orarun package SUSE Linux

http://wiki.novell.com/index.php/Orarun_package
The orarun package is a rpm software package provided as part of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for the i386 and x86_64 platforms. The purpose of the orarun package is to simplify the installation and administration of Oracle software products. Use of the orarun package is not required to install or run Oracle products, but it is recommended as the package automates some of the manual steps involved in installing Oracle software on SLES. This Cool Solutions wiki page will describe in detail the features and contents of the orarun package.

Contents
[hide]
•1 Availability
•2 Features
•3 Components
◦3.1 The /etc/sysconfig/oracle configuration file
◦3.2 The /etc/init.d/oracle init script
◦3.3 The /etc/profile.d/oracle.[c]sh profile script
■3.3.1 Environment changes made for all users
■3.3.2 Environment changes made for the oracle user
•4 Installation
◦4.1 Installing the package
◦4.2 Setting the shell and password for the oracle user
◦4.3 Setting the value of SHHMAX

Availability
The orarun package is available for the i386 and x86_64 platforms, starting in SLES9 and will continue to be available in SLES10. The following table lists the different versions of the orarun package available in the different releases of SLES.

SLES version i386 x86_64
SLES 9 orarun-1.8-109.5.i586.rpm orarun-1.8-109.5.x86_64.rpm
SLES9 SP2/SP3 orarun-1.8-109.15.i586.rpm orarun-1.8-109.15.x86_64.rpm
SLES9 SP4 (planned) orarun-1.8-109.16.i586.rpm orarun-1.8-109.16.x86_64.rpm
SLES10 orarun-1.9-21.2.i586.rpm orarun-1.9-21.2.x86_64.rpm

Table 1 -- Most recent orarun packages available by SLES release

The latest versions are available through ftp download for SLES9 and SLES10.

Features
The orarun package has the following features:

1.It creates the oracle user and the dba and osinstall groups.
2.It creates all 255 raw devices (SLES9).
3.It modifies the security settings for the oracle user.
4.It provides an profile script that sets Oracle specific environmental variables and ulimits.
5.It provides an init script that sets kernel tunables to recommended values and starts various Oracle related services.
6.On the i386 platform it provides the libInternalSymbols library.
Components
The orarun package has the following major components

1.The /etc/init.d/oracle init script.
2.The /etc/sysconfig/oracle configuration file
3.The /etc/profile.d/oracle.[c]sh profile script
The /etc/sysconfig/oracle configuration file
The /etc/sysocnfig/oracle configuration file contains settings used but the /etc/init.d/oracle init script and the /etc/profile.d/oracle.[c]sh script. This provides one easy place to control all of the settings for a typical Oracle deployment. This file can be edited using a standard editor or via the YaST->System->/etc/sysconfig Editor module. The following table lists the variables, default values, and purpose for the /etc/sysconfig/oracle file.

Variable Default value Purpose
ORACLE_OWNER oracle The user who will used to install the Oracle software
ORACLE_BASE /opt/oracle The base directory for all Oracle software
START_ORACLE_DB no Controls whether the Oracle databases that are listed in /etc/oratab are stated.
START_ORACLE_DB_LISTENER no Controls whether the database listeners are started.
START_ORACLE_DB_AGENT no Controls whether the database intelligent agent is started.
START_ORACLE_DB_APACHE no Controls whether Apache web server packaged with Oracle is started.
START_ORACLE_DB_APACHE_USE_SSL no Controls if the Oracle Apache web server uses SSL.
START_ORACLE_DB_EMANAGER no Controls whether the Enterprise Manager agent is started.
START_ORACLE_DB_ISQLPLUS no Controls whether iSQL PLus is started.
START_ORACLE_DB_OID no Controls whether Oracle Internet Directory is started.
START_ORACLE_RAC_OCFS no Controls whether OCFS is started (not OCFS2).
START_ORACLE_RAC_OCM no Controls whether the Oracle9i cluster monitor is started.
ORACLE_RAC_OCM_PARAMETERS The values to be passed to Oracle9i cluster monitor.
START_ORACLE_RAC_GSD no Controls whether the Oracle9i Global Service Daemon is started.
START_ORACLE_AS_CONSOLE no Controls whether the Application Server console is started.
SET_ORACLE_KERNEL_PARAMETERS yes Controls whether the /etc/init.d/oracle script sets the kernel parameters.
SHMMAX 8589934592 Maximum size of an shared memory segment. Oracle recommends this be set to half of the amount of available memory. This value is put into /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax.
SHMMNI 4096 Maximum number of shared memory segments sytem wide. This value is put into /proc/sys/kernel/shmmni.
SHMALL 2097152 Maxium number of shared memory pages system wide. This value is put into /proc/sys/kernel/shmall.
SEMMSL 1250 Maximum number of semaphores per id. Set to 10 plus the largest PROCESSES parameter of any Oracle database on the system (see init.ora). Maximum value possible is 8000. This value is put into /proc/sys/kernel/sem.
SEMMNS 32000 Maximum number of semaphores system wide. Set to the sum of the PROCESSES parameter for each Oracle database, adding the largest one twice, then add an additional 10 for each database (see init.ora). Max. value possible is INT_MAX (largest INTEGER value on this architecture, on 32-bit systems: 2147483647). This value is put into /proc/sys/kernel/sem.
SEMOPM 100 Maximum number of operations per semop call. Oracle recommends 100. This value is put into /proc/sys/kernel/sem.
SEMMNI 256 Maximum number of semaphore identifies. Oracle recommends at least 100. This value is put into /proc/sys/kernel/sem.
IP_PORT_LOCAL_RANGE 1024 65000 The range of local ports available to UDP and TCP. This value is put into /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range.
RMEM_MAX 262144 The maximum memory size for a recieve window. Requirement for RAC environments. This value is put into /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max
RMEM_DEFAULT 262144 The default memory size for a recieve window. Requirement for RAC environments. This value is put into /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default
WMEM_MAX 262144 The maximum memory size for a send window. Requirement for RAC environments. This value is put into /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max
WMEM_DEFAULT 262144 The default memory size for a send window. Requirement for RAC environments. This value is put into /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_default
FILE_MAX_KERNEL 131072 The global setting for the maximum number of open files allowed by the kernel. This value is put into /proc/sys/fs/file-max.
FILE_MAX_SHELL 65536 The maximum amount of open file descriptors. This value is used by the /etc/profile.d/oracle.[c]sh script.
PROCESSES_MAX_SHELL 16384 The maxiumu number of processes a shell can have. This value is used by the /etc/profile.d/oracle.[c]sh script.
MAX_CORE_FILE_SIZE_SHELL unlimited This is the maximum allowed size of a core file. This value is used by the /etc/profile.d/oracle.[c]sh script.
VM_MAPPED_RATIO 100 This will adjust the swappiness of the kernel. A higher value means that the kernel will be less likely to swap pages to disk. Maximum is 10000. This value is put into /proc/sys/vm/mapped_ratio.
AIO_MAX_SIZE 226144 This is the maximum size of a asynchronous IO. Maximum value is 512K. Values larger than 256K generally do not have any affect as the IO is split up by the device driver. This value is put into /proc/sys/fs/aio-max-size
NR_HUGE_PAGES 0 For i386 systems that require a SGA larger than 2.7GB, it is necessary to set this parameter and use a hugetlbfs filesystem.
SHM_GROUP dba This is the group that will be able to allocate shared memory segments. The gid of the group in this parameter will be put into /proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group.

Table 2 -- Variables defined in the /etc/sysconfig/oracle file

The /etc/init.d/oracle init script
The /etc/init.d/oracle script is a standard SuSE init script that will be run on system boot. It will read the /etc/sysconfig/oracle file, and set the kernel parameters and start any of the desired services. If the orarun package is installed, the /etc/init.d/oracle script will be configured to run at boot for run levels 3 and 5 by default. The script will respond to the standard set of init commands (start, stop, restart status), and can be managed using the standard set of tools for managing init scripts such as insserv and chkconfig.

To stop the script from being run at boot up, the insserv command can be used:

# insserv -r /etc/init.d/oracle
The /etc/profile.d/oracle.[c]sh profile script
The orarun package provides two different profile scripts in the /etc/profile.d directory, oracle.sh and oracle.csh. Both scripts are roughly identical in terms of functionality, but are written for the bash shell and the C shell respectively. The purpose of the scripts is to (un)set environmental variables and ulimit values as needed for starting an Oracle instance. Because the script is in the /etc/profile.d directory it is sourced every time a shell is started.

Environment changes made for all users
The scripts sets the following environmental variables for all users:

Variable Default value
ORACLE_BASE /opt/oracle
ORACLE_HOME $ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2/db_1
ORACLE_SID orcl

Table 3 -- Environmental variables set for all users

Environment changes made for the oracle user
If the shell belongs to the oracle user the scripts also sets the following environmental variables:

Variable Default value
AGENT_HOME $ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2/agent
TNS_ADMIN $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
ORA_NLS33 (9i) $ORACLE_HOME/ocommon/nls/admin/data
ORA_NLS10 (10g) $ORACLE_HOME/nls/data
PATH $PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
LD_LIBRARY_PATH $LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/lib:$ORACLE_HOME/ctx/lib
CLASSPATH $ORACLE_HOME/JRE:$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/network/jlib

Table 4 -- Environmental variables set for the oracle user

In addition to the environmental variables above, the scripts set the following ulimits:

1.ulimit -c to MAX_CORE_FILE_SIZE_SHELL or 0 if MAX_CORE_FILE_SIZE_SHELL is unset
2.ulimit -u to PROCESSES_MAX_SHELL or 16384 if PROCESSES_MAX_SHELL is unset
3.ulimit -n to FILE_MAX_SHELL or 65536 if FILE_MAX_SHELL is unset
The value of each of the environmental variables is set in the /etc/sysconfig/oracle configuration file.

Due to some conflicts with the Oracle9i GSD cluster components, the scripts unset the JAVA_BINDIR and JAVA_HOME environmental variables which can be set in cases were a SLES JRE or JDK package has been installed.

In order to install Oracle9i, libraries from the 2.95 version of the GCC compiler need to be linked in at compile time. For SLES9, the GCC 2.95 compiler is provided by the gcc_old package. The scripts will also check for the existence of the GCC 2.95 compiler from the gcc_old package, and if it exists it will update the PATH environmental variable to include that compiler first.

Finally, the scripts will check for the existence of the libInternalSymbols library, which should be installed by the orarun package on i386 systems. If it exists it will set the LD_PRELOAD environmental variable to /usr/lib/libInternalSymbols.so.

Installation
At a high level, the installation of the orarun package consists of five steps:

1.Install the orarun package.
2.Set the shell and password for the oracle user.
3.Set the value of the SHMMAX parameter in the /etc/sysconfig/oracle configuration file.
4.Set the ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID environmental variable parameters in the /etc/profile.d/oracle.[c]sh script.
5.Run the /etc/init.d/oracle script.
There are several equivalent ways each of these steps could be performed. A more detailed description of each step follows.

Installing the package
The orarun package can be installed using any of the same methods used to install other software distributed with SLES. This includes during the installation process, as part of the software selection of an autoyast installation, and after installation using the YaST Software->Software Management module. Within the Package Manager screen enter orarun into the Search text field and hit Enter. In the package list frame select the orarun package for installation, then click on the Accept button.


Figure 1 -- Using the Package Manager to install the orarun packageIn SLES10 you can also select Patterns from the Filter drop down list and select Oracle Server Base.

You may also download the orarun package to a local directory and, while logged in as the root user, use the rpm or yast commands to install the package as follows:

# rpm -ivh /path/to/orarun/orarun-1.9-21.i586.rpm
or

# yast -i /path/to/orarun/orarun-1.9-21.i586.rpm
Setting the shell and password for the oracle user
When the orarun package is install, the oracle user is created. For security, by default the oracle user's shell is set to /bin/false and there is no password. In order to login as the oracle user this will need to be changed.

This can be done using the YaST Security and Users->User Management module. From the User and Group Administration screen, select 'System users' from the 'Set Filter' drop down list. Select the oracle user from the list of users and click the 'Edit' button.


Figure 2 -- Selecting the oracle userFigure 2 -- Selecting the oracle user

Enter the desired password into the Password and Confirm Password fields. Clear the Disable User Login check box.


Figure 3 -- Setting the oracle user's passwordFigure 3 -- Setting the oracle user's password

Click on the Details tab. Choose the desired shell for the oracle user from the Login Shell drop down list. Click on the Accept button and then the Finish button to exit the module.


Figure 4 -- Setting the oracle user's shellFigure 4 -- Setting the oracle user's shell

You can also make the changes using the command line. As the root user, edit the /etc/passwd file to set the shell for the oracle user. For example change the line:

oracle:x:1001:1000::/opt/oracle:/bin/false
to

oracle:x:1001:1000::/opt/oracle:/bin/bash
To set the password for the oracle user, run the passwd command as the root user as follow

# passwd oracle
entering in the desired password when prompted.

By default, the oracle user's home directory is set to /opt/oracle. If an alternative home directory is desired, change the value for the home directory using the YaST Security and Users->User Management module or by editing the /etc/passwd file.

Setting the value of SHHMAX
By default the orarun package sets the value of the shmmax kernel tunable to aproximately 3GB. Depending on the environment, this value probably needs to be changed. Oracle recommends setting this value to be 1/2 the size of physical memory. I.e. for a system with 2GB of physical memory Oracle recommends setting the value of SHMMAX to 1GB. SHMMAX is also commonly set to be bigger than the size of the SGA of any database instance running on the machine. This allows the entire SGA to be allocated in one shared memory segment. Since SHMMAX is the maximum size of a shared memory segment it is generally OK to set it value higher than necessary, as a smaller memory segment can always be allocated.

Retrieved from "http://wiki.novell.com/index.php/Orarun_package"

at jobs in SuSE Linux

In SuSE you log on as root and start YaST. When the YaST window appears click on the system icon on the left side of the window. The right side of the window will get new icons. Look for the icon labeled "Runlevel Editor". Click on that and it will start a new window. Find atd in the list. Highlight atd and click on the "Enable" button. You should see a message indicating whether it worked or not. If it worked then you can use the at command right away. It will also start the atd process whenever you restart the system.

Thanks to https://calomel.org/cron_at.html
At "how to"

To use "at" you need to know the structure and how to complete the command.

at 5am Oct 20 at "time am/pm" "month" "day"
atq lists the user's pending jobs
atrm deletes jobs, identified by their job number
Ctrl-d once done editing use Ctrl-d to close the "at" entry shell
To run jobs only once it is easier to use "at" than to setup and cron job and then go back and remove it once the job has ran. Remember you need to have the "atd" daemon running on Linux systems to run "at" jobs. On OpenBSD or FreeBSD system the "crond" daemon will handle "cron" and "at" jobs.

To run an "at" job you need to fist tell "at" what time to run the job. Remember to use absolute paths to avoid confusion. Once to execute att with the time and date you will be put into an "at" shell. This is where you will enter the commands you want to execute, one command per line to make it simple.

In this example we will be executing a set of commands at 5am on January 23rd. The backup script will run and then we will send out mail to root. To close the "at" shell and save the job you must type Ctrl-d (the control key with the lowercase d).

user@machine:~$ at 5am Jan 23
at> /tools/run_backups.sh
at> echo "job done" | mail -s "backup job finished" root
at> Ctrl-d
job 1 at 2008-01-23 05:00
Once you have completed entering your commands and type Ctrl-d "at" will respond with the job number and a verification printout of when the job is going to run. If you made a mistake and ran the job at the wrong time you can usr "atrm" to remove the job and re-enter your job with the current time.

Free memory in AIX

topas

To take care of overflow in var, root, filesystem in AIX

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/aix/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.baseadmn/doc/baseadmndita/fsvarover.htm
Resolving overflows in the /var file system
Check the following when the /var file system has become full.

You can use the find command to look for large files in the /var directory. For example:
find /var -xdev -size +2048 -ls| sort -r +6
For detailed information, see the command description for the find command.

Check for obsolete or leftover files in /var/tmp.
Check the size of the /var/adm/wtmp file, which logs all logins, rlogins and telnet sessions. The log will grow indefinitely unless system accounting is running. System accounting clears it out nightly. The /var/adm/wtmp file can be cleared out or edited to remove old and unwanted information. To clear it, use the following command:
cp /dev/null /var/adm/wtmp
To edit the /var/adm/wtmp file, first copy the file temporarily with the following command:
/usr/sbin/acct/fwtmp < /var/adm/wtmp >/tmp/out
Edit the /tmp/out file to remove unwanted entries then replace the original file with the following command:
/usr/sbin/acct/fwtmp -ic < /tmp/out > /var/adm/wtmp
Clear the error log in the /var/adm/ras directory using the following procedure. The error log is never cleared unless it is manually cleared.
Note: Never use the cp /dev/null command to clear the error log. A zero-length errlog file disables the error logging functions of the operating system and must be replaced from a backup.
Stop the error daemon using the following command:
/usr/lib/errstop
Remove or move to a different filesystem the error log file by using one of the following commands:
rm /var/adm/ras/errlog
or
mv /var/adm/ras/errlog
filename
Where filename is the name of the moved errlog file.

Note: The historical error data is deleted if you remove the error log file.
Restart the error daemon using the following command:
/usr/lib/errdemon
Note: Consider limiting the errlog by running the following entries in cron:
0 11 * * * /usr/bin/errclear -d S,O 30
0 12 * * * /usr/bin/errclear -d H 90
Check whether the trcfile file in this directory is large. If it is large and a trace is not currently being run, you can remove the file using the following command:
rm /var/adm/ras/trcfile
If your dump device is set to hd6 (which is the default), there might be a number of vmcore* files in the /var/adm/ras directory. If their file dates are old or you do not want to retain them, you can remove them with the rm command.
Check the /var/spool directory, which contains the queueing subsystem files. Clear the queueing subsystem using the following commands:
stopsrc -s qdaemon
rm /var/spool/lpd/qdir/*
rm /var/spool/lpd/stat/*
rm /var/spool/qdaemon/*
startsrc -s qdaemon
Check the /var/adm/acct directory, which contains accounting records. If accounting is running, this directory may contain several large files.
Check the /var/preserve directory for terminated vi sessions. Generally, it is safe to remove these files. If a user wants to recover a session, you can use the vi -r command to list all recoverable sessions. To recover a specific session, usevi -r filename.
Modify the /var/adm/sulog file, which records the number of attempted uses of the su command and whether each was successful. This is a flat file and can be viewed and modified with a favorite editor. If it is removed, it will be recreated by the next attempted su command. Modify the /var/tmp/snmpd.log, which records events from the snmpd daemon. If the file is removed it will be recreated by the snmpd daemon.
Note: The size of the /var/tmp/snmpd.log file can be limited so that it does not grow indefinitely. Edit the /etc/snmpd.conf file to change the number (in bytes) in the appropriate section for size.


Issue a find - command to select those files older than e.g. 8 days and delete them.
This command can be put into the ctontab file and be executed on a daily basis.

00 04 * * * find /var/adm/cron/log -ctime +8 -exec rm -f {} \;
(will delete all files older then 8 days, every day at 4am)

The safe way per Brooks to clean the mails:
type mail
d *
This will remove all the mails.

In ors0
cat /dev/null > /var/adm/cron/log

In ors3
cat /dev/null > /var/adm/cron/log


http://groups.google.com/group/comp.unix.aix/browse_thread/thread/734160493ba4c9e2?pli=1

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/aix/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.baseadmn/doc/baseadmndita/fsvarover.htm

How to clean the root overflow?
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/aix/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.baseadmn/doc/baseadmndita/fsvarover.htm
Check the following when the root file system (/) has become full.

# df -m
# lsvg -p rootvg
# lsvg -l rootvg
# lsvg rootvg
I would recommend increasing the size of the / (root) directory. The /tmp directory is only 4% used so don't need to worry about that yet.
# chfs -a size=#M /

for example, to increase root to 256 Mb
# chfs -a size=256M /

Use the following command to read the contents of the /etc/security/failedlogin file:
who /etc/security/failedlogin
The condition of TTYs respawning too rapidly can create failed login entries. To clear the file after reading or saving the output, execute the following command:
cp /dev/null /etc/security/failedlogin
Check the /dev directory for a device name that is typed incorrectly. If a device name is typed incorrectly, such as rmto instead of rmt0, a file will be created in /dev called rmto. The command will normally proceed until the entire root file system is filled before failing. /dev is part of the root (/) file system. Look for entries that are not devices (that do not have a major or minor number). To check for this situation, use the following command:
cd /dev
ls -l | pg
In the same location that would indicate a file size for an ordinary file, a device file has two numbers separated by a comma. For example:
crw-rw-rw- 1 root system 12,0 Oct 25 10:19 rmt0
If the file name or size location indicates an invalid device, as shown in the following example, remove the associated file:
crw-rw-rw- 1 root system 9375473 Oct 25 10:19 rmto
Note:
Do not remove valid device names in the /dev directory. One indicator of an invalid device is an associated file size that is larger than 500 bytes.
If system auditing is running, the default /audit directory can rapidly fill up and require attention.
Check for very large files that might be removed using the find command. For example, to find all files in the root (/) directory larger than 1 MB, use the following command:
find / -xdev -size +2048 -ls |sort -r -n +6
This command finds all files greater than 1 MB and sorts them in reverse order with the largest files first. Other flags for the find command, such as -newer, might be useful in this search. For detailed information, see the command description for the find command.
Note: When checking the root directory, major and minor numbers for devices in the /dev directory will be interspersed with real files and file sizes. Major and minor numbers, which are separated by a comma, can be ignored.
Before removing any files, use the following command to ensure a file is not currently in use by a user process:
fuser
filename
Where filename is the name of the suspect large file. If a file is open at the time of removal, it is only removed from the directory listing. The blocks allocated to that file are not freed until the process holding the file open is killed.

Disk overflows
A disk overflow occurs when too many files fill up the allotted space. This can be caused by a runaway process that creates many unnecessary files.

You can use the following procedures to correct the problem:

Note: You must have root user authority to remove processes other than your own.
Identifying problem processes
Use this procedure to isolate problem processes.
Terminating a process
You can terminate problem processes.
Reclamation of file space without terminating a process
To reclaim the blocks allocated to an active file without terminating the process, redirect the output of another command to the file. The data redirection truncates the file and reclaims the blocks of memory.
/ (root) overflow
Check the following when the root file system (/) has become full.
Resolving overflows in the /var file system
Check the following when the /var file system has become full.
Fix other file systems and general search techniques
Use the find command with the -size flag to locate large files or, if the file system recently overflowed, use the -newer flag to find recently modified files.

Command for cleaning up file systems
automatically
Use the skulker command to clean up file systems by removing unwanted files.

Type the following from the command line:
skulker -p
The skulker command is used to periodically purge obsolete or unneeded files from file systems. Candidates include files in the /tmp directory, files older than a specified age, a.out files, core files, or ed.hup files. For more information about the skulker command, see skulker.
The skulker command is typically run daily, as part of an accounting procedure run by the cron command during off-peak hours.

Useful AIX commands

http://unixarticles.com/content/2/33/en/very-useful-aix-commands.html

Useful AIX commands

svmon
svmon -P

Further:
use can user svmon command to monitor memory usage as follows;

(A) #svmon -P -v -t 10 | more (will give top ten processes)
(B) #svmon -U -v -t 10 | more ( will give top ten user)

smit install requires "inutoc ." first. It'll autogenerate a .toc for you
I believe, but if you later add more .bff's to the same directory, then
the inutoc . becomes important. It is of course, a table of contents.

dump -ov /dir/xcoff-file

topas, -P is useful # similar to top

When creating really big filesystems, this is very helpful:
chlv -x 6552 lv08
Word on the net is that this is required for filesystems over 512M.

esmf04m-root> crfs -v jfs -g'ptmpvg' -a size='884998144' -m'/ptmp2'
-A''´locale yesstr | awk -F: '{print $1}'´'' -p'rw' -t''´locale yesstr |
awk -F: '{print $1}'´'' -a frag='4096' -a nbpi='131072' -a ag='64'
Based on the parameters chosen, the new /ptmp2 JFS file system
is limited to a maximum size of 2147483648 (512 byte blocks)
New File System size is 884998144
esmf04m-root>

If you give a bad combination of parameters, the command will list
possibilities. I got something like this from smit, then seasoned
to taste.

If you need files larger than 2 gigabytes in size, this is better.
It should allow files up to 64 gigabytes:
crfs -v jfs -a bf=true -g'ptmpvg' -a size='884998144' -m'/ptmp2' -A''´ |
| locale yesstr | awk -F: '{print $1}'´'' -p'rw' -t''´locale yesstr | aw |
| k -F: '{print $1}'´'' -a nbpi='131072' -a ag='64'

Show version of SSP (IBM SP switch) software:
lslpp -al ssp.basic

llctl -g reconfig - make loadleveler reread its config files

oslevel (sometimes lies)
oslevel -r (seems to do better)

lsdev -Cc adapter

pstat -a looks useful

vmo is for VM tuning

On 1000BaseT, you really want this:
chdev -P -l ent2 -a media_speed=Auto_Negotiation

Setting jumbo frames on en2 looks like:
ifconfig en2 down detach
chdev -l ent2 -a jumbo_frames=yes
chdev -l en2 -a mtu=9000
chdev -l en2 -a state=up

Search for the meaning of AIX errors:
http://publib16.boulder.ibm.com/pseries/en_US/infocenter/base/eisearch.htm

nfso -a shows AIX NFS tuning parameters; good to check on if you're
getting badcalls in nfsstat. Most people don't bother to tweaks these
though.

nfsstat -m shows great info about full set of NFS mount options

Turn on path mtu discovery
no -o tcp_pmtu_discover=1
no -o udp_pmtu_discover=1
TCP support is handled by the OS. UDP support requires cooperation
between OS and application.

nfsstat -c shows rpc stats

To check for software problems:
lppchk -v
lppchk -c
lppchk -l

List subsystem (my word) status:
lssrc -a
mkssys
rmssys
chssys
auditpr
refresh
startsrc
stopsrc
traceson
tracesoff

This starts sendmail:
startsrc -s sendmail -a "-bd -q30m"

This makes inetd reread its config file. Not sure if it kills and
restarts or just HUP's or what:
refresh -s inetd

lsps is used to list the characteristics of paging space.

Turning off ip forwarding:
/usr/sbin/no -o ipforwarding=0

Detailed info about a specific error:
errpt -a -jE85C5C4C
BTW, Rajiv Bendale tells me that errors are stored in NVRAM on AIX,
so you don't have to put time into replicating an error as often.

Some or all of these will list more than one number. Trust the first,
not the second.

lslpp -l ppe.poe
...should list the version of poe installed on the system

Check on compiler versions:
lslpp -l vac.C
lslpp -l vacpp.cmp.core

Check on loadleveler version:
lslpp -l LoadL.full

If you want to check the bootlist do bootlist -o -m normal if you want to
update bootlist do bootlist -m normal hdisk* hdisk* cd* rmt*

prtconf

Run the ssadiag against the drive and the adapter and it will tell you if it
fails or not. Then if its a hot plugable it can be replaced online.

You can get patches from:
http://www-912.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes

You'll need to click through a bit of red tape before getting to where
you actually can list corequisites and start a download.

BTW, "Add to my download list" does not work in konqueror, but it does
work in mozilla.

Backup to tape:
env - /usr/bin/mksysb '-m' '-i' '-X' /dev/rmt0
The "env -" is because some sort of environment variable can confuse
mksysb, making it error out instead of doing your backup
There's also "smitty mksysb"

You can create an image using the savevg command i.e.

savevg -v -n -9 / _rootvg.img rootvg

This can be used to build a NIM installable image to recover your systems

alternatively, the command line call for a mksysb to tape (to include map
and exclude files) is /usr/bin/mksysb '-m' '-e' '-i' /dev/rmt0

Finding which lpp contains a file:
lslpp -w /usr/sbin/umount

There exists a "diag CD" for AIX.

/usr/samples/kernel/vmtune

lsattr -El sys0 | grep realmem
lsattr -El mem0

See if you AIX system's hardware is CHRP (some sort of PowerPC reference
platform spec, I believe) :
bootinfo -p
chrp

Some really funky hardware-looking problems can be fixed by draining
the NVRAM battery for 5 minutes, and then reinstalling the microcode.
We used to do this on some IBM RT's in Cincinnati, and a recent poster
to AIX-L indicates that it's still useful in some situations.

From AIX-L:
AIX 4.3.2 -> AIX 4.3.3 is the most easiest Upgrade of ALL. Place the
AIX 4.3.3 Vol 1 of CD on the CDROM drive and run smitty update_all ,
this will upgrade the OS

On the subject of running out of paging space, from AIX-L:
Look into npswarn, npskill stuff in Performance Management Guide

Changing the boot device order:
Boot the server, and hit 1 or F1 (depending if you have an ascii console
or a graphics console) when the logos come up to get to sms mode. In
the menus select multiboot, select boot devices, select boot order.

You should start tracing for inetd subsystem with

traceson -s inetd

and then issue:

trpt -j

you will see the protocols control blocks (PID) you're tracing, and then with:

trpt -p

you should see output for telnet communications. But this is not working.

Why don't you try using iptrace and ipreport to see the behavior of your
telnet sessions ??

Purportedly orks with JFS 1 and 2:

To split off a mirrored copy of the /home/xyz file system to a new mount
point named /jfsstaticcopy, type the following:

chfs -a splitcopy=/jfsstaticcopy /home/xyz

You can control which mirrored copy is used as the backup by using the
copy attribute. The second mirrored copy is the default if a copy is
not specified by the user. For example:

chfs -a splitcopy=/jfsstaticcopy -a copy=1 /home/xyz

At this point, a read-only copy of the file system is available in
/jfsstaticcopy. Any changes made to the original file system after the
copy is split off are not reflected in the backup copy.

To reintegrate the JFS split image as a mirrored copy at the /testcopy
mount point, use the following command:

rmfs /testcopy

The rmfs command removes the file system copy from its split-off state
and allows it to be reintegrated as a mirrored copy.

Working around a loader domain problem:

esmf04m-strombrg> /usr/local/bin/gribmap
exec(): 0509-036 Cannot load program /usr/local/bin/gribmap because of
the following errors:
0509-030 Insufficient permission to create loader domain
/usr/lib/libiconv.a
0509-026 System error: The file access permissions do not allow
the specified action.

esmf04m-strombrg> LIBPATH=$TMPDIR/gribmap-ld /usr/local/bin/gribmap
gribmap v1.4 for GrADS Version 1.8SL11

Apparently you can also link your application with -L$TMPDIR/loaderdomain
or so, but you'd need a unique one for each set of shared libraries.
This one apparently must be the first -L in the link line.

Please see also:
http://dcs.nac.uci.edu/~strombrg/AIX-shared-libs.html
/usr/bin/uname -M

Anyway, set the timezone variable TZ in /etc/environment like this:

TZ=MST7

...takes effect after everyone logs out and back in. This is just an
example, not something for California.

"svmon" will give u this output which give u the information regarding
ur memory.

size inuse free pin virtual
memory 1310711 1298235 12476 103782 711466
pg space 2097152 585219
work pers clnt lpage
pin 103782 0 0 0
in use 438570 10130 849535 0

acledit

Scott (of IBM, onsite hardware tech) stuff:

lsdev -Cc adapter
"defined" means at one time the piece of hardware was on system - as
opposed to "available". A card which is being newly added should not
temporarily pass through "defined" state. Hardware should be in the
"available" state.
/////
lsslot -c pci
p1-i1 is the first slot on the back left
/////
diag
diadiagnostic routines
problem determination
sfp: phones home (to IBM) over modem
previously reported problem
/////
task selection
hot plug task
pci or scsi
identify function will blink light, so you can make sure the hardware
and software are on the same page.
u1.1 drawer address, bottom left
/////
EIA numbers on right and left of rack, goes to lowest of the numbers
adjacent to the equipment in question. EG, something in the rack might
be 3 EIA numbers high - the software should identify the hardware by
the lowest number of the 3.
/////
hotplug in os removes voltage from slot, slot light should blink yellow,
same as for identify.
/////
we have older "hotswap cassettes" - which means lots of screws.
Newer ones snap together. It also can take a bit of wrestling to get
the card in and out of the old cassettes (shades of Sun's IPX's :)
/////
yellow llight continues blinking after card inserted, until software is
told to let the slot have voltage again.
/////
advanced diagnostics, search for thing to test visually
/////
cfgmgr
takes awhile to run, checks all devices on machine
no output, but then lsdev -Cc adapter again should change afterward
/////
ps -ef | grep Worm
splstdata -a
should not say not_configured
use rc.switch to make it configured
ps -ef pipe | Worm again, should show up now
Eunfence 49 - 49 is 04m
/////
spmon -d
"d" for diagnostic
like front panel leds
"host responds" and "switch responds" should say yes for all css adapters
/////
errpt (no args)
/////
Scott says that sometimes an SP2 system will refuse to acknowledge the
new adapter, in which case you have to lie to the ODM to make the system
see the card. He suggested that maybe we did not need to do that this
time, because we have the latest pssp (ssp.*) software on the system.
/////
We also had to Eunfence the node whose card was replaced.

Rajiv tells me that it does not matter which host is Eprimary, as long as
one of the nodes is, and there aren't things fenced off that shouldn't be.

mount -v cdrfs -o ro /dev/cd0 /mnt
Mount iso9660 filesystem

More on cfgmgr, from aix-l:

you can execute cfgmgr on line without trouble

normally cfgmgr have 3 steps named phases :
phase 1 during boot
phase 2 during normal boot (after phase1)
phase 3 durinf service boot (after phase1)

if you run cfgmgr without flags (-p or -f) cfgmgr executes phase 2 only by
default

in fact cfgmgr and cfgmgr -p2 are the sames commands
flag -v for verbose

AIX 5.2 has builtin CIFS client?
mount -v cifs -n winserver/myuser/mypassword /home /mnt

Can also "smitty cifs_fs"

This is supposed to be included in lpp bos.cifs_fs

Apparently this was added in AIX 5.2

please check if your cd device is being used by some process by running:

fuser -c /dev/cd0

you can also chack if cdromd is up and running by:

lssrc -a | grep cd

if cdromd is running, then try with the following commands:

cdumount

cdeject

here is some commands to manipulate the ODM directly (I don't suggest you
do so, at least you know exactly what you are doing).
odmget, odmshow, odmchange, odmadd, odmdelete, odmdrop

lsps -a

nmon - free, unsupported download from IBM
What's this about chmod'ing kmem to be world readable though?!

esmf04m-dcsew> instfix -i | grep ML
All filesets for 5.1.0.0_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 5100-01_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 5100-02_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 5100-03_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 5100-04_AIX_ML were found.
esmf04m-dcsew>

The specifix fixes can be checked using instfix command:
#instfix -ivk
e.g #instfix -ivk IY56076

instfix -ciqk 4330-08_AIX_ML | grep ":-:"
Lists what filesets need to be installed for instfix to show "All filesets
for 4330-08 were found".

instfix -k "IX#####" -d /dev/rmt0.1
Installs the APAR and its prerequisites on the system.

installp -Xagqd /dev/rmt0.1 X11.base.rte
Installs Xwindows on the system.

installp -u
deletes an AIX lpp

Copious network statistics:
entstat -d ent0

Making AIX 5.1 see a change to /etc/inetd.conf and/or /etc/services
and/or /etc/rpc is different from most other systems (only verified
using one rpc/udp service so far)

You can't just kill -HUP inetd's pid

What you can do, is "smitty inetd", stop inetd, start inetd, and exit smitty.

Alternatively, it -should- work to:
stopsrc -s inetd
startsrc -s inetd

Or better:
Edit /etc/inetd.conf and comment out ftp and refresh inetd by issuing
"refresh -s inetd"

startsrc -t ftpd -u 022 -l

To truly change the kernel to 64-bit, you need to be at the 5.1 oslevel. The
means to change to a 64-bit kernel are:

From 32-bit to 64-bit:

ln -sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_64 /unix
ln -sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_64 /usr/lib/boot/unix
lslv -m hd5
bosboot -ad /dev/ipldevice
shutdown -Fr
bootinfo -K (should now be 64)

To change the kernel back to 32-bit:

From 64-bit to 32-bit:

ln -sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_mp /unix
ln -sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_mp /usr/lib/boot/unix
lslv -m hd5
bosboot -ad /dev/ipldevice
shutdown -Fr
bootinfo -K (should now be 32)If you are running AIX 5.1

Switching From 32 to 64 Bit Mode

To switch from 32-bit mode to 64-bit mode run the following commands,
in the given order:

1.ln -sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_64 /unix
2.ln -sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_64 /usr/lib/boot/unix
3.bosboot -ad /dev/ipldevice
4.shutdown -Fr
5.bootinfo -K (should now show 64)

Switching From 64 To 32-Bit Mode

To switch from 64-bit mode to 32-bit mode run the following commands,
in the given order:

1.ln -sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_mp /unix
2.ln -sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_mp /usr/lib/boot/unix
3.bosboot -ad /dev/ipldevice
4.shutdown -Fr
5.bootinfo -K (should now show 32)

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Moulay Rachid BOUSSETA

To see if you're running with a 32 bit or 64 bit kernel, run:

bootinfo -K
...or...
prtconf -k

EG:
esmf04m-root> PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin prtconf -k
Kernel Type: 64-bit
esmf04m-root> bootinfo -K
64

bootinfo -s hdiskxxx

lspv hdiskXX as well is defined on a Volume Group

lsattr -El hdiskXX

lscfg -vp -l hdiskXX

These should give you the raw disk capacity

Go to: http://www-912.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/fcgui.jsp
Choose: 1)pSeries family
2)AIX OS,Java, compilers
3)Specifi fix
4)Your OS
Press continue....

type in your requisites in the text box. thats it!

LPP history:

lslpp -h

sar 1 10

bootinfo -b reports last device the system booted from
bootinfo -k reports keyswitch position
1=secure, 2=service, 3=normal

bootinfo -r reports amount of memory (/ by 1024)
bootinfo -s (disk device) reports size of disk drive
bootinfo -T reports type of machine
ie rspc,rs6ksmp,rspc or chrp
bootinfo -y reports your hardware arquitecture (32
bits or 64 bits)

bootinfo -K reports if the kernel in memory is 32
bits or 64 bits

You can submit/check a pSeries PMR via the web at:

https://techsupport.services.ibm.com/ssr/ssr.slprob


Force a user to change their password on their next login:
pwdadm -f ADMCHG username
Note that this works with some sshd's and not others

Identifying hard disk issues:

svmon -G
vmstat 1 20
iostat -d hdisk0 1 20
ps avg | sort +3r -n | head -25

Maximum number of processes a user can have:
lsattr -E -l sys0 -a maxuproc

smitty chgsys
Also allows one to change the max number of processes per user, among
other things

AIX and SNMP:

by Host Resource you mean the AIX SNMP component that monitors system
resources ??

if so, then there's a conf file for the daemon aixmibd named
/etc/aixmibd.conf where you can configure the thresholds for many
monitors. Once you have configure this then you should activate the daemon
by issuing:

startsrc -s aixmibd

Please remember to uncomment the line that starts aixmibd in /etc/rc.tcpip
file.

On AIX patches:

1) An APAR (Authorized Program Analysis Report) is a bunch of software
patches that solves many problems while a PTF (is the same as Fix and
means Program Temporary Fix) is a patch that solves one specific problem.
You will download Maintenance Levels (ML) as APARs from IBM Software Web
Site.

2) You should install the latest Maintenance Level for the AIX version you
have installed (usually a big bunch of software up to 650 MB that needs
almost 1GB space to be decompressed and installed). As AIX 5L is new
technology from IBM they're patching many problems and generating ML very
often. You can download from
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/support/pseries/aixfixes.html

3) First, you have to know which Fix or PTF to install, then download it
from the above web link, then copy to a location in the server (usually
PTF's are copied to /usr/sys/inst.images directory as well as there's
enough space (what i do is to create a new FS of some 2 GB dize and mount
it over /usr/sys/inst.images, after installing the APAR or PTF i just
delete the FS without deleting the mount point). Then uncompress or unzip,
untar, whatever, and using the fastpath smitty update_all in AIX you
can install or preview the installation of any patches. I recommend using
preview option before real installation and also recommend installing
patches in APPLIED status, that is, both either original or old version
and newest version of the software are installed, so you can REJECT the
installation of any patch.

4) You can remove any single fileset with the fastpath smitty remove

5) A COMMITed software is installed and the only way to reject it is by
uninstalling the software fileset while a APPLIED software is installed
and the preview versions of filesets are installed too so if you REJECT
the APPLIED software then those older versions will be active again.

Checking on known maintenance levels:

esmf04m-strombrg> oslevel -qr
Known Recommended Maintenance Levels

5100-04
5100-03
5100-02
5100-01
esmf04m-strombrg> lppchk -v

Dual booting AIX:

>Okay you install AIX 5.1 on hdisk0 as example and boot your maschine. th=
>an
>you clone your rootvg to hdisk1 :
>alt_disk_install -C hdisk1
>so you have hdisk0 with old_rootvg
>and hdisk1 with alt_*rootvg
>
>bootlist -m hdisk0 hdisk1 (means you boot from hdisk0 first and hdisk1
>second)
>
>boot with AIX5.2 CD and install with Migartion Option from prompt on
>hdisk0.
>
>now you have Aix5.2 on hdisk0 and aix5.1 on hdisk1
>
>if you want to remove the alternate disk install:
>alt_disk_install -X

Installing an IBM maintenance release upgrade:

Go to the IBM Support Fix Central site:
http://www-912.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/fcgui.jsp

* Server
Select "Pseries family" or the series that your server is.

* Product or fix type
Select "AIX OS, java, compilers"

* Ordering option
Select "Mainteneance packages"

* OS level
Select "AIX 5.1"

Select "continue" for next screen

Current level
Select "5100-04"

Desired Level
Select "5100-05"

Select "go"

Download "510405.tar.gz " at the bottom of the page

Follow the instructions

Locking an account:

The following procedure can be used to lock a user's account;
(1) smitty user
(2) select, change the characteristics of a user
(3) Expiration Date: input the effective date, when this account will be
expiring / closing
(4) Is this user account locked: false, use tab key to choose true
(5) User can login:true, use tab key to change true to false
(6) user can login remotely:true, use tab key to change true to false
(7) Press enter key and account will be locked
(8) for further security also change the password

to permit the user to login after 30 days / specfied time revert the above
fields to original values.

If an ESMF node mostly falls off the net (strobe shows only about 5
ports open), then:

1) Go down to the ESMF HMC
2) Log in
3) Locate the right window to use
4) Log in to the trouble machine
5) kill and restart srcmstr
6) startsrc -s inetd
7) startsrc -s sshd
8) startsrc -s automountd
9) /etc/nfs.clean
10) /etc/rc.nfs

There may be other things that need to be started up as well, but this
has been sufficient so far.

Following the documentation if you issue the following command you will
activate HMT or Hardware MultiThreading

# bosdebug -H on
Memory debugger off
Memory sizes 0
Network memory sizes 0
Kernel debugger off
Real Time Kernel off
HMT on

...but only if your hardware -supports- HMT!

Definiing a virtual network interface:
ifconfig en# alias xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Checking if NFS is active:
lssrc -a | egrep nfs
biod nfs 20752 active
nfsd nfs 21426 active
rpc.mountd nfs 27888 active
rpc.statd nfs 22730 active
rpc.lockd nfs 24280 active

nfso -o nfs_use_reserved_ports=1

Find where gzip lives, package-wise:
which_fileset gzip

Get the machine model:

esmf04m-strombrg> /usr/bin/uname -M
IBM,7039-651
esmf04m-strombrg>

lsconf
Looks a lot like prtconf?

You can check microcode version by issuing the following command

lsmcode


if this does not work, then

lscfg -vp | grep -i alterable

You can download Fixes and microcodes not only for your Server nut for any

peripheral devices from

techsupport.services.ibm.com

1. Type no -o tcp_keepinit=3750 The initial timeout for TCP/IP will change
from 75 seconds to 31.25 minutes. The time (3750) is in 1/2 seconds.

2. Type no -o tcp_keepidle=86400 The connection will be kept alive
for 12 hours.

The above two items will not be active once a reboot is done. If this
solves your problem you can add the statements to your /etc/rc.tcpip file.

filemon Command

Monitors the performance of the file system, and reports the I/O activity on
behalf of logical files, virtual memory segments, logical volumes, and physical
volumes.

lsfs
...can be used to check what kind of filesystem a filesystem is

portmir
Apparently can be used to snoop on a tty/pty on AIX? A bit like screen
or VNC, but without the forethought requirement.

Restoring from a mksysb tape:

You can either boot from your mksysb Medium (band Streamer or cdrom) and
restore.

change your bootlist:

if you have a Band Streamer, so you can boot from AIX Installation Medium
and choose point 3 (Maintenance mode) and restore from media.

Determing what needs to be upgraded to advance to a higher os level:
you can do an "instfix -i | grep ML" to list which maintenance level is
incomplete and then show what filesets are required i.e. if AIX 5.2 ML02 is
incomplete do "instfix -ivk 5200-01_AIX_ML | grep ":" | grep not"

Nice page with AIX OpenSSH bff's, a script for creating bff's, a script
for setting up LBX for use with ssh, and more.
http://www.zip.com.au/~dtucker/openssh/
An example mksysb backup:

# mksysb /dev/rmt0

Creating tape boot image ...

Creating list of files to back up .
Backing up 68614 files..............................
17379 of 68614 files backed up (25%)..............................
25331 of 68614 files backed up (36%)..............................
25341 of 68614 files backed up (36%)..............................
55359 of 68614 files backed up (80%).................
68614 of 68614 files backed up (100%)
0512-038 mksysb: Backup Completed Successfully.
# echo $PATH
/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin:/etc:/usr/lpp/ssp/bin:/usr/lib/instl:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin
#

Note the PATH! The backup failed when I had a larger PATH.

IBM's document describing AIX to Solaris admins:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246584.html?Open
Changing the boot device:

Boot from aix cd's into maint shell and run the bosboot -ad /dev/hdisk0
command.

Or if the hd5 boot device is mirrored on hdisk0 and hdisk1 all you need
to do is boot into sms menu and ensure both disks are selected in the
boot order.

To access sms hit 1 before it does a speaker test.
/////
You can boot it up into what used to be called SMS mode .. i.e. hit F1 at
the 'keyboard' prompt ... You can change the boot device from there and
then make sure that you rerun your bosboot once you have booted up.
Couldn't be simpler

manctsr/ >lsvg rootvg -p
rootvg:
PV=5FNAME PV STATE TOTAL PPs FREE PPs FREE DISTRIBUTION
hdisk0 active 542 245 28..00..00..108..109
hdisk1 active 542 245 28..00..00..108..109
manctsr/ >lsvg rootvg -l
rootvg:
LV NAME TYPE LPs PPs PVs LV STATE MOUNT POINT
hd5 boot 1 2 2 closed/syncd N/A
hd6 paging 64 128 2 open/syncd N/A
hd8 jfslog 1 2 2 open/syncd N/A
hd4 jfs 1 2 2 open/syncd /
hd2 jfs 27 54 2 open/syncd /usr
hd9var jfs 3 6 2 open/syncd /var
hd3 jfs 5 10 2 open/syncd /tmp
hd1 jfs 1 2 2 open/syncd /home
apachelv jfs 5 10 2 open/syncd /apache
cv4=5Fhome jfs 172 344 2 open/syncd
/export/cv4=5Fhome
cv4=5Fdec jfs 15 30 2 open/syncd /export/cv4=5Fd=
ec
lv00 jfs 2 4 2 open/syncd /mn/script

# lsvg rootvg -l
rootvg:
LV NAME TYPE LPs PPs PVs LV STATE MOUNT POINT
hd5 boot 1 2 2 closed/syncd N/A
hd6 paging 40 80 2 open/syncd N/A
hd8 jfslog 1 2 2 open/syncd N/A
hd4 jfs 1 2 2 open/syncd /
hd2 jfs 71 142 2 open/syncd /usr
hd9var jfs 1 2 2 open/syncd /var
hd3 jfs 2 4 2 open/syncd /tmp
hd1 jfs 4 8 2 open/syncd /home
hd10opt jfs 2 4 2 open/syncd /opt
log1 jfslog 1 2 2 closed/syncd N/A
paging01 paging 9 18 2 open/syncd N/A
hd14 jfs 4 8 2 closed/syncd N/A

PSSP has it's own 5 CD set (PSSP-3.5) and has to be ordered. Thanks

Don't panic! DISK_ERR4 (in errpt) is just a bad block relocation and
is a somewhat
"normal" occurrence. You only need to be concerned about these errors
if you notice them increasing in number on the same disk. So - you need
to track it but not necessarily replace it.

What kernel level (lslpp -l 'bos.[um]p*')

The hardware must be CHRP (Common Hardware Reference Platform) in order for
5.2 or greater to be supported.

You can determine that by issuing "bootinfo -p".

Nice article on AIX backups:

http://www.ahinc.com/aix/backup.htm
A fix for some kinds of tape backup problems:

please post the output of the following command

lsattr -El rmt0

we are looking for the value "ret error", if this is set to true then i'd
recommend changing it to false by issuing a smitty devices->Tape
devices->Change Tape Devices

How to create mksysb to a remote tape drive.
.
**** Note mksysb will not be bootable ***
.
Lets say tape drive is on systemA and you need to create
mksysb of system
You should be able to do rsh from systemB to systemA
Create the script remote_mksysb on systemB with following lines.
.
#!/usr/bin/ksh

rm -f /tmp/pipe

mknod /tmp/pipe p

mksysb /tmp/pipe &
dd if=/tmp/pipe | rsh systemA "dd of=/dev/rmt0 bs=1024 conv=sync"
rm /tmp/pipe

Generating a list of system calls known to the kernel:

dd if=/proc/$$/sysent of=/tmp/out

(check the end)

Reading a tape

mksysb

tctl rewind
tctl fsf 3
restore -Tqvf /dev/rmt0.1|pg

Savevg

tctl rewind
tctl fsf 5
restore -Tqvf /dev/rmt0.1|pg

I think that all these following commands mean the same thing :

# bootinfo -y
32
# prtconf -c
CPU Type: 32-bit
# bootinfo -K
32

On alt_disk_install:

We use it mainly to reduce downtime while upgrading the systems and also
to have a quick back out path. You can have the new built image install
on the alt disks. Switch boot device to the new partition and your newly
upgraded system up and running. If your system has any problems you
cannot fix with adjustments, you can switch back to the old partition
and bring out the old software.

Outage time is little over a reboot worth of time.

First, try to start the switch adapter daemon (worm) with rc.switch.


Good luck - these SP switch problems are notoriously hard to fix.

Enabling quotas on a JFS filesystem (and perhaps others) :

Edit /etc/filesystems and edit in quota=userquota on the relevant filesystem.

esmf04m-root> chfs -a "quota = userquota" /home
esmf04m-root> quotaon /home
esmf04m-root> quotacheck /home

If a program proves too large to compile with the default options due
to a toc overflow, please try adding:

-Wl,-b -Wl,bigtoc

...to your $CC or $LDFLAGS

bash-2.05b$ lsattr -El ent0

alt_addr 0x000000000000 Alternate ethernet address
True
busintr 553 Bus interrupt level
False
busmem 0xf8080000 Bus memory address
False
chksum_offload yes Enable hardware transmit and
receive checksum True
compat_mode no Gigabit Backward compatability
True
copy_bytes 2048 Copy packet if this many or less
bytes True
flow_ctrl yes Enable Transmit and Receive
Flow Control True
intr_priority 3 Interrupt priority
False
intr_rate 10000 Interrupt events processed per
interrupt True
jumbo_frames no Transmit jumbo frames
True
large_send yes Enable hardware TX TCP
resegmentation True
media_speed Auto_Negotiation Media speed
True
rom_mem 0xf8040000 ROM memory address
False
rx_hog 1000 RX buffers processed per RX
interrupt True
rxbuf_pool_sz 2048 Rcv buffer pool, make 2X rxdesc_que_sz
True
rxdesc_que_sz 1024 RX descriptor queue size
True
slih_hog 10 Max Interrupt events processed
per interrupt True
tx_que_sz 8192 Software transmit queue size
True
txdesc_que_sz 1024 TX descriptor queue size
True
use_alt_addr no Enable alternate ethernet address
True

# lsslot -c pci
# Slot Description Device(s)
U0.1-P1-I1 PCI-X capable, 64 bit, 133MHz slot Empty
U0.1-P1-I2 PCI-X capable, 32 bit, 66MHz slot Empty
U0.1-P1-I3 PCI-X capable, 32 bit, 66MHz slot pci9 lai0
U0.1-P1-I4 PCI-X capable, 64 bit, 133MHz slot Empty
U0.1-P1-I5 PCI-X capable, 64 bit, 133MHz slot Empty
U0.1-P1-I6 PCI-X capable, 64 bit, 133MHz slot Empty

Operating System and Devices
Split a Mirrored Disk from a Volume Group
Beginning with AIX 5.2, snapshot support helps you protect the
consistency of your mirrored volume groups from potential disk failure.
Using the snapshot feature, you can split off a mirrored disk or disks
to use as a reliable (from the standpoint of the LVM metadata)
point-in-time backup of a volume group, and, when needed, reliably
reintegrate the split disks into the volume group. In the following
procedure, you first split off a mirrored disk from a volume group and
then you merge the split-off disk into the original volume group. To
further ensure the reliability of your snapshot, file systems must be
unmounted and applications that use raw logical volumes must be in a
known state (a state from which the application can recover if you need
to use the backup).

A volume group cannot be split if any one of the following is true:

A disk is already missing.
The last non-stale partition would be on the split-off volume group.
Any stale partitions exist in the volume group, unless you use the force
flag (-f) with the splitvg command.
Furthermore, the snapshot feature (specifically, the splitvg command)
cannot be used in enhanced or classic concurrent mode. The split-off
volume group cannot be made concurrent or enhanced concurrent and there
are limitations to the changes allowed for both the split-off and the
original volume group. For details, read the chvg command description in
AIX 5L Version 5.2 Commands Reference.

Ensure that the volume group is fully mirrored and that the mirror
exists on a disk or set of disks that contains only this set of mirrors.

To enable snapshot support, split off the original volume group (origVG)
to another disk or set of disks, using the following command:
splitvg origVG
At this point, you now have a reliable point-in-time backup of the
original volume group. Be aware, however, that you cannot change the
allocation on the split-off volume group.
Reactivate the split-off disk and merge it into the original volume
group using the following command:
joinvg origVG
At this point, the split-off volume group is now reintegrated with the
original volume group.

Configuring ntp

1) Stop the xntpd daemon

The xntpd daemon is managed by the System Resource Controller (SRC).
To verify that the xntpd daemon is active : lssrc -s xntpd : status
should be "active"
To stop the xntpd subsystem : stopsrc -s xntpd

Note : xntpd is automatically started in /etc/rc.tcpip. To verify this :
cat /etc/rc.tcpip | grep xntpd.

2) Modify the /etc/ntp.conf file

Put the following lines in the /etc/ntp.conf file :

server prefer
driftfile /etc/ntp.drift
tracefile /etc/ntp.trace

3) Restart the xntp daemon

To restart the xntpd daemon :
startsrc -s xntpd

4) Check status of time synchronization

To check the status of the time synchronisation, use the ntpq utility.
ntpq -i : start ntpq interactively

ntpq> peer

remote refid st t when poll reach
delay offset disp
========================================================================
======
* .PPS. 1 u 863 1024 377 0.92 0.160 0.47

The "offset" field displays the difference (in milliseconds) between the
system time and the reference time.
Type "quit" to exit the ntpq utility.

Kind of like ldd:
dump -X32 -Tv /bin/ls

Getting security notices from IBM:
https://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/pseries.subscriptionSvcs?mode=2
Changing prngd to listen on a socket, using chsys:

esmfcws-root> chssys -s prngd -a '-f /dev/egd-pool -m 666 tcp/localhost:708'
0513-077 Subsystem has been changed.
esmfcws-root> ps -ef | grep prng
root 303186 1015878 0 19:19:43 pts/2 0:00 grep prng
root 1007836 262212 0 19:04:42 - 0:01
/opt/freeware/sbin/prngd -f /dev/egd-pool -m 666
esmfcws-root> stopsrc -s prngd
0513-044 The prngd Subsystem was requested to stop.
esmfcws-root> startsrc -s prngd
0513-059 The prngd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 852062.
esmfcws-root> ps -ef | grep prng
root 852062 262212 0 19:20:42 - 0:01
/opt/freeware/sbin/prngd -f /dev/egd-pool -m 666 tcp/localhost:708
root 1007846 1015878 0 19:20:54 pts/2 0:00 grep prng
esmfcws-root> /usr/lo
local lost+found
esmfcws-root> /usr/local/sbin/gen-pas
Not bad, using prngd for entropy
cf4b01142c33d9bd06f1e50d6968f4da
esmfcws-root>

Or if prngd isn't already partially set up:

esmf04m-root> mkssys -s prngd -p /opt/freeware/sbin/prngd -u root -a
'-f /dev/egd-pool -m 666 tcp/localhost:708'
0513-071 The prngd Subsystem has been added.
esmf04m-root> lssrc -s prngd
Subsystem Group PID Status
prngd inoperative
esmf04m-root>

esmf04m-root> for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8; do ssh esmf0${i}m "mkssys -s
prngd -p /opt/freeware/sbin/prngd -u root -a '-f /dev/egd-pool -m 666
tcp/localhost:708'"; done
0513-071 The prngd Subsystem has been added.
0513-071 The prngd Subsystem has been added.
0513-071 The prngd Subsystem has been added.
0513-075 The new subsystem name is already on file.
0513-071 The prngd Subsystem has been added.
0513-071 The prngd Subsystem has been added.
0513-071 The prngd Subsystem has been added.
0513-071 The prngd Subsystem has been added.
esmf04m-root> for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8;
do ssh esmf0${i}m "stopsrc -s prngd"; done
0513-004 The Subsystem or Group, prngd, is currently inoperative.
0513-004 The Subsystem or Group, prngd, is currently inoperative.
0513-004 The Subsystem or Group, prngd, is currently inoperative.
0513-044 The prngd Subsystem was requested to stop.
0513-004 The Subsystem or Group, prngd, is currently inoperative.
0513-004 The Subsystem or Group, prngd, is currently inoperative.
0513-004 The Subsystem or Group, prngd, is currently inoperative.
0513-004 The Subsystem or Group, prngd, is currently inoperative.
esmf04m-root> for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8; do ssh esmf0${i}m "startsrc
-s prngd"; done
0513-059 The prngd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 25880.
0513-059 The prngd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 34508.
0513-059 The prngd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 30670.
0513-029 The prngd Subsystem is already active.
Multiple instances are not supported.
0513-059 The prngd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 37450.
0513-059 The prngd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 21266.
0513-059 The prngd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 27662.
0513-059 The prngd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 42666.
esmf04m-root>

Don't forget /etc/prngd.conf

Only JFS file systems can be large-file-enabled. If you use JFS2, they
handle files greater than 2GB out of the box.

Mike Badar

Checking on whether the "Trusted Computing Base" is configured:
tcbck

please issue the following commands:

fuser -c /mnt

and check for any PID that maybe locking your CD device. If you have any,
you can kill them all bye issuing

fuser -ck /mnt

and try to eject the CDROM. If this doesn't work at all, then check for
the cdromd daemon (new feature ported for Solaris into AIX) with the
following command:

lssrc -a | grep cdrom

if cdromd is running, then you should umount the cdrom device:

cdmount
cdumount /cdrom/cdXX
cdeject

Linux, by default, requires any NFS mount to use a reserved port below 1024.
AIX, by default, uses ports above 1024. Use the following command to
restrict AIX to the reserved port range:

# /usr/sbin/nfso -o nfs_use_reserved_ports=1

Creating a subsystem:
mkssys -s smbd -p /opt/freeware/sbin/smbd -u 0 -a "-D" -d -q -S -n 15
-f 9 -G tcpip
But it's useless since smbd make fork.
Sincerely,
Lev

AIX system firmware upgrade (pSeries?) :

Sysplanar is something like motherboard in Intel domain, i.e. it is hardware.
It is possible to upgrade firmware when in maintenance mode - when there
is E1F1 on the LCD display right on the machine press key 1 (not on the
numeric keyboard) if you have ASCII terminal.
If you have graphical console press functional key 'F1'
you will be directed to standalone diagnostics menu

the firmware you can find here together with description:
http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/mdownload2/download.html

if you cannot boot and have the shell prompt you can do it according
the paragraph 'Updating with the Diagnostic Service Aid Method' - see
the description from the link mentioned above.

in the diagnostics menu you can find 'current firmware as well (there
is something like 'Display config' there')

Diagnostics can be ran against a single device while online

use the
diag -d devicename

bindprocessor -q ( will give you the number of proc. )
lscfg -v ( will give your system info. )
lsmcode -A ( will give you the proc. firmware + others )

chuser maxage=0 username

Some good stuff on OpenMP and AIX (among other things):
http://www.rz.rwth-aachen.de/ewomp03/OMPtools.html
Someone on AIX-L indicated that this was a good vmtune for a database system:
/usr/samples/kernel/vmtune -p 5 -P 20 ( to set the max perm and min
perm values)

Getting an AIX machine's serial number:

esmf04m-root> uname -m
0020D3FA4C00

LoadLeveler upgrade PMR# 70374-227 - website only showing linux downloads
of loadleveler, no AIX downloads

From a post on AIX-L:

IBM recommends the following formula to calculate the amount of paging
space you need...

For memories larger than 256 MB, the following is recommended:

total paging space = 512 MB + (memory size - 256 MB) * 1.25

For 1024MB RAM = 1600MB Paging Space

1 LP = 64 MB = add 17 LP's to = 1600MB

This is what we use while running AIX 5L.

Changing a forgotten root password on AIX:

1. Insert the product media for the same version and level as the
current installation into the appropriate drive.
2. Power on the machine.
3. When the screen of icons appears, or when you hear a double
beep, press the F1 key repeatedly until the System Management Services
menu appears.
4. Select Multiboot.
5. Select Install From.
6. Select the device that holds the product media and then select
Install.
7. Select the AIX version icon.
8. Define your current system as the system console by pressing the
F1 key and then press Enter.
9. Select the number of your preferred language and press Enter.
10. Choose Start Maintenance Mode for System Recovery by typing 3
and press Enter.
11. Select Access a Root Volume Group. A message displays explaining
that you will not be able to return to the Installation menus without
rebooting if you change the root volume group at this point.
12. Type 0 and press Enter.
13. Type the number of the appropriate volume group from the list
and press Enter.
14. Select Access this Volume Group and start a shell by typing 1
and press Enter.
15. At the # (number sign) prompt, type the passwd command at the
command line prompt to reset the root password. For example:

16. # passwd
17. Changing password for "root"
18. root's New password:
Enter the new password again:

19. To write everything from the buffer to the hard disk and reboot
the system, type the following:

sync;sync;sync;reboot

turning off diagnostic lights:

/usr/lpp/diagnostics/bin/usysfault -s normal

AIX filesystems and quotas:

http://unix.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/comp.unix.aix/2003-11/0744.html
/////
bluesky's /home is JFS, not JFS2, according to the mount command on
/home's NFS server.

I also called IBM support to verify what we've been seeing on the web.
The tech I reached indicated that:

1) JFS2 does not support quotas in AIX 5.1 or AIX 5.2
2) Many customers have been requesting quotas for JFS2
3) He has not heard of any plans to add quota support to JFS2 for AIX 5.3
4) He would not be surprised if quotas for JFS2 are added to the IBM AIX
roadmap sometime soon, given the high demand
/////
We now have reason to want to move from 5.1 to 5.3 (we want quotas on
/ptmp, and we want /ptmp to be a bit under 2 terrabytes; JFS in AIX 5.1
does quotas, but not 1T+ filesystems, and JFS 2 on AIX 5.1 does 1T+
filesystems, but not quotas; I understand that 5.3's JFS2 does large
filesystems as well as quotas).
/////
The new piece of news is, that if we were to gateway lustre to AIX over
SMB/CIFS, we -wouldn't- have to resort to "sharity", which was a product
that IBM was unlikely to be able to support. It turns out that AIX 5.2
and up, include an SMB/CIFS client. So we could upgrade to AIX 5.3 (and
we want to anyway, to get quotas in JFS2), and use IBM's implementation
of an SMB/CIFS client, with samba on esmft2.
/////
I'm shy to even try IBM's JFS, because it comes from OS/2 and not AIX.
JFS really lacked a _lot_ of traditional UNIX capabilities in its first
releases on Linux, unlike XFS.
/////
The consensus on comp.unix.aix appears to be that JFS (1) will not allow
one-large /ptmp like Charlie wants.

Recall that we recently moved /ptmp from JFS2 to JFS to get quotas.

It turns out that in AIX 5.3, JFS2 can do quotas.

2005-06-23
IBM informs me that PSSP is never going to be ported to AIX 5.3. There is
a followon product like PSSP called "CSM", and it runs on recent AIX and
Linux, but it is not going to support an SP2 switch, like the ESMF has.

Redirect console messages to a specific file of your choosing:
swcons /tmp/console.messages

Checking if an AIX machine is still marketed and/or supported by IBM:

http://www-306.ibm.com/common/ssi/OIX.wss
Like tcpdump/ethereal?

iptrace -e -i lo0 /tmp/iptrace.out, ( let it run for 5 minutes, kill it)
ipreport /tmp/iptrace.out

# lscfg -vp | grep -e "Memory DIMM" -e "Size"
Memory DIMM:
Size........................256
Memory DIMM:
Size........................256
Memory DIMM:
Size........................256
Memory DIMM:
Size........................256

Clipped from a message on AIX-L - outlines the procedure for replacing
a bad disk in a logical volume:

u must procee in tyhos order:
1- unmirror the rootvg (unmirror rootvg hdisk1)
2- extrcat hdisk1 from rootvg (reducevg rootvg hdisk1) hidsk1 should not
have any other data, if yes, move them first
3- rmdev -dl hdisk1
4- put the new pv
5- cvrmgrl
6- extendvg rootvg "the new pv"
7-mirrorvg rootvg hdsikxxx

/////
And another:

Use this redbook, page 182, section 6.5.1.

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/SG245496.html?Open
On -some- IBM (PowerPC) machines, you boot to singleuser by hitting F5
during the boot

Where to get firmware for pSeries machines:

http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/mdownload
"I believe the p in p-Series stands for Performance.
While the i in i-Series stands for Integrated."
"I believe the p in pSeries stands for Power as in the power 5 chip
architecture the hardware uses."

OK, from the (0)> prompt enter either ? or h - these subcommands list
all the available subcommands you can key into the kdb at the (0)>
prompt. Unfortunately, unless you know what you are looking for its
hard to understand the output.

The common commands to use are stat and staus - which will show the
status of the system and dump, vmlog and vmstat will show any memory
errors that may have caused the dump.

You really need an indepth knowledge of how the system works to
decipher most of the output and Im afraid theres no easy way to do it.

This link has a list of all the kdb subcommands

http://www16.boulder.ibm.com/pseries/en_US/aixprggd/kdb/kdb_cmd.htm#kdb_cmd

Regards,

Paul (on AIX-L)

bindprocessor is for binding a process to a specific CPU

esmf04m-root> sysdumpdev -l
primary /dev/lv00
secondary /dev/sysdumpnull
copy directory /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag TRUE
always allow dump TRUE
dump compression OFF
Wed Oct 26 13:43:31

From a IBM AIX partner:

GIL is a kernel process, which does TCP/IP timing. It handles
transmission errors, ACKs, etc. Normally it shouldn't consume too much
CPU, but it can take quite a lot of CPU when the system is using the
network a lot (like with NFS filesystems which are heavily used).
.
The kproc gil runs the TCP/IP timer driven operations. Every 200ms, and
every 500ms the GIL thread is kicked to go run protocol timers. With TCP
up (which is ALWAYS the case), TCP timers are called which end up
looking at every connection on the system (to do retransmission, delayed
acks,etc). In version 4 this work is all done on a multi-threaded kproc
to promote concurrency and SMP scalability.gil.

GIL is one of the kprocs (kernel processes) in AIX 4.3.3, 5.1 and 5.2.
Since the advent of topas in AIX 4.3.3 and changes made to the ps
command in AIX 5.1, system administrators have become aware of this
class of processes, which are not new to AIX. These kprocs have no
user interfaces and have been largely undocumented in base
documentation. Once a kproc is started, typically it stays in the
process table until the next reboot. The system resources used by any
one kproc are accounted as kernel resources, so no separate account is
kept of resources used by an individual kproc.
.
Most of these kprocs are NOT described in base AIX documentation and
the descriptions below may be the most complete that can be found.
.
GIL term is an acronym for "Generalized Interrupt Level" and was
created by the Open Software Foundation (OSF), This is the networking
daemon responsible for processing all the network interrupts, including
incoming packets, tcp timers, etc.
.
Exactly how these kprocs function and much of their expected behavior
is considered IBM proprietary information.

In the event of a power failure, from "jessie" on the AIX-L mailing list:

check you error report for an entry that states
EPOW_SUS_CHRP
if there is an entry post it in detail to have a look at the Power status
registers, and the sense data.

If it is not a true failure such as a fan, or power supply then you would
notice in the logs that the problem started after a shutdown, or power
failure...

"pstat -S will associate processor to process but not
process to processor. It is a matter of opinion if
this is what you want. "

Superb page on AIX:

http://www.douzhe.com/docs/jh/9/97757.html

...but I think there may be a bit of a mistake on how to do backups to
a remote tape drive... dd -should- work for that, but IME, it doesn't.

AIX supports large pages with 32-bit and 64-bit kernels. Applications,
either 32-bit or 64-bit,
can take advantage of large pages. The extended common object file format
(XCOFF or
XCOFF64), the object file format for AIX, provides a flag to identify
binaries if they are set (or
cleared) to use large pages (or turn the large pages flag) through ldedit10.
The flag can also
be turned on at load time (ld)10 with the following commands:
ld command: ld -blpdata -o a.out
ldedit command: ldedit -blpdata a.out (or -bnolpdata a.out)

An AIX upgrade procedure:

I just went through this with my company, and wrote some directions as
to what we should do; I will share this document with you.
******NOTE******
Some of this is specific to my company, but you may find it useful
anyhow
****************

You should do a complete configuration management scheme/snapshot of
your system:
1) execute df -Ik
2) execute lsvg, lsvg -p for each vg, and lsvg -l for each vg
3) execute lspv
4) execute bootlist -m normal -o and bootlist -m service -o
5) execute bootinfo -y and bootinfo -k
6) execute lspv -a
7) execute lsvg -M rootvg
8) execute lsconf

You want to document everything from above so that you can have this to
re-create your system should there be any mistakes or unfortunate
events.

This just helps you to know exactly what your system looks like, before
you make any changes.

Go to this site and you will get exactly what you need:
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/support/unixservers/aixfixes.html

Choose the -> AIX 5.3 link and choose follow the prompts to get you the
correct maintenance level(s).

Please let me know if this is of any help.

Thanks.

LeRoy S. Phillips 'Phil'
UNIX System Administrator (AIX/SAP)

From a message on IBM-AIX-L:

I get these stupid messages all the time and I just filter them and send
them to junk.
I've tried making the sysdumpdev bigger, but it comes back and wants it
to be just a little bigger than I made it.
IBM does recommend that you use a second sysdumpdev.

////////////////////////////////////
SYSTEM DUMP
////////////////////////////////////
IBM recommends:
Don't mirror the system dump device
Don't use compression on the dump device
Don't use a secondary dump device unless it is on a separate device,
separate cable and separate i/o card.


sysdumpdev -l Lists current dump destination.
sysdumpdev -e Estimates dumpsize of the current system in bytes.
sysdumpdev -L Displays information about the previous dump.
sysdumpdev -c <-- the system dump device will not be compressed
when the next dump is taken
sysdumpdev -p (dump device) -P Sets the default dump device, permanently
sysdumpdev -P -s /dev/sysdumpnull <-- makes the secondary
dump device a bit bucket (recommended)

sysdumpstart -p Starts a dump and writes to the primary dump device.
sysdumpstart -s Starts a dump and writes to the secondary dump device.

(MCA machine can also dump if key is in service position and the reset
button is pressed)

Analyze dump file :-
echo "stat status t -m" | crash /var/adm/ras/vmcore.0

$ errpt
IDENTIFIER TIMESTAMP T C RESOURCE_NAME DESCRIPTION
F89FB899 0822150005 P O dumpcheck The copy directory is too small

This message is the result of a dump device check. You can fix this by
increasing the size of your dump device. If you are using the default
dump device (/dev/hd6) then increase your paging size or go to smit dump
and "select System Dump Compression". Myself, I don't like to use the
default dump device so I create a sysdumplv and make sure I have enough
space. To check space needed go to smit dump and select "Show Estimated
Dump Size" this will give you an idea about the size needed.

The copy directory is whatever sysdumpdev says it is.
Run sysdumpdev and you will get something like
#sysdumpdev
primary /dev/hd6
secondary /dev/sysdumpnull
copy directory /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag TRUE
always allow dump FALSE
dump compression ON
# sysdumpdev -e
0453-041 Estimated dump size in bytes: 57881395
Divide this number by 1024. This is the free space that is needed in
your copy directory. Compare it to a df -k or divide this number by
512. This is the free space that is needed in your copy directory.
Compare it to a df

How to create LPAR on a P570?

http://unixarticles.com/content/2/158/en/how-to-create-lpar-on-ibm-pseries-servers.html

Any pSeries server or p5 server which supports LPAR requires a Hardware Management Console. The HMC is a separate PC running some code which enables configuration and management of LPARs. Thus, the "high level" answer to you question is as follows:

1) Access the relevant HMC
2) Create a LPAR definition
3) Allocate resources to the LPAR definition
4) Start the LPAR
5) Install AIX (if not already on disks attached to LPAR via adapters you selected in (3).

For detailed descriptions, start here:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/eserver/v1r2s/en_US/index.htm

How to recall previous commands in Unix

To determine which shell is in use, issue the AIX echo command: echo $SHELL

while in kornshell vi mode (set -o vi) all entered commands are saved the the $HOME/.sh_history file. It's read from the bottom up. Hit esc to enter vi mode on the command line and press k for the previous entered command or go up one line in the .sh_history file if you will. Press j to scroll down the .sh_history file for the next entered command.

Press i to go back to input mode again.