# rmbdsp –bd lv001 -savebd

To removes storage from a Virtual SCSI adapter, and removes the backing device :

# rmbdsp –vtd vtscsi9

To removes storage from a Virtual SCSI adapter. and makes sure backing device is not deleted :

# rmbdsp –vtd vtscsi8 -savebd

Network Configuration :

TCP/IP Configation:

To configure tcpip on a network interface :

# mktcpip -hostname sys01vio2 -inetaddr 9.47.90.113 -interface en2 -netmask 255.255.255.0 -gateway 9.47.90.1 -nsrvdomain yahoo.com -start

To display the stored tcp/ip configuration in the system :

# lstcpip –stored

To display ethernet adapters on the system :

# lstcpip –adapters

To display the system hostname :

# lstcpip –hostname

To display DNS name servers in search order and domain name :

# lstcpip –namesrv

To display the routing table :

# lstcpip –routtable

To display routing table in numeric output instead of hostname :

# lsctpip –num –routtable

To display all the open inet sockets :

# lstcpip –sockets –family inet

To display the status of all configured interfaces :

# lstcpip –state

To remove all TCP/IP configuration :

# rmtcpip –all

To unconfigure tcpip in en0:

# rmtcpip –interface en0

To cleanup static routing table :

# rmtcpip –f -routing

To remove IP information from en0 after reboot :

# rmtcpip –f –interface en0 -nextboot

To remove DNS information and clears the hosts file :

# rmcpip –namesrv

Managing IP address-to-host name Mapping Entries:

To add IP address-to-host name mapping entry :

# hostmap -addr 192.100.1.7 -host alpha

To list all IP address-to-host name mapping entries :

# hostmap –ls

To delete the IP address-to-host name mapping entry :

# hostmap-rm 192.100.1.7

Managing Network Services:

To enable all the network services :

# startnetsvc ALL

To enable the telnet daemon :

# startnetsvc telnet

To enable the ftp daemon :

# startnetsvc ftp

To enable the ssh daemon :

# startnetsvc ssh

To enable the ldap daemon :

# startnetsvc ldap

To enable the cimserver daemon :

# startnetsvc cimserver

To enable the xntpd daemon :

# startnetsvc xntpd

To send CLI tracing details to the system log :

# startnetsvc tracelog

To send system error to the system log :

# startnetsvc errorlog

To disable all the network services :

# stopnetsvc ALL

To disable the telnet daemon :

# stopnetsvc telnet

To disable the ftp daemon :

# stopnetsvc ftp

To disable the ssh daemon :

# stopnetsvc ssh

To disable the ldap daemon :

# stopnetsvc ldap

To disable the cimserver daemon :

# stopnetsvc cimserver

To disable the xntpd daemon :

stopnetsvc xntpd

To stop sending CLI tracing details to system log :

# stopnetsvc tracelog

To stop sending system error log to the system log :

# stopnetsvc errorlog -

To display the status of ftp network service :

# lsnetsvc ftp

Managing DNS, Domain and Search Order Entries:

To add a domain entry :

# cfgnamesrv -add -dname abc.aus.century.com

To add a name server entry :

# cfgnamesrv –add -ipaddr 192.9.201.1

To display all the DNS entries :

# cfgnamesrv -ls

Network Tuning Parameters:

To display the maximum size of the mbuf pool :

# optimizenet –get thewall

To set a machine as internet work router over TCP/IP networks :

# optimizenet –set ipforwarding=1

To display information on udp_recvspace :

# optimizenet –h udp_recvspace

Network Monitoring:

To display all the statistics, including the device- specific statistics :

# entstat ent0

To reset all the statistics back to their initial values :

# entstat –reset ent0

To display the route to a particular host :

# traceroute nis.nsf.net

System Monitoring :

To display the summary of current system activity :

# sysstat

To display the system statistics :

# topas

System Management Commands:

To halt the operating system :

# shutdown

To halt the operating system forcibly :

# shutdown –force

To reboot the vio server :

# shutdown –restart

To invalidate the boot list for service mode :

# bootlist -mode service –rm

To display the boot list for service mode :

# bootlist -mode service –ls

To set the boot list for normal mode :

# bootlist –more normal hdisk0

To display the complete detailed error report :

# errlog –ls

To remove all the error log entries :

# errlog –rm 0

To remove the error log entries older than 5 days :

# errlog –rm 5

To change the system date and time :

# chdate -day 12 -month 10 -year 2004 -hour 16 -minute 30

To change the language for the entire system to French Canadian :

# chlang -lang fr_CA

To display available languages :

# chlang –ls

To perform hardware problem determination and maintenance :

# diagmenu

To generate report on microcode levels of all the devices :

# invscout –report

To display the vpd survey of the partition :

# invscout –vpd

To append the current MOTD [Message Of The Day] :

# motd –append “Message”

To overwrite MOTD :

# motd –overwrite -file filename

To do the initial configuration of VIO Server :

# cfgassist

It is like configuration assitant in AIX.

To do filesystem scan :

# fsck /dev/lv01

To display exported (nfs) directories on a remote server :

# showmount hostname

To start system dump on the primary device :

# startsysdump

To display continuous disk report on disk1 at 2sec interval :

# viostat -disk disk1 2

To display adapter throughput reports :

# viostat –adapter

To display system and adapter throughput reports :

# viostat –sys –adapter

To gather system info and to store it in the floppy disk :

# snap -general -dev /dev/rfd0

To display microcode levels of all devices :

# lsfware –all

Managing Agents:

To start an agent : # startsvc agent_name

To stop an agent: # stopsvc agent_name

To display an agent's configuration information :

# lssvc agent_name

To display all the available agents :

# lssvc

To display the attributes associated with ITSM_base agent :

# cfgsvc –ls ITM_base

To display the ITM_base agent ssh public key :

# cfgsvc -key ITM_base

User Management:

To create a user :

# mkuser

To change an attribute of a user :

# chuser

To display the properties of a user :

# lsuser

To remove a user from the system :

# rmuser

To set/reset password for a user :

# passwd

Security Commands:

To display all failed logins :

# lsfailedlogin

To display the contents of global command log :

# lsgcl

To displays high system settings :

# viosecure -level high

To apply all of the high system settings to the system :

# viosecure -level high –apply

To displays the current system settings :

# viosecure –view

To allow IP activity on the ftp-data, ftp, ssh, www, https, rmc, and cimon ports, and to deny other IP activity :

# viosecure –firewall on

To enable IP activity on all ports :

# viosecure –firewall off

To display the list of allowed ports :

# viosecure -firewall view

AIX - Tips n Tricks - Part II

2007-08-26T05:12:00.000+05:30

1. How to configure the system and create a restricted shell user ?

Below example shows how to create a restricted shell user (this user can execute only "ls" and "vi" commands

a) Make a reduced bin directory to contain links to programs for the user or users:

# mkdir /usr/rbin

b) Link the necessary commands and programs in the reduced bin directory.

For example, give access to the ls and vi commands:
# ln -s /usr/bin/ls /usr/rbin/ls
# ln -s /usr/bin/vi /usr/rbin/vi

c) Add Rsh as a valid shell in /etc/security/login.cfg:
# vi /etc/security/login.cfg

d) Add /usr/bin/Rsh to the list of shells in the usw stanza:

usw:
shells = /bin/sh,/bin/bsh,/bin/csh,/bin/ksh,/bin/tsh,/bin/ksh93,/usr/bin/sh,
/usr/bin/bsh,/usr/bin/csh,/usr/bin/ksh,/usr/bin/tsh,/usr/bin/ksh93,/usr/sbin/
uucp/uucico,/usr/sbin/sliplogin,/usr/sbin/snapp,/usr/bin/Rsh

e) Add the restricted shell user:
# mkuser shell="/usr/bin/Rsh" alex

f) Assign an initial password:
# passwd alex

g) Change the ownership of the users profile to root:
# chown root:system /home/alex/.profile

h) Change the permissions of the users profile to 755:
# chmod 755 /home/alex/.profile

i) Edit the users profile setting the PATH and Shell variables:

# vi /home/alex/.profile
Set PATH for the new bin directory and Set SHELL to rksh:
PATH=/usr/rbin; export SHELL=/usr/bin/Rsh

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2. How to change the default welcome (herald) message on the login display ?

Edit the file /etc/security/login.cfg and update the herald parameter ...

default:
herald = "Unauthorized use of this system is prohibited\n\nlogin: "
sak_enable = false
logintimes =
logindisable = 0
logininterval = 0
loginreenable = 0
logindelay = 0

You can also use the below command to change the herald value

# chsec -f /etc/security/login.cfg -a default -herald "Unauthorized use of this system is prohibited.\n\nlogin: "

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3. How to set automatic logoff (only for terminals) ?

Edit the /etc/security/.profile file to include an automatic logoff value for all users, as in the following example:

TMOUT=600 ; TIMEOUT=600 ; export readonly TMOUT TIMEOUT

The number 600, in this example, is in seconds, which is equal to 10 minutes. However, this method only works from the shell.

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4. How to auto forward the mails ?

Create $HOME/.forward file and add adresses or aliases.

When mail is sent to a local user, the sendmail command checks for the $HOME/.forward file.

If the file exists, the message is not sent to the user. The message is sent to the addresses or aliases in the $HOME/.forward file.

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5. How to set(define) and unset a variable in a shell or shell script ?

# x=3 -> Defines a vlue for a variable 'x'
# echo $x -> Displays the vlue of 'x' vairable
3
# unset x -> Unsets the variable
# echo $x -> Again display its value
#

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6. How to send file1 as a message to user alex ?

# mail alex <>

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7. How to display mail queue ?

Note: mailq is the queue where your mails are stored

# mailq (or) sendmail -bp

There is 1 request in the mail queue
---QID---- --Size-- -----Q-Time----- ----------Sender/ Recipient-----------
OAA 19258 * 29 Mon Jun 26 14:57 root

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8. Whats sendmail command?

It receives formatted messages and routes messages to one or more users. IT can deliver messages to users on local/remote machines. It will be started by tcpip sub-system . It uses /etc/mail/sendmail.cf as config file.

Once this daemon started, you can find its process id in

/etc/sendmail.pid.

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9. How to define mail aliases for users?

a) Add the aliases to /etc/aliases.
For Example,
nobody: /dev/null
certify: user02, user5801@server3, root@server4, user5911@se

b) Rebuild the aliases database using
newaliases (or) sendmail -bi

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10. If logging with telnet takes long time (for ex. 2 mins), what might be the issue?

There might be problem with DNS resolution. Check /etc/resolv.conf and check dns connection thru nslookup command.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11. While attempting to log in, you see the below message. How you solve this issue ?

'All available login sessions are in use.'

Check the number of AIX user license using "lslicense"
If required increase the license using "chlicense" command.

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12. Oracle DBA says that his database is not able to go beyond certain limit. For example, oracle userid is not able to start more than 500 process's. Whats the issue?

This is because of the "maxuproc" value is 500. Check the value using "lsattr -El sys0 -a maxuproc"

If required change the value using
# chdev -l sys0 -a maxuproc=1000

Normally for Oracle Production machines, you have to consult with DBA's while installing the server and set an agreed value.

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13. Errpt is not displaying any reports. Found that /var/adm/ras/ errlog file is there in the location and errdemon is running fine. What might be the issue the issue?

errlog file seems to be corrupted. Delete the file and stop the errdemon (/usr/lib/errstop).

Start the errdaemon (/usr/lib/errdemon). While starting, daemon creates the errlog file automatically.

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14. How to list IDE controllers in your system ?

# lscfg -l ide*

DEVICE LOCATION DESCRIPTION
ide0 01-00-00 ATA/IDE Controller Device
ide1 01-00-01 ATA/IDE Controller Device

The following sample display from the lscfg -l ide command shows

There are 2 IDE I/O controllers configured in the server

Controller ide0 and ide1 are located on the system planar ( Notice 1st and 2nd digits in location code)

The planar indicator is the second digit in the location value with a value of 1.

6th digit indicates the controller number.

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15. After a successful login, the login command displays the message of the day, the date and time of the last successful and unsuccessful login attempts for this user, and the total number of unsuccessful login attempts for this user since the last change of authentication information (usually a password).

How do you suppress these messages?

You can suppress these messages by creating a “.hushlogin” file in your home directory.

For Example,

At the prompt in your home directory, type the following:
# touch .hushlogin

The touch command creates the empty file named .hushlogin if it does not already exist. The next time you log in, all login messages will be suppressed. You can instruct the system to retain only the message of the day, while suppressing other login messages.

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16. Whats the files system read once you login ?

First File : /etc/environment - contains variables specifying the basic environment for all processes.

Second File: /etc/profile - controls system-wide default variables

Third File : $HOME/.profile - lets you customize your individual working environment

Fourth File: $HOME/.env - lets you customize your individual working environment variables.

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17. How to override variables defined in /etc/environment for a particular user?

A fourth file that the operating system uses at login time is the
$HOME/.env file, if your .profile contains the following line:

export ENV=$HOME/.env

The .env file lets you customize your individual working environment variables. The .env file contains the individual user environment variables that override the variables set in the /etc/environment file. You can customize your environment variables as desired by modifying your .env file.

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18. How to change the font in AIX ?

To change the font to an italic, roman, and bold face of the same size, type the following:

# chfont -n /usr/lpp/fonts/It114.snf /usr/lpp/fonts/Bld14.snf /usr/lpp/
> fonts/Rom14.snf

You can also use smitty chfont.

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19. How to run a process in the background ?

For Ex, to run script1.sh in background run

# script1.sh &

But this script process gets killed if you close the terminal

So always practice to run using nohup,

# nohup script1.sh &

Usage of nohup doesn't kill the process if you close the telnet session. Output from the process/script will be stored in a file called nohup.out in the directory from where you started the process.

This will help you in case if you want to start backup using mksysb and close your terminal/ leaving office, you can safely use "nohup command &". Next day morning, you can view the contents of nohup.out to know the status of the backup job.

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20. What is the default priority for a process?

Default priority is 0. Priority numbers is in the range of -20 to 20. Highest number is the lowest priority and lowest number has high priority while using resources.

To set the priority while start a process, use nice command.

If the process is already running, you can use "renice" command to change its priority.

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21. How to stop, resume and to make it foreground process?

To stop(pause) a foreground process, use

Cntrol + Z keys ie., Ctrl+Z.

Note: Ctrl+Z works in the Korn shell (ksh) and C shell (csh), but not in the Bourne shell (bsh).

To restart a stopped process, you must either be the user who started the process or have root user authority.

To restart a stopped process, enter
# kill -19 pid

To run it in foreground, enter
# fg pid

where pid is the process id which can be obtained from the following command

ps -ef | grep precess_name | awk '{print $2}'

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22. How to display a program output as well as copying to a file ?

Normally usage of output redirection suppresses the output on screen.

Ex. ls -l > file1

If we want to redirect the output as well as show the output in screen use the tee command.

Ex: ls -l | tee -a file1

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23..How to capture your terminal screen to a file ?

To capture the screen of a terminal, at the prompt, type the following:

#script

The system displays information similar to the following:

Script command is started. The file is typescript.

Everything displayed on the screen is now copied to the "typescript" file.

To stop the script command, press Ctrl-D or type exit and press Enter.

The system displays information similar to the following:

Script command is complete. The file is typescript.

Use the cat command to display the contents of your file.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

24. What are the supported file systems in AIX ?

a) JFS (or) JFS2 - Disk based file system
b) NFS - Network based File system
c) CDRFS - CDROM based file system
d) UDFS - DVD-ROM based file system
e) RAMFS - RAM based file system used while booting the system

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

25. What are the different directory abbreviations?

Abbreviation Meaning
. The current working directory
.. The parent of the current working directory
~ Your home directory
$HOME Your home directory

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

26. What are the different directory path names ?

Absolute path name:

Traces the path from the /(root) directory. Absolute path names always

begin with the slash (/) symbol.

Ex. /home/ raja/dir1

Relative path name:

Traces the path from the current directory through its parent or its

subdirectories and files. As user "raja", I can say ./dir1 since I'm already in /home/raja

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

27. How to move a directory ?

# mvdir book manual

This moves the book directory under the directory named manual, if the
manual directory exists. Otherwise, the book directory is renamed to manual.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

28. What the RAID groups AIX LVM supports?

RAID-0 - Striping
RAID-1 - Mirroring
RAID-10 (or) RAID 0+1 - Mirroring and striping

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

29. How to read and remove mails from my system mailbox?

At your system command line prompt, enter the mail command:
# mail

If there is no mail in your system mailbox, the system responds with a message:

No mail for YourID

If there is mail in your mailbox, the system displays a listing of the messages in your system mailbox:

# mail

Here Type ? for help.

"/usr/mail/lance": 3 messages 3 new
>N 1 karen Tue Apr 27 16:10 12/321 "Dept Meeting"
N 2 lois Tue Apr 27 16:50 10/350 "System News"
N 3 tom Tue Apr 27 17:00 11/356 "Tools Available"

The current message is always prefixed with a greater-than symbol (>).

Each one-line entry displays the following fields:

status - Indicates the class of the message.
number - Identifies the piece of mail to the mail program.
sender - Identifies the address of the person who sent the mail.
date - Specifies the date the message was received.
size - Defines the number of lines and characters contained in the
message (this includes the header).
subject - Identifies the subject of the message, if it has one.

The status can be any of the following:
N - A new message.
P - A message that will be preserved in

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30. After logging as an application user (oradba), when I issued "crontab -l" system throwed the below error

0481-103 Cannot open a file in the /var/spool/cron/crontabs directory.

What is the solution?

Here is the solution

a) Create an empty file /var/spool/cron/crontabs/oradba

b) Change the ownership of the file to root.cron

c) Login as oradba and issue "crontab -l" to verify the cron.

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31. How to identify the program listening in the given port ?

METHOD I: # lsof –P –n –i :505 (for port 505)

METHOD II:

# netstat -Aan|grep 9404

f100060006952b98 tcp 0 0 *.9404 *.* LIST

f100060006a90b98 tcp 0 0 *.19404 *.* LIST

# rmsock f100060006952b98 tcpcb

The socket 0x6952808 is being held by proccess 753870 (java).

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32. How to display non-printable characters in a text file ?

Lets create a file with non-printable characters.

# vi filename.txt

^I^I^I^I$

this is a test$

^I^I^I^I$

: set list

Now we will list the file so that non-printable chars are viewed

# cat -vet filename.txt

^I^I^I^I$

this is a test$

^I^I^I^I$

# od -c filename.txt

0000000 \t \t \t \t \n \n \n \n t h i s i s

0000020 a t e s t \n \t \t \t \t \n

0000034

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33. How to display specific lines in a text files ?

For illustration purposes, I'm using the cat -n filename to show the line numbers in this script.

# cat -n filename

...

8 for i in $*

10 do

12 typeset -i16 hex

13 hex=$i

14 print $i equals $hex in hexadecimal

16 typeset -i8 oct

17 oct=$i

18 print $i equals $oct in octal

20 typeset -i2 bin

21 bin=$i

22 print $i equals $bin in binary

24 print

25 done

...

Prints out the for loop without displaying the line numbers

# sed -n 8,25p filename | tee for_loop

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34. How to recover the root password in AIX ?

If you forgotten the root password, we can easily recover it but the system requires 2 recycles.

Here is the way I follow

Password recovery is one of the simplest troubleshooting procedure in
AIX. Once you boot from CD, you see a menu with 3 menu items.

In that select the 3rd item

ie., "Start Maintenance Mode for System Recovery" à

"Access a Root Volume Group" ->

"Access this volume group and start a shell".

This will open a shell prompt. The just use "passwd" command for
setting a new password for root.

Thats it. root password has been changed.

Now you can reboot the machine from rootvg hard disk (normally it should be hdisk0)

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34. How to find out the (real) memory usage ?

# svmon -G

size inuse free pin virtual

memory 2097152 2097026 126 195637 1237158

pg space 524288 61023

work pers clnt lpage

pin 195404 233 0 0

in use 1189840 906786 400 0

The size and inuse columns of the memory and pgspace output represent real memory and paging space usage respectively.

The size is measured as the number of 4K pages.

Here in this case used memory is

= ((2097026 x 4)/1024)/1024 GB of used memory

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

35. Here are some of the errors you get when paging space is low.

INIT: Paging space is low!

ksh: cannot fork no swap space

Not enough memory

Fork function failed

fork () system call failed

Unable to fork, too many processes

Fork failure - not enough memory available

Fork function not allowed. Not enough memory available.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

36. How is the default paging space size determined ?

It follows the following standard

Set paging space to 2 times the amount of RAM
Paging space can use no more than 20% of total disk space in the root volume Group
Paging space can be no larger than 2 GB

PowerPATH - Some commands

2007-07-06T20:25:00.000+05:30

INSTALLATION:

1. Required Filesets:

EMCpower.base 3.0.0.0
EMCpower.multi_path_clariio 3.0.0.0
EMCpower.multi_path 3.0.0.0
EMCpower.consistency_grp 3.0.0.0

2. Register PowerPath on the host.

Enter the 12-character license key using the below command.
# emcpreg -install

3. Validate your registration number using
# powermt check_registration

4. Initialize the PowerPath hdiskpower devices and make them available to the host.

To initialize devices at the command line, enter:
# powermt config

Maintenance Commands:

Equivalent to cfgmgr:
# emc_cfgmgr

To display hdiskpowern to hdiskn configuration:
# powermt display dev=all

Reconfigure or create the hdiskpower devices
# powermt config

To list HBA:
# powermt display

To remove HBA:
# powermt remove hba=hba#

Test all configured paths:
# powermt restore

To remove any hdiskpower devices that are no longer available:
# powermt check

Uninstallation:

a) Stop all applications/processes that access powerpath hdiskpower device.
b) Varyoff volumegroups that contains hdiskpower device (or) remove hdiskpower devices from the volumegroups

c) Uninstall powerpath filesets using
# installp –u EMCpower

d) If you wanna remove powerpath from the system entirely, remove the file “/etc/emcp_registration”