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AIX 7.1 Installation Tips

June 17, 2016

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This document contains the latest tips for successful installation of AIX 7.1, and will be updated as new tips become available.

Technology Levels, Service Packs, APARs and PTFs mentioned in this document, when available, can be obtained from the following web site.

https://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

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The AIX installation CD-ROMs and the level of AIX pre-installed on new systems may not contain the latest fixes available at the time you install the system, and may contain errors. Some of these fixes may be critical to the proper operation of your system. We recommend that you update to the latest service pack level, which can be obtained from https://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/.

When updating to a new Technology Level, it is a good practice to first update the bos.rte.install update in a separate installation session.

With certain combinations of updates, the update process may have to be run a second time in order to apply all updates in a package. Checking the output of the 'oslevel -r' and 'oslevel -s' commands for the expected values after an update is recommended. Until the update is run a second time, the output of the oslevel command may not indicate that the package is fully installed.

The compare_report command, which is documented in the AIX Commands Reference, can be used to determine which available updates are newer than those installed on your system.

Any library or executable that is updated by an interim fix (emgr) or service update, which is in use by an active process, will not be reflected in that process until it is restarted. In addition, any process that is using a library and does a dlopen() of the same library after the library has been updated, could experience inconsistencies.

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• 7100-04 Installation

• 7100-04 Service Pack 1

• 7100-03 Service Pack 1

• alt_root_vg fails with bosboot usage

• 7100-03 Service Pack 4 may crash with Modern Cryptographic Library

• 7100-03 Service Pack 5 may fill /var with RSCT logs (IV73126)

• 7100-03 Service Pack 5 Installation

• 7100-02 Installation

• 7100-02 Service Pack 1

• Build date failure updating from 7100-01-07 to 7100-02-02

• 7100-02 Service Pack 6 may crash with Modern Cryptographic Library

• 7100-01 Installation

• 7100-01 Service Pack 1

• Free Space Requirements for devices.common.IBM.sni

• 7100-01 Update When Using Cluster Aware AIX

• 7100-00 Service Pack 1

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7100-04 Installation

When applying or migrating to the 7100-04 Technology Level, the fileset rsct.core.utils 3.2.1.0 will be applied to the system. This level of RSCT is incompatible with rsct.vsd and rsct.lapi.rte filesets that may already be installed. rsct.vsd and rsct.lapi.rte should be deinstalled prior to applying updates or migrating to 7100-04. In addition, after the filesets are removed, the /opt/rsct directory needs to be renamed, using a command like:

mv /opt/rsct /opt/rsct.old

Failure to remove the filesets or to rename the directory will result in an error during the installation of the rsct.core.utils 3.2.1.0 fileset:

rmdir(/opt/rsct): Do not specify an existing file.
sysck: 3001-017 Errors were detected validating the files
for package rsct.core.utils.

0503-464 installp: The installation has FAILED for the "usr" part


In addition to preventing rsct.core.utils from moving to the proper level, many requisite rsct filesets will not be updated/migrated.

To recover a failed update operation, first ensure that rsct.lapi.rte and rsct.vsd are removed from the system. Then, rename /opt/rsct to /opt/rsct.old, as above. Finally, retry the update.

To recover a failed migration operation, first ensure that rsct.lapi.rte and rsct.vsd are removed from the system. Then, rename /opt/rsct to /opt/rsct.old, as above. Finally, do a smitty update_all from the migration medium to get the missing filesets installed.

7100-04 Service Pack 1

The 7100-04-01 Service Pack is considered highly recommended. 7100-04-01 is included in the 7100-04 Technology Level available on Fix Central, but systems installed prior to the availability of Service Pack 1 should install 7100-04-01. To determine if the 7100-04-01 Service Pack is installed, run the command:

oslevel -s

The output should indicate "7100-04-01-1543 ".

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7100-03 Service Pack 1

The 7100-03-01 Service Pack is considered highly recommended. 7100-03-01 is included in the 7100-03 Technology Level available on Fix Central, but systems installed prior to the availability of Service Pack 1 should install 7100-03-01. To determine if the 7100-03-01 Service Pack is installed, run the command:

oslevel -s

The output should indicate "7100-03-01-1341 ".

alt_root_vg fails with bosboot usage

If using alt_disk_copy to upgrade a system, and the current level of the rootvg is prior to 6100-08 SP2 or 7100-02 SP2, then please install the bos.alt_disk_install.rte fileset at the level you will be doing the upgrade to, on the original rootvg, prior to the alt_disk_copy operation. Failure to do so will result in errors creating the boot image in the alternate rootvg.

7100-03 Service Pack 4 may crash with Modern Cryptographic Library

The Modern Cryptographic Library is updated from version 6.1.0.2 to 6.1.0.3 on the AIX 7.1 Expansion Pack as of November 2014. The updates include the following modcrypt filesets:

• modcrypt.base.lib
• modcrypt.base.includes

The new modcrypt filesets are required if the ACF and PKCS11 device driver version 7.1.3.30 (security.acf fileset) is installed and you are using a Network File System (NFS) with Kerberos 5 authentication. If your system does not meet these requirements, it will crash when the NFS gssd daemon starts.

7100-03 Service Pack 5 may fill /var with RSCT logs (IV73126)

At rsct.core.utils 3.2.0.6, modifications were introduced to trace file formats to allow trace spooling to be implemented without subsystems having to be restarted. However, the old trace files are not being removed after the new files are created, so extra unnecessary space in /var is being taken up.

The exact increase will depend on which Resource Managers are active at the time.

For a standard AIX installation with no clustering product in use, the increase should be between 25 and 35 MB.

If Cluster-Aware AIX is activated (either PowerHA v7 or VIOS Shared Storage Pool), the increase should be between 50 and 60 MB.

If Tivoli System Automation for Multi-Platform (SAMP) is configured, the increase should be between 60 and 70 MB.

Workaround:

Customers who have little spare room in /var should increase the filesystem space, if only temporarily, before upgrading to the new code.

Whether increasing /var or not, customers who wish to remove the unnecessary files may do so once the new tracing pages are in place.

Under /var/ct, run "find . -name trace* "

For any trace files in the same directory which have a form of both "filename" and "filename.x.sp", the name without the .sp ending can be deleted. For example, if in one directory you find "trace ", "trace.1.sp ", and "trace.2.sp ", you can delete "trace ". If there is no equivalent ".x.sp" copy of a file, do not delete it.

7100-03 Service Pack 5 Installation

When applying the 7100-03 Technology Level with Service Pack 5 or later, you may have to run 'smitty update_all' a second time to update adde.v2.common and/or adde.v2.ethernet. Until this is done, the 'oslevel -s' command may not indicate the correct level.

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7100-02 Installation

When applying the 7100-02 Technology Level with Service Pack 1 included, you may have to run 'smitty update_all' a second time to update bos.aso and mcr.rte. Until this is done, the 'oslevel -s' command may not indicate the correct level.

7100-02 Service Pack 1

The 7100-02-01 Service Pack is considered highly recommended. 7100-02-01 is included in the 7100-02 Technology Level available on Fix Central, but systems installed prior to the availability of Service Pack 1 should install 7100-02-01. To determine if the 7100-02-01 Service Pack is installed, run the command:

oslevel -s

The output should indicate "7100-02-01-1245 ".

Build date failure updating from 7100-01-07 to 7100-02-02

Attempting to update from 7100-01-07 to 7100-02-02 results in build date errors for the following filesets.

• devices.pciex.df1060e214103704.rte
• devices.pciex.df1060e214103704.diag
• devices.pciex.df1060e214103a04.rte
• devices.pciex.df1060e214103a04.diag

To resolve this issue, download the fix for APAR IV43009, and include the images into the same directory as the 7100-02-02 Service Pack prior to updating.

This issue only occurs when updating from the 7100-01-07 Service Pack.

7100-02 Service Pack 6 may crash with Modern Cryptographic Library

The Modern Cryptographic Library is updated from version 6.1.0.2 to 6.1.0.3 on the AIX 7.1 Expansion Pack as of November 2014. The updates include the following modcrypt filesets:

• modcrypt.base.lib
• modcrypt.base.includes

The new modcrypt filesets are required if the ACF and PKCS11 device driver version 7.1.2.18 (security.acf fileset) is installed and you are using a Network File System (NFS) with Kerberos 5 authentication. If your system does not meet these requirements, it will crash when the NFS gssd daemon starts.

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7100-01 Installation

When applying the 7100-01 Technology Level with Service Pack 1 included, you will have to run 'smitty update_all' a second time to update bos.aso and mcr.rte. Until this is done, the 'oslevel' command will not indicate the correct level.

7100-01 Service Pack 1

The 7100-01-01 Service Pack is considered highly recommended. 7100-01-01 is included in the 7100-01 Technology Level available on Fix Central, but systems installed prior to the availability of Service Pack 1 should install 7100-01-01. To determine if the 7100-01-01 Service Pack is installed, run the command:

oslevel -s

The output should indicate "7100-01-01-1141 ".

Free Space Requirements for devices.common.IBM.sni

The devices.common.IBM.sni product requires that 256MB of available, free partitions in the rootvg volume group. If this space has not been previously allocated for the sni product, a test will be performed at installation time to make sure that this space is available, and if it is not, the installation will fail. If installation is successful, a test will be performed when the lpar is restarted after installation to determine if the sni hardware is available, and if it is, a 256MB logical volume will be allocated as /var/adm/sni.

7100-01 Update When Using Cluster Aware AIX

Due to enhancements in Cluster Aware AIX (CAA) in the 6100-07 and 7100-01 Technology Levels, CAA must be stopped prior to the update. Attempting to update to 6100-07 or 7100-01 with an active cluster will fail. Note that PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1 exploits CAA. This procedure must be used when performing one of the following with a CAA cluster deployed.

• Updating from AIX 6.1 6100-06 to 6100-07
• Updating from AIX 7.1 7100-00 to 7100-01
• Migrating from AIX 6.1 6100-06 to AIX 7.1 7100-01

Update Procedure for PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1

1. Backup the cluster configuration using the PowerHA SystemMirror snapshot facility.
2. Stop the PowerHA Cluster Services through SMIT. Stop cluster services on all nodes in the cluster.
3. Remove the CAA cluster using the command 'rmcluster -n ClusterName ' .
4. Update the AIX Technology Level and reboot the cluster nodes.
5. Verify and Synchronize the CAA cluster configuration from PowerHA SystemMirror.
6. Restart the PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1 Cluster.

Update Procedure for Cluster Aware AIX

1. Save the CAA cluster configuration.
2. Remove the CAA cluster using the command 'rmcluster -n ClusterName ' .
3. Update the AIX Technology Level and reboot the cluster nodes.
4. Redeploy the CAA cluster using the mkcluster command.

Refer to the AIX_TL_update_information_for_PowerHA_7.1.pdf document at the following location for additional information.

ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/aix/efixes/iv08163/

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7100-00 Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 is considered a highly recommended update for customers installing AIX 7.1. To determine if you already have Service Pack 1 installed, use the command:

oslevel -s

The output should include "7100-00-01". Service Pack 1 can be obtained from the Fix Central web site.

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Doc number: 4796

Published date: 20160617