NIM

A NIM environment is a logical group of machines, and multiple NIM environments can share the same TCP/IP network. However, one machine can be part of only one NIM environment a time, and there can be only one active NIMmaster per environment.

The machines (or clients) can be standalone systems, LPARs, diskless, and dataless clients (also known as “thin clients”). The machines can be controlled by one (or more) Hardware Service Console (better known as a Hardware Management Console, or HMC), or be standalone machines without a HMC.

Your first task is to determine which machine or LPAR will be the NIM master.

Next, you must decide which machines will serve the NIM resources.

There are three basic machine roles in a NIM environment: the master, the client (NIM “machine”), and the resource server. The resource server can be either the NIM master or a standalone machine (a system that has its own local copy of the AIX operating system).

NIM Environment

Master

Master refers the machine where you set up and maintain your NIM environment. You can also initiate installations from here (push mode). It is the key piece of the NIM environment. NIM master is only used to run administrative tasks.

Client

The NIM client can be the target for NIM master-initiated operations such as installation, updates, and so forth (push mode). Also, a client can initiate its own installation or update (pull mode). A NIM client automatically becomes a resource server when it holds NIM resources.

Resource server

Any machine (the master or a standalone client) can be configured by the master as a server for a particular software resource. In most environments, the master is also resource server.

Push and pull modes

The push mode operation is initiated from the master. The pull mode operation is initiated from the client. The very first time a client is installed, only the pull mode can be used. Note the following points:

• · In order for the push mode to be successful, the client must have a miNIMum AIX image already installed and TCP/IP configured.
• · To use the pull mode, you need access to the clients’ SMS menu. For this you either need a console attached to the machine, or for HMC-managed systems, you need access to the HMC.

NIM database

The NIM database is stored in the AIX Object Data Management (ODM) repository on the NIM master and is divided into four classes: machines, networks, resources, groups.

Machines class

If NIM master is setup and running then lsNIM command extract the content of NIM database.

To extract info of a particular class use lNIM –c classname.

Networks class

The network is what allows the machines in a NIM environment to communicate which each other. If the network is a simple local area network (LAN), the definition of the network object is simplified. The purpose of the network object is to depict the network topology used by the NIM environment. Each modification made on the physical network must be reflected to the NIM database.

Example:

# lsNIM -c networks

NET_EN1 networks ent

Nstate=Network state

The Nstate field determines whether the network object is in use. If the Nstate value displayed is different from ready for a NIM operation, you cannot perform any operation on this object.

Resources class

A NIM resource is a pointer to a file or a directory located on a Resource Server. NIM Master is the default Resource Server. e. g. The bosinst_data resource points to a file that contains information used to perform the installation process without requiring any manual intervention. The basic characteristics of a resource are the NIMname, the location (the location of the file or directory), and the resource server hosting the resource.

To list the resources: lsNIM –c resource

To list characterisitics of a resource: lsNIM –l resource_name

Rstate=resource state

Rstate values: ready for use / verification is being performed / customization is being performed / unavailable for use

The Rstate shown determines whether the object is currently in use or not. If the Rstate is

not ready, it cannot be used and a warning message will appear on the console.

Groups class

A group is a collection of either machines or resources. Only two types are available:

• · res_group, for grouping a set of resources
• · mac_group, for grouping a set of machines

Important Resource types:

Spot

SPOT, or Shared Product Object Tree, is a directory of code (installed filesets) that is used during client booting procedure. It is equivalent in content to the code that resides in the /usr file system on a system running AIX 5L (binary objects – executables and libraries, header files and shell scripts). This resource (directory) replaces the content of the basic ramdisk image available on installation CDs.

The installation is performed over a network, and there are no AIX CDs available. Device drivers, the BOS install program, and other necessary code needed to perform a base operating system installation

are found inside the SPOT. During the installation, the client machine NFS mounts this resource in order to access the code needed for the installation process.

The SPOT also contains the code needed to generate the boot images (kernels, which will be stored in the /tftpboot directory) that the client uses until it can manage to NFS-mount the SPOT directory.

By running the lsNIM -t spot command, you can the list the different available SPOT resources.

lpp_source

An lpp_source is a directory similar to AIX install CDs. It contains AIX Licensed Program Products (LLPs) in Backup File Format (BFF) format and RPM Package Manager (RPM) filesets that you can install.

By running the lsNIM -t lpp_source command, you can the list the different available lpp resources.

mksysb

This resource is a file containing the image of the root volume group (generated with the AIX mksysb command) of a machine. It is used to restore a machine, or to install it from scratch (also known as “cloning” a client).

By running the lsNIM -t mksysb command, you can the list the different available mksysb resources

bosinst_data

The bosinst_data resource is a flat ASCII file similar to the bosinst.data. This resource comes in handy for both push or pull installation of multiple machines at the same time.

By running the lsNIM -t bosinst_data command, you can the list the different available bosinst_data resources.

script

The script resource is a file. After the BOS installation is finished on your client, you can perform customization such as file system resizing, additional user creation, and so forth.

boot

The “boot” resource created a /tftpboot directory to hold all of your boot images.

AIX Installation using NIM:

To start a machine installation, only two resources are mandatory: the LPP source (lpp_source), and the Shared Product Object Tree (SPOT). However, to avoid using manual intervention during the installation process, additional resources providing information for the AIX_install process can be used (like bosinst_data, image_data, and script).

Install NIM Master:

# smit NIMconfig

OR

# NIMconfig -a netname=master_net -a pif_name=en0 -a netboot_kernel=mp -a cable_type=tp -a client_reg=yes

This will add NIMesis and NIMd subsystems and start NIMesis subsystem.

NIM Commands

lsNIM     To list the NIM resources

lsNIM -l  dcmds     To list the detailed info about the object dcmds

lsNIM -O dcmds     To list the operation dcmds object can support

lsNIM -c resources dcmds   To list the resources allocated to the machine dcmds

NIMclient    The client version of NIM command (User can obtain same results of NIM in server ) 

NIMconfig -a pif_name=en0 -a netname=net1    To initialise the NIM master with network name net1

NIMconfig -r    To rebuild /etc/NIMinfo file which contains the variables for NIM
NIM -o define  -t  lpp_source  -a  source=/dev/cd0  -a  server=master  -a  location=/export/lpp_source/lpp_source1   lpp_source1     To define  lpp_source1 image in /export/lpp_source/lpp_source directory from source cd0

NIM -o define -t mksysb -a server=master  -a location=/resources/mksysb.image mksysb1    To define mksysb resource mksysb1, from source /resources/mksysb.image on master 

NIM -o remove inst_resource    To remove the resource inst_resource 

NIM -o check lpp_source1   To check the status of  lpp_source lpp_source1

NIM -o allocate -a spot=spot1 -a lpp_source=lpp_source1 node1   To allocate the resources spot1 and lpp_source1 to the client node1

NIM -o bos_inst node1   To initialise NIM for the BOS installation on node1 with the allocated resources

NIM  -o dkls_init dcmds  To initialize the machine dcmds as diskless operation 

NIM -o dtls_init dcmds   To initialize the machine dcmds for dataless operation 

NIM -o cust dcmds    To initialize the machine dcmds for customize operation 

NIM -o diag dcmds    To initialize the machine dcmds for diag operation 

NIM -o maint dcmds    To initialize the machine dcmds for maintenance operation 

NIM -o define -t standalone -a platform=rspc -a if1=”net1 dcmds xxxxx” -a cable_type1=bnc dcmds    To define the machine dcmds as standalone with platform as rspc and network as net1 with cable type bnc and mac address xxxxx 

NIM -o unconfig master    To unconfigure NIM master 

NIM -o allocate -a spot=spot1 dcmds  To allocate the resource spot1 from machine dcmds 

NIM -o deallocate -a spot=spot1 dcmds   To de allocate the resource spot1 from machine dcmds

NIM -o remove dcmds   To remove machine dcmds after removing all resources associated to it

NIM -o reboot dcmds   To reboot ther client dcmds

NIM -o define -t lpp_source -a location=/software/lpp1 -a server=master -a source=/dev/cd0 lpp1    To define lppsource lpp1 on master at /software/lpp1 directory from source device /dev/cd0