AIX System Administration - Part I

Course Contents - DAY 1

• Administration and Course Materials
• Course Structure and Agenda
• Delegate and Trainer Introductions

• A Brief History
• RISC Technology
• IBM Power Systems Road Map
• The AIX Operating System
• Useful Commands

• Normal Startup
• The Boot Sequence
• The INIT Process
• AIX Run Levels
• The System Resource Controller
• The ALOG Logging Utility
• System Shutdown Methods
• Workshop Session

• System Management Tools
• SMIT
• SMIT Dialogue Screens
• SMIT Special Characters And Keys
• SMIT and Functions Keys
• SMIT Output Screen
• Recording SMIT Sessions
• The smit Command
• Workshop Session

• AIX Documentation
• The man Command
• Web Based IBM AIX Documentation
• Infocenter
• Anatomy of the Infocenter
• Workshop Session

Course Contents - DAY 2

• Software Installation
• Software - Units of Installation
• Bundles
• Naming Conventions
• Installation Directories
• Update and Maintenance Bundles
• The Fix Level Recommendation Tool (FLRT)
• Software States
• SMIT Installation Menus
• Install and Update Software
• Installing Bundles
• Installing Patches and Fixes
• Finding Out About Installed Software
• Maintaining Software
• Workshop Session

• Devices
• Predefined Database
• Customized Database
• Device States
• AIX Location Codes (Non-SCSI Devices)
• AIX Location Codes (SCSI Devices)
• AIX Location Codes VS Physical Location Codes
• Listing Devices
• Configuring Devices
• Manually Configured Devices
• Smit Devices Menu
• The mkdev Command
• The chdev Command
• The rmdev Command
• Useful Device Names to Remember
• Logical Volume Structures
• Documenting Hardware Setup
• Workshop Session

Course Contents - DAY 3

• Users and Groups In AIX
• The /etc/passwd File
• Long User and Group Name Support
• Verify and Change User Name Limit
• Verify and Change User Name Limit through the Command Line
• Listing User Information
• Adding a New User
• The /etc/group File
• Registering a New User
• Adding Users
• Adding a Group
• More about Groups
• More about Users
• Removing Users from the System
• Other Useful Commands
• Workshop Session

• The security Directory
• The /etc/security/passwd File
• The /etc/security/user File
• The /etc/security/login.cfg File
• The /etc/security/group File
• Security Audit File
• Losing the Root User's Password
• Role Based Access Control
• Privileged Escalation with Set User
• Identification (SUID)
• Adding a Role to a User
• Creating a User Defined Role
• The Root User and Enhanced RBAC
• Disabling the Root User
• Enabling the Root User
• Disabling root user in WPARs
• Workshop Session

• The Logical Volume Manager
• AIX Disk Storage
• Physical Volumes and LVM
• Volume Group Descriptor Areas
• SMIT and Volume Groups
• Physical and Logical Storage
• Scalable Volume Groups
• Uses of Logical Volumes
• Mirroring
• LVM Hot Spare Disk in a Volume Group
• Enabling Hot Spare Disk Support in an Existing Volume Group
• Striping
• Disk Placement Policies
• Creating and Managing Logical Volumes
• Migrating Contents of Physical Volumes
• Other Useful Commands
• Workshop Session

Course Contents - DAY 4

• What is Paging Space?
• Paging Space Calculations
• Paging Space Placement on Disk
• Listing Paging Space
• Adding Paging Space:
  • mkps Command
  • smit mkps
• Changing Paging Space:
  • chps Command
  • smit chps
• Removing Paging Space:
  • rmps
  • smit rmps

• AIX Filesystems
• AIX Supported Filesystems
• JFS Structure
• The Enhanced Journaled File System
• Dynamic Disk Inode Allocation
• On-Line File System Free Space Defragmentation
• JFS2 Enhancements
• JFS2 File System Shrink
• Shrink A File System Using Smit
• Disabling JFS2 logging
• JFS2 Snapshot Image
• Overview of JFS2 Snapshot
• Creation of a JFS2 Snapshot
• JFS Internal Snapshot
• Listing File System Information
• AIX 7.1 /admin/tmp System Directory
• Mount Points
• SMIT and Journaled File Systems
• Building A JFS on a Logical Volume
• Managing Existing Filesystems
• Checking and Repairing File Systems
• Removing a File System
• Workshop Session

• Backup and Restore
• Backup Media
• The mksysb and savevg Functions
• The backup Command
• The restore Command
• Using the cpio Command
• The cpio -o Command
• Using the find Command with cpio
• The cpio -i Command
• Using the cpio -p Command
• Using the tar Command
• Creating an Archive
• Reading/Verifying an Archive Further tar Options
• Tape Control Commands
• Workshop Session

Course Contents - DAY 5

• Starting Background Jobs
• The nohup Command
• Using cron Processes
• Creating cron Processes
• Creating crontab Entries
• Using the crontab Command
• The at Command
• Authorisation for the at Command
• Creating a crontab Entry
• Using the at Command
• Workshop Session

• Overview
• Testing Network Connectivity
• Network Configuration at Boot Time
• Using Ifconfig Commands to Configure a NIC in Aix
• How to Disable/Enable a Network Interface
• Assign an IP, Netmask, and Broadcast to Network Interface
• Using mktcpip Commands to Configure a NIC In Aix
• Difference Between Ethernet Interface(en0) and Ethernet Adapter (ent0)
• Network Addressing
• Routing
• Displaying Routing Tables
• Network Information Files
• Network Commands
• User Equivalence
• Displaying Network Details
• Copying File
• Executing Remote Commands

• NFS Terminology
• NFS Server and Client Environment
• Server Side NFS
• Client Side NFS
• Setting Up NFS Using SMIT

• What are Workload Partitions?
• System WPARs
• System WPARs Observations
• System WPAR Examples
• WPAR File Systems
• Starting a WPA
• Logging in to a WPAR
• Stopping a WPAR
• Rebooting a WPAR
• Changing a WPAR
• Removing a WPAR
• Application WPARs
• Application WPARs Observations
• Application WPAR Examples
• Application / System WPAR Comparisons
• Workshop Session

Addendum: Reference Materials (Sections below are provided within the course handbook for additional reading)

• AIX TECHNOLOGY LEVELS AND SERVICE PACKS

• LOGICAL VOLUME SPREADING