AIX System Administration Part 1 — A 5-Day Course

 Open Public Course Closed In-House Course

Synposis

This course is designed to give delegates practical experience in the administration of an AIX System. Reference will be made to the AIX commands required to administer the system, although practical work will concentrate on using the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) to achieve the course objectives.

Although the course is based on AIX Version 6.1 it is also appropriate for prior releases of AIX.

The delegates will have knowledge and practise in:-

• The Role of the System Administrator
• System Startup and Shutdown Procedures
• AIX Installation
• Using the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT)
• The Visual System Management Tools
• Using Web Based Information Browser
• AIX Filesystems and Storage
• Looking after Filesystems
• Configuring Filesystems
• Logical Volume Manager (LVM)
• Journaled Filesystems
• Paging Space
• Adding and Removing Users
• Managing Groups
• Printer and Terminal Configuration
• Backup and Restore Commands
• Background Jobs and Scheduling
• Basic Network Configuration
• Software Installation and Maintenance

Course Objectives

On completion of the course the delegate will have practical experience of the Systems Management Interface Tool (SMIT), allowing them to administer an AIX System.

Suitable for

• The course is designed for System Administrators and Programmers and other Technical IT staff who require a full working knowledge of how to administer an AIX system.

Prerequisites

• Completion of the AIX Basics and AIX Shell Programming courses, or equivalent knowledge

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

Courses Contents:

The System Administrator's Role

• Role of a Systems Administrator
• The root login and the su command

Introduction to the P-SERIES

• The P-SERIES Product Line
• RISC Technology
• MCA and PCI Bus Systems
• P-SERIES Configurations and Model Types
• The AIX Operating System

AIX Installation

• Installation for Classical and PCI Models
• Console and Language Definitions
• Other Installation Settings
• Configuration Assistant Menu

Startup and Shutdown

• RS/6000 Key Positions
• The Boot Sequence
• Standalone mode for PCI Systems
• Booting from Hard Disk for Maintenance
• Booting from Removable Media
• The /etc/init Procedure
• Startup Modes
• The /etc/inittab file and the rc startup scripts
• Inittab Commands
• Using the alog Program
• System Resource Controller Commands
• The /etc/shutdown Script

System Management Tools

• System Management Commands
• Using SMIT
• SMIT Special Characters and Keys
• Smit.log and smit.script files
• The smit Command
• Distributed System Management
• Visual System Management
• Web Based System Manager

AIX On-Line Documentation

• The man Command
• InfoExplorer
• Web Based Documentation Browser
• Setting up the Web Based Browser

Software Installation and Maintenance

• Units of Installation
• Filesets, Packages and Licensed Program Products
• Bundles
• Update and Maintenance Bundles
• Software States
• Installing Patches and Fixes

Device Configuration

• Introduction to the Object Data Manager
• Listing Devices
• Interpreting Location Codes
• Self-configuring Devices
• Adding, Changing and Removing Devices

Serial Devices

• Terminal Attributes
• Terminal Configuration
• The stty Command
• The terminfo Database
• Adding Printers
• Exercise: Setting up a Terminal
• Exercise: Removing and Reconfiguring a Device

Printer Configuration

• Printers and Queues
• Queuing concepts in AIX
• Spooling Control Directories
• The QCONFIG File
• Managing Print Queues
• Queue Status Commands
• Exercise: Adding a Printer and Print Queue
• Exercise: Requesting and Cancelling Prints
• Exercise: Removing a Print Queue

Users and Groups

• Users and Groups in AIX
• Administrator Commands
• Structure of the /etc/passwd File
• Adding a New User
• Changing User Characteristics
• The Configuration Files
• Passwd and pwdadm Commands
• Removing a User
• Adding, Changing and Removing a Group
• Account Validation
• Exercise: Adding Users and Groups with Defined Attributes

AIX Security Features

• The SECURITY Directory
• The /etc/security/passwd File
• The /etc/security/user File
• The /etc/security/login.cfg File
• The /etc/security/group File
• Auditing Files
• Losing Root User Password
• Exercise: Implement AIX Security Features

The Logical Volume Manager

• The AIX approach to Disk Storage
• Volume Groups, Physical Volumes and Logical Volumes
• Volume Group Descriptor Areas
• Mirroring
• Striping
• Disk Placement Policies
• Migrating Physical Volume data
• Useful Commands
• Exercise: Creating, Extending and Mirroring a Logical Volume

The Journaled Filesystem

• The AIX Native File System
• Superblocks and I-nodes
• Journaling of File System Data
• Creating a File System
• Mounting of FileSystems
• Managing Filesystems
• The /etc/filesystems File
• Removing of FileSystems
• Using the fsck Command
• Exercise: Creating, Extending and Removing a Filesystem

Paging Space

• Define Paging Space
• Paging Space Location
• List System memory
• List Paging Space
• Monitor Paging Space Usage
• Calculate Paging Space Requirements
• Add/Remove Paging Space
• Exercise: Monitor, Add and Remove Paging Space

Backup and Restore

• Backup Devices
• mksysb and savevg Commands
• The backup Command
• The restore Command
• Using the cpio Command
• Using the cpio -o Command
• Using the find Command with cpio
• Using the ls command with cpio
• Using the cat Command with cpio
• Using the cpio -I Command
• Using the cpio -p Command
• Creating a tar Archive
• Reading/Verifying a tar Archive
• Restoring from a tar Archive
• Tape Control Commands
• Exercise: Use of cpio, tar and backup

Scheduling Jobs

• 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
• Exercise: Creating a crontab Entry
• Exercise: Using the at Command

TCP/IP Configuration

• Define TCP/IP Terminology
• Define Routing (Static and Dynamic)
• TCP/IP Commands and Utilities
• Configure TCP/IP for a Network Interface
• Configure a Static Route
• Test Network Connectivity
• Test Route Connectivity
• Basic TCP/IP Applications
• Exercise: Configure TCP/IP
• Exercise: Use TCP/IP Commands to:
  • Login to a Remote System
  • Transfer Files To/From a Remote System

NFS

• Define NFS Terminology
• Client Side NFS
• Server Side NFS
• The /etc/exports file
• The /etc/filesystems file
• Exercise: Export a Resourse
• Exercise: Use a Remote Filesystem