May 25, 2012, in category Scripts, Software comments 3 comments

After a grueling battle trying to compile GIT from source on an AIX (6.1) machine, I thought I would try to save you some trouble and outline clearly what I had to do.  Please note I initially followed this guide, which gave me a good base, but I had to throw in a few extra tweaks.

First off, you will need to get the following dependencies.  I was able to get most of them from the IBM Linux Toolbox here, and the rest I got from the great people at Perzl.org

Dependencies:

bison-1.875-3.aix5.1.ppc.rpm
coreutils-5.2.1-2.aix5.1.ppc.rpm
expect-5.45-1.aix5.1.ppc.rpm
flex-2.5.4a-6.aix4.3.ppc.rpm
gcc-4.2.0-3.aix6.1.ppc.rpm
gcc-cplusplus-4.2.0-3.aix6.1.ppc.rpm
gdbm-1.8.3-5.aix5.2.ppc.rpm
gettext-0.10.40-8.aix5.2.ppc.rpm
git-git-5bc2dc2
git-git-v1.7.10.2-569-g5bc2dc2.zip
libXft-2.2.0-1.aix5.1.ppc...

January 17, 2012, in category General Maintenance comments No comments

Workload Partitions are a form of compacting down your environment into something more manageable and faster/easier to deploy or destroy.  The idea of a WPAR is that you can run the work of multiple LPARs within a single LPAR.  By creating an LPAR with WPAR capabilities, you can fill it with images running multiple instances of AIX workloads.

By consolidating your LPAR environment, you can create more easily manageable servers for environments with multiple development, sandbox and testing deployments.  Often times with the increase in virtualization, we treat LPARs as though they are disposable machines (which technically they are).  By creating a WPAR, you increase the ease of set up, tie up less physical resources, and keep your environment breadth steady...

January 10, 2012, in category Miscellaneous comments No comments

If you ever notice an asterisk (*) or a star after the file name while performing an “ls” on a directory, these files are typically executable by the user.  This is a quick and easy way to identify scripts that are ready to run.

January 9, 2012, in category General Maintenance, Miscellaneous, Storage comments No comments

If you’re one of the unlucky ones and find yourself unable to run a Linux workstation at work, and you administer AIX or any UNIX/Linux boxes, I’m sure you have had issues transferring files back and forth.
You can always use ftp and the plethora of programs that handle that connection, but myself I prefer Win SCP.

Win SCP is by far the best file transfer program I have found to bounce files back and forth from my workstation to my lpars.

Simply open the program, enter in your login information, and you can browse between the local and remote folders.  Browse to the source and destination, click and drag… everything is easy peasy and super quick

If you have any input on the matter I’d be happy to hear it!

January 9, 2012, in category LPAR Configuration, Software comments No comments

Current OS level 

oslevel -r
Download technology or maintenance level from fix central

IBM Support: Fix Central

AIX -> Version -> FIX PACKS -> wait…

Select the fix pack you would like (with Service Pack)

Start download. Once download is complete, FTP, scp or winscp (Windows) files to the LPAR or the NIM server

To initiate install, use the following commands:
pwd

inutoc .

smitty update_all > directory .

If you don’t want to keep old version:

Make Commit -> Yes

If you want to keep old version as backout plan

Make Commit -> No
Accept License -> YES (otherwise you will have to accept each one manually…its a pain)

The install can take anywhere over an hour so patient…

Reboot LPAR

shutdown -r

Verify the upgrade

oslevel -s

oslevel -r

January 9, 2012, in category AIX Commands, General Maintenance, Scripts comments No comments

Often times you may want to create a script to copy, move or grab files from your AIX machine to a Windows (or other) box.  In some cases, there may a shared Windows drive created office wide and you would like to dump system information or reporting here.  If ssh is not supported on the other end, you will need to use FTP.

General FTP Commands

Here is a quick script to move files from your AIX box to your Windows share.

ftpmove(){

ftp -n <<-EOF
open fully_qualified_server_name
user username password
cd path/to/file
put file_to_copy_to_windows

get file_to_copy_to_aix

EOF
}

ftpmove

January 6, 2012, in category LPAR Configuration comments No comments

Having a fully virtualized server environment is great, but with the constant push towards public services, there has been an increase in DMZ servers for many companies.

In my opinion, I think the simplest way to do this is to create the LPAR with the normal virtual ethernet adapter, and the simply switch the adapters once set up is complete.  This allows you to complete all functions through the NIM and you don’t have to worry about firewall interference until after most of the tedious parts are complete.  No CDs to mount, no files to manually copy over.  Every body wins!

When creating an LPAR, follow the steps here for help, and add these simple tweaks to make your life easier when building an LPAR in the DMZ

1. Before creating the LPAR, ensure that you have all of the details and netwo...

January 5, 2012, in category AIX Commands, LPAR Configuration comments No comments

Every once in awhile you will find a quaint little reminder that AIX is not UNIX.  I worked in a shop where we used third party software connecting our servers to the vendor’s servers through an NFS mount.  The unfortunate thing was that when we rebooted the server, for some unknown reason some of the exports were not persistent.  This created a whirlwind of problems, resulting in making customer service support tickets and waiting for the vendor to reissue their mount.
If you have been working with AIX for more than a couple days, you know that there are multiple ways to complete any one task.  You may also know that AIX still incorporates many UNIX commands, and also has (seemingly redundant) AIX proprietary commands.  This example is a great explanation of why this is.

One of the t...

January 4, 2012, in category Miscellaneous comments One comment

Here is a list of IBM Redbooks that I have found useful for my day to day operations.  Enjoy

Hardware Management Console V7 Handbook

AIX 5L Practical Performance Tools and Tuning Guide

IBM System p Advanced POWER Virtualization (PowerVM) Best Practices

NIM from A to Z in AIX 5L

IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility

Hope they help you like they have helped me

January 4, 2012, in category LPAR Configuration, Storage comments No comments

If you find yourself swapping out disks from your lpars and you use a VIO server to manage VSCSI resources, you will have to be very careful removing the devices as you do not want to strip the lpar of a needed disk by mistake.  Like other processes in AIX, there is no confirmation or warning if you try to remove the wrong disk by mistake.  The only way to be certain you have the right hdisk, vio resource and lun is by verifying the LUN ID.

It is easiest to simply reduce the volume group off of the disk in order to differentiate the disks easily when removing the devices

From the LPAR:

reducevg [vg name] [diskname] # remove the volume group from the disk

lspv # view the disks, double check no volume group associated with disk

rmdev -dl [disk]# remove the disk

From the VIO:

...