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Multi-platform UNIX systems consultant and administrator in mutualized and virtualized environments I have 4.5+ years experience in AIX system Administration field. This site will be helpful for system administrator in their day to day activities.Your comments on posts are welcome.This blog is all about IBM AIX Unix flavour. This blog will be used by System admins who will be using AIX in their work life. It can also be used for those newbies who want to get certifications in AIX Administration. This blog will be updated frequently to help the system admins and other new learners. DISCLAIMER: Please note that blog owner takes no responsibility of any kind for any type of data loss or damage by trying any of the command/method mentioned in this blog. You may use the commands/method/scripts on your own responsibility. If you find something useful, a comment would be appreciated to let other viewers also know that the solution/method work(ed) for you.

Friday 13 December 2013

AIX 6.1 Installation Tips

This document contains the latest tips for successful installation of AIX 6.1.


Technology Levels, Service Packs, APARs and PTFs mentioned in this document, when available, can be obtained from the following web site.
The AIX installation CD-ROMs and the level of AIX pre-installed on new systems may not contain the latest fixes available at the time you install the system, and may contain errors. Some these fixes may be critical to the proper operation of your system. We recommend that you update to the latest service pack level, which can be obtained fromhttp://www.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/fixcentral/main/pseries/aix.
When updating to a new Technology Level, it is a good practice to first update the bos.rte.install update in a separate installation session.
With certain combinations of updates, the update process may have to be run a second time in order to apply all updates in a package. Checking the output of the 'oslevel -r' and 'oslevel -s' commands for the expected values after an update is recommended. Until the update is run a second time, the output of the oslevel command may not indicate that the package is fully installed.
The compare_report command, which is documented in the AIX Commands Reference, can be used to determine which available updates are newer than those installed on your system.
Any library or executable that is updated by an interim fix (emgr) or service update, which is in use by an active process, will not be reflected in that process until it is restarted. In addition, any process that is using a library and does a dlopen() of the same library after the library has been updated, could experience inconsistencies.

Build date failure updating from 6100-07-07 to 6100-08-02

Attempting to update from 6100-07-07 to 6100-08-02 results in build date errors for the following filesets.
  • devices.pciex.df1020e214103c04.rte
  • devices.pciex.df1020e214103c04.diag
  • devices.pciex.df1020e214100f04.rte
  • devices.pciex.df1020e214100f04.diag
To resolve this issue, download the fix for APAR IV42218, and include the images into the same directory as the 6100-08-02 Service Pack prior to updating.
This issue only occurs when updating from the 6100-07-07 Service Pack.

6100-08 Installation

When applying the 6100-08 Technology Level with Service Pack 1, you may have to run 'smitty update_all' a second time to update bos.aso. Until this is done, the 'oslevel -s' command may not indicate the correct level.

6100-08 Service Pack 1

The 6100-08-01 Service Pack is considered highly recommended. 6100-08-01 is included in the 6100-08 Technology Level available onFix Central, but systems installed prior to the availability of Service Pack 1 should install 6100-08-01. To determine if the 6100-08-01 Service Pack is installed, run the command:
    oslevel -s
The output should indicate "6100-08-01-1245".

Free Space Requirements for devices.common.IBM.sni

The devices.common.IBM.sni product requires that 256MB of available, free partitions in the rootvg volume group. If this space has not been previously allocated for the sni product, a test will be performed at installation time to make sure that this space is available, and if it is not, the installation will fail. If installation is successful, a test will be performed when the lpar is restarted after installation to determine if the sni hardware is available, and if it is, a 256MB logical volume will be allocated as /var/adm/sni.

Integrated Ethernet Software Requirements

The ethernet adapter on the integrated multifunction card of the Power 7 model 770 and 780 systems requires the following minimum software levels for AIX 6.1.
Service PackAdditional APAR
6100-05-07IV11845
6100-06-06IV11842
6100-07-00None

6100-07 Installation

When applying the 6100-07 Technology Level on systems below the 6100-06 level, you will have to run 'smitty update_all' a second time to update Java6.sdk. Until this is done, the 'oslevel' command will not indicate the correct level.

6100-07 Service Pack 1

The 6100-07-01 Service Pack is considered highly recommended. 6100-07-01 is included in the 6100-07 Technology Level available onFix Central, but systems installed prior to the availability of Service Pack 1 should install 6100-07-01. To determine if the 6100-07-01 Service Pack is installed, run the command:
    oslevel -s
The output should indicate "6100-07-01-1141".

6100-07 Update When Using Cluster Aware AIX

Due to enhancements in Cluster Aware AIX (CAA) in the 6100-07 and 7100-01 Technology Levels, CAA must be stopped prior to the update. Attempting to update to 6100-07 or 7100-01 with an active cluster will fail. Note that PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1 exploits CAA. This procedure must be used when performing one of the following with a CAA cluster deployed.
  • Updating from AIX 6.1 6100-06 to 6100-07
  • Updating from AIX 7.1 7100-00 to 7100-01
  • Migrating from AIX 6.1 6100-06 to AIX 7.1 7100-01

Update Procedure for PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1

  1. Backup the cluster configuration using the PowerHA SystemMirror snapshot facility.
  2. Stop the PowerHA Cluster Services through SMIT. Stop cluster services on all nodes in the cluster.
  3. Remove the CAA cluster using the command 'rmcluster -n ClusterName'.
  4. Update the AIX Technology Level and reboot the cluster nodes.
  5. Verify and Synchronize the CAA cluster configuration from PowerHA SystemMirror.
  6. Restart the PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1 Cluster.

Update Procedure for Cluster Aware AIX

  1. Save the CAA cluster configuration.
  2. Remove the CAA cluster using the command 'rmcluster -n ClusterName'.
  3. Update the AIX Technology Level and reboot the cluster nodes.
  4. Redeploy the CAA cluster using the mkcluster command.
Refer to the AIX_TL_update_information_for_PowerHA_7.1.pdf document at the following location for additional information.

Missing fixdata in 6100-05-03 and 6100-03-07 Service Packs

The 6100-05-03 and 6100-03-07 Service Packs are missing fixdata, causing 'oslevel -s' to output the incorrect service pack level. These problems are resolved by the following APARs.

6100-06 Service Pack 1

The 6100-06-01 Service Pack is considered highly recommended. 6100-06-01 is included in the 6100-06 Technology Level available onFix Central, but systems installed prior to the availability of Service Pack 1 should install 6100-06-01. To determine if the 6100-06-01 Service Pack is installed, run the command:
    oslevel -s
The output should indicate "6100-06-01-1043".

System hang after update to 6100-03

Systems with Encypted File System (EFS) support enabled may fail to boot after updating to the 6100-03 Technology Level. This problem occurs if the clic.rte.kernext and clic.rte.lib filesets are installed at a level below 4.6.0.0. EFS may be enabled if the 'efsenable' command was ever executed on the system, even if there are no encrypted file systems currently in use. The presence of the file /var/efs/efsenabled indicates that EFS is enabled.
To avoid this issue, update the clic.rte.kernext and clic.rte.lib filesets from the clic.rte image available by ordering APAR IZ56564, or from the AIX Expansion Pack media dated 5/2009 or later. The clic.rte filesets need to be updated before the system is rebooted after updating to the 6100-03 Technology Level.
If the 6100-03 Technology Level is installed without updating the clic.rte filesets to the 4.6.0.x level, the system may fail to reboot. Should this occur, you can recover using the following procedure.
  1. Reboot system into service mode
  2. Select 'Task Selection', then chose 'Shell Prompt'
  3. Move file /var/efs/efsenabled to /var/efs/efsenabled.SAVE
  4. Reboot system into normal mode
  5. Update clic.rte.kernext and clic.rte.lib to the 4.6.0.x level
  6. Move back /var/efs/efsenabled from /var/efs/efsenabled.SAVE
This problem is resolved by including the clic.rte package in the 6100-03-00-0920 Technology Level available for download as of 8/7/2009. The Update media labeled LCD8-0840-07 (CD-ROM) or LCD8-0912-06 (DVD), dated 9/2009, also includes this fix.

Port 80 in Use by Web-Based System Manager

Starting with the 6100-02 Technology Level, port 80 is used by default by the Web-Based System Manager web server. This will cause other applications, such as WebSphere's IBM HTTP Server, that use port 80 to fail to start. The Web-Based System Manager web server can be disabled using the following commands.
    stopsrc -s http4websm
    rmitab webserverstart
This issue will be resolved by the following APARs.
Technology
Level		APAR
6100-02IZ49158
6100-03IZ47722

Feature 4758 Cryptographic Adapter not supported

The 4758 Cryptographic Adapter is not supported on AIX 6.1. After migration from AIX 5.3 or earlier to AIX 6.1, the bos.pkcs11 fileset will not be migrated. There is no AIX 6.1 version of bos.pkcs11, and the 5.3 or earlier level of bos.pkcs11 is not supported on AIX 6.1 and therefore should be deinstalled.

Creating a NIM SPOT on 6100-00-02 can cause system damage

Attempting to create a NIM SPOT on the 6100-00-02 Service Pack can fail with an error similar to:
warning: 0042-175 c_instspot: An unexpected result was returned by the
         "/usr/sbin/unmount" command:
unmount: 0506-349 Cannot unmount /dev: The requested resource is busy.
The failure causes loss of some ODM information which leaves the NIM master in an unpredictable state that will manifest itself on the next system reboot. Some volume group information is lost, which may be recovered by running the command:
    importvg rootvg -y hdisk0
Additionally, network configuration can be lost and must be restored manually.
Do not create a NIM SPOT until the fix for APAR IZ14395 is installed.
This problem is fixed in the 6100-00-03 Service Pack.

APAR IZ09375

In addition to 6100-00 Service Pack 1, APAR IZ09375 should be installed on all POWER 6 based systems running AIX 6.1. APAR IZ09375 fixes a problem in AIX 6.1 that can result in various symptoms, including a system crash or data errors under heavy paging activity. 
APAR IZ09375 will be available as part of 6100-00 Service Pack 2. Prior to Service Pack 2 availability, the fix can be obtained from:ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/iz09375

6100-00 Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 is considered a highly recommended update for customers installing AIX 6.1. To determine if you already have Service Pack 1 installed, use the command:
    oslevel -s
The output should include "6100-00-01". Service Pack 1 can be obtained from the Fix Central web site.
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