Today, I passed and validated my first certification test : AIX
6.1 Administration (000-104).
Now, I have a new status : IBM Certified System Administrator – AIX 6.1
This test is a MCQ of 117 questions with a time limit of 150 minutes, the
following lines list the objectives :
Backup and Recovery
(5%)
a. Recover from a lost
root password
b. Backup AIX OS and data
using AIX commands (mksysb, mkcd, tar, backup, etc)
c. Restore AIX OS and
data using AIX commands, including listing backup media contents (restvg,
restore, tar, etc)
System Initialization
and Boot (7%)
a. Describe and modify
the /etc/inittab and rc files
b. Describe the different
run levels and boot modes
c. Use commands to manage
the boot list and create boot logical volumes (incl. changing the boot list)
d. Describe the boot
process (BIST, POST, mounts, cfgmgr)
e. Interrupt the boot
process and use SMS
f. Describe booting from
different media (disk, network, tape, cd)
g. Perform system or
partition startups, shutdowns and reboots
System and Device
Configuration (9%)
a. Add or remove devices
(printers, tape, adapters, using cfgmgr, etc)
b. Determine / chance
device attributes, including WWN, MAC addresses, etc. (lsdev, chdev, lscfg,
lsattr)
c. List, define and
change paging space
d. Configure and manage
print subsystem (print queues, default printer, print job management)
e. Configure system
environment (timezone, /etc/environment, etc.)
f. Add / remove disks
(including data migration tasks, using cfgmgr)
Network Administration
(9%)
a. Configure the network
(TCP/IP daemons, /etc/hosts, hostname, ifconfig, route, /etc/resolv.conf,
etc/netsvc.conf, /etc/ntpd.conf)
b. Configure network
security (/etc/hosts.equiv, .rhosts, etc.)
c. Verify network
availability and debug network problems (ping, ifconfig, netstat, tcpdump,
iptrace)
d. Understand and
configure Etherchannel and teaming
e. Configure NFS
(/etc/exports/, biod, nfsd, showmount, etc.)
f. Configure and use CIFS
(very basic)
Security and User
Management (7%)
a. Add, delete, change
user and group accounts
b. Describe and modify
user and group management related files, profiles, and set or change the shell
environment (/etc/security/user, /etc/security/limits, /etc/security/passwd,
/etc/profile/, .profile)
c. Demonstrate in-depth
knowledge of the login process (is getty running, order of the environment
being set, etc.)
d. Set permissions (in
more depth than operator)
e. Configure RBAC
(role-based access control)
Install and Maintain
AIX (11%)
a. Determine correct
installation source (CD/DVD, NIM, cloning, alternate disk install, etc)
b. Determine correct
installation type (preservation, migration, new/complete overwrite)
c. Install, check and
remove updates, TLs and fixes. Describe lpp statuses and tasks (commit, apply,
or reject using lslpp), and debug install errors using lppchk
d. Describe various
options to acquire updates and fixes (SUMA, FLRT)
e. Install additional IBM
and Open Source licensed program products (rpm, rte, bff, etc.)
f. Install and configure
a basic NIM environment (what it is and what must be configured)
g. Obtain and validate
system and device firmware, including considerations for ‘deferred’ and
‘concurrent’ maintenance.
Logical Volume, File
and Filesystem management (7%)
a. Enlarge and reduce
file systems
b. Describe and
differentiate between physical volumes and LVMs, logical volumes, physical and
logical partitions, and physical disk and physical partition size.
c. Manage Volume Groups
including mirroring (mkvg, varyonvg, varyoffvg, extendvg, exportvg, importvg,
lsvg)
d. Describe and manage
different types of Logical Volumes, including mirroring.
e. Describe and manage
different types of filesystems and different logging methods (mkfs, chfs, fsck,
mount, snapshot, etc.)
f. Configure and manage
symbolic and hard links
g. Demonstrate
understanding of multipath I/O
Problem Determination
and Resolution (15%)
a. Use logs to identify
problems (errlog, alog, syslog, etc.)
b. Use the diag utility
c. Use traces, truss,
snap and kdb
d. Describe and use ODM
e. Configure and use
system dump devices
f. Recover from a full
file system
g. Troubleshoot common
boot LED codes and access a system that will not boot
h. Troubleshoot
installation hangs and failures
i. Debug shell script
common interpreter problems (ksh, etc)
j. Recover a logical
volume
k. Find and correct
corrupted filesystems, superblocks, etc.
Process and
Performance Management and Tuning (9%)
a. Use the system
resource manager
b. Understand and use
Workload Manager (WLM) at a basic level
c. Use cron and at at a
detailed level
d. Use tuning tools and
parameters (ioo, vmo, no, /etc/tunables, etc)
e. Use performance
monitoring tools (topas, netstat, vmstat, lvmstat, iostat, svmon, nmon)
f. Monitor and change
process execution (ps, nice, kill)
Planning and
Documentation (11%)
a. Understand Workload
Partitions (WPARs) and when to use them
b. Plan HMC configuration
(networking, redundancy, users, security, etc.)
c. Describe the use and
function of VIO
d. Partition planning
(micropartitioning, memory planning, HEA/IVE, processor allocation, etc)
e. Document a system
(sysplan, etc)
f. Find appropriate
resources (info center, key center, etc.)
g. Determine system
redundancy requirements (avoiding single points of failure)
h. Describe applicability
and use of Capacity on Demand
HMC and Partition
Management (6%)
a. Apply HMC and Server
fixes
b. Define, add, remove
resources from an LPAR (DLPAR and partition profiles, etc.)
c. Backup and restore the
HMC
d. Use the HMC and ASMI
interface,
e. Understand and use IVM
(options, functions, etc.)
f. Configure and use
electronic service agent
