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How to Install AIX OS on IBM Power System

/ 4 min read

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Table of Contents

Intro

AIX is a Unix operating system developed by IBM for its Power Systems hardware. It is a proprietary operating system that is used in enterprise environments for high-availability and mission-critical applications.

In my company, we use AIX OS as the base operating system for our production servers running IBM Db2. Database workloads are separated from application and hypervisor layers, which improves both security and performance.

The latest hardware we use is IBM Power S924 a.k.a Power9 server.

It is a very stable operating system and we have never had any issues with it.

Steps

  1. Insert AIX CD/DVD

  2. Press 1 to select the next step to “SMS Menu”

  3. Press 3 to select the next step to “Continue to Password Entry”

  4. Type the default password “admin”

  5. Press 5 to continue to “Select Boot Options”

  6. Press 1 to continue to “Select Install/Boot Device”

  7. Since this guide uses a CD/DVD device, press 2 to select “CD/DVD”

  8. Press 6 to select “List All Device”

  9. Select “SATA” because the device used is CD/DVD

  10. Select “Normal Boot” and wait for the reboot process to complete

  11. Press 1 and press Enter

  12. Press 2 to continue to “Change/Show Installation Settings and Install”, and press Enter

  13. Change “Select Edition” to “Enterprise”

    Press 5 then press Enter until it changes to “Enterprise” If RAID, press 1 to set the use of hard disk for OS and installation type If not RAID, press 0 to install

    And make sure to press 4 to ensure the FTP/IP installation is “yes”

  14. Press 1 to continue to “Continue with Installed”

  15. After the installation is complete, it will enter the AIX OS. Next, enter the initial server setting process

  16. Click “Accept” on the following screen

  17. Click “Next” on the following screen

  18. Click “Next” on the following screen

  19. Set the date, time, and time zone to +7 (THAIST). Then click “Next”

  20. Set the desired password, and click “Next”

  21. Select “Manually configure TCP/IP”, and click “Next”

  22. Fill in the “Host name” and “IP Address ”, and click “Next”

  23. Select “Network Interface (en0 01-00 Standart Ethernet Network Interface)”, and click “Next”

  24. Skip the following section, and click “Next”

  25. Click “Next” on the following screen

  26. Select “Finish now, and do not start Configuration Assistant when restarting the operating system”, and click “Finish”

  27. After the process is complete, remove the AIX CD/DVD and turn off the server first

  28. Turn on the server again, open the terminal again

    Or it can also be done remotely using the server’s IP Address via the xmanager application on a laptop/PC. To perform disk settings, open putty on a laptop/PC using the server’s IP Address and user root

  29. Run the topas command
    Check the default size of paging space 512 M, change the Number of Additional logical partitions to 100 using the smitty chps command

  30. First check the existing disks using the df -g command

  31. Change the GB blocks of mounted /, /usr, /var and /tmp to 5, /home to 100 and /opt to 20, using the chfs -a size=+(value to add)G (mounted name) command

    Example :
    chfs -a size=+25G /data
    chfs -a size=-25G /logpath

    Or

    chfs -a size=+4G /var

    GB Blocks of /var is 1.00, to make it 5.00 requires an additional 4.00 GB

  32. Perform Security Limits Settings, using the vi /etc/security/limits command

  33. Update the default value of limits to the following value:

  34. To delete, press esc then press x
    To type, press esc then press i
    To delete a line, press esc then press dd
    To save, press esc then press :wq !
    To exit without saving, press esc then press :q !

  35. Use the smitty command, then select “System Environment” and press Enter

  36. Select “Change / Show Characteristics of Operating System” and press Enter

  37. Change “Maximum number of PROCESSES allowed per user” to “4096” and press Enter

  38. Select “Change / Show Date and Time” and press Enter

  39. Select “Change Time Zone Using User Inputted Values” and press Enter

  40. Leave the “Day Light Saving Time ID” field empty and press Enter

  41. Use the smitty device command, then select “I/O Completion Ports” and press Enter

  42. Select “Change / Show Characteristics of I/O Completion Ports” Change “STATE to be configured at system restart” to “Available” and press Enter

    Ensure that “Configure Defined I/O Completion Ports” is also set to “Available”

  43. Restart server using the shutdown -Fr now command

  44. Congratulations! The AIX OS installation process is complete.

References