Category: AIX
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Which VIO Servers Are You Using for vSCSI Storage?
How do you know which VIO servers your AIX LPARs are using for storage? There are different options for presenting storage for your AIX VIO clients (the LPARs). This article focuses on vSCSI storage. For most environments, the creation of virtual SCSI disks is a set-and-forget kind of activity. This makes it low maintenance, but…
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Getting Started with the IBM HMC
The command line interface allows you to automate tasks, which can make monitoring or even creating new LPARs easier. Although the Hardware Management Console GUI is a common way to manage Power Systems, I’ve found it worth getting familiar with the CLI. If you need to create a lot of new LPARs with their profiles…
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AIX System – Unix in the Modern IT World
Introduction In the world of operating systems, Unix is one of the foundations on which today’s computing is based. Designed in the 60s and 70s at AT&T Bell Labs by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, Unix revolutionized the way computers are used. Thanks to its reliability, stability, and security, Unix and its derivatives have gained…
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Why AIX is the best option to start your fresh new Agile Project
When it comes to a new project, management usually has only one option. It must be Linux in “cloud”. Many people think AIX is an old operating system and as such it doesn’t fit anymore in a modern infrastructure where everything is agile and changing constantly. I don’t want to remind you that the official…
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Installing & Using the AIX Toolbox for Open Source Software
What is the AIX Toolbox for Open Source Software? Previously known as the AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications, the AIX Toolbox for Open Source Software (AIX OSS) is a collection of open source and GNU software built specifically for AIX. The toolkit provides open source utilities for managing and development, that is the choice for…
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Ansible AIX Introduction
In previous articles I dabbled with IBM’s Ansible modules for IBM i. Whilst I will definitely be using those in the future I thought I’d take a look at the Ansible modules for AIX too. There are fewer AIX modules than IBM i at present and many of these are NIM related. Whilst most AIX…
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IBM i & AIX now available on Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS Clouds
From the start of this year there have been a few announcements that came across my desk and caught my attention about IBM i, AIX and Linux being available on Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS Clouds, and I thought I would condense them down and show them here. Why? Because as more organisations adopt a…
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Say hello to the new POWER9 and go buy a POWER8
IBM has just announced the all new POWER9 based AC922 model and it looks great! I’ll talk about that a little more later but for now just know that it’s faster than ever but these first models are focusing on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and will be running Linux only. We can expect to see the…
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Running an Old AIX Version?
At an IBM event recently, the presenter asked for a show of hands of companies that are still running AIX 6.1. Quite a few, even though the last service pack for AIX 6.1 is scheduled for April 2017 … not too far off. Then the presenter asked about AIX 5.3. It was a shock…
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The Business Impact of Losing Your Critical System
The more critical a project is to a business, the greater attention it deserves. Which is why it puzzles me that many companies have little or no appetite for discussing the most important IT project of them all: disaster recovery. DR is the set of policies and procedures that will allow vital technology and infrastructure…
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Test your mksysb backup without NIM or a tape drive
There’s a really handy way of cloning an AIX operating system straight from a mksysb backup. Even if you don’t need to clone an OS, it’s a pretty handy way of testing that your mksysb backup will actually be suitable for rebuilding your AIX root volume group. As you know, the mksysb command creates a…
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Basic AIX performance monitoring for IBM i professionals
IBM Power Systems have the ability to run both the IBM i and AIX (as well as Linux) operating systems, so how can you leverage your existing IBM i performance analysis skills to provide AIX support? Every system, from Charles Babbage’s first mechanical computers in the early nineteenth century to the high-end Power Systems we…