IBM AIX Enhancements and Modernization

IBM AIX Enhancements and Modernization

by Scott Vetter, Navdeep Dhaliwal, Ahmed Mashhour, Armin Röll, Liviu Rosca
Released May 2020
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738458281

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Book description

This IBM® Redbooks publication is a comprehensive guide that covers the IBM AIX® operating system (OS) layout capabilities, distinct features, system installation, and maintenance, which includes AIX security, trusted environment, and compliance integration, with the benefits of IBM Power Virtualization Management (PowerVM®) and IBM Power Virtualization Center (IBM PowerVC), which includes cloud capabilities and automation types. The objective of this book is to introduce IBM AIX modernization features and integration with different environments:


  • General AIX enhancements
  • AIX Live Kernel Update individually or using Network Installation Manager (NIM)
  • AIX security features and integration
  • AIX networking enhancements
  • PowerVC integration and features for cloud environments
  • AIX deployment using IBM Terraform and IBM Cloud Automation Manager
  • AIX automation that uses configuration management tools
  • PowerVM enhancements and features
  • Latest disaster recovery (DR) solutions
  • AIX Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and Enhanced Journaled File System (JFS2)
  • AIX installation and maintenance techniques

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Figures
  3. Tables
  4. Examples
  5. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  6. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  7. Chapter 1. General enhancements
    1. 1.1 Live Update function
      1. 1.1.1 Live Update concepts and procedure
      2. 1.1.2 Live Update modes
      3. 1.1.3 Live Update management types
      4. 1.1.4 Live Update methods
      5. 1.1.5 AIX Live Update integration with Power Enterprise Pools
      6. 1.1.6 Live Update CPU resource reduction
      7. 1.1.7 Live Update across frames
      8. 1.1.8 Automount File System support with Live Update
      9. 1.1.9 Kerberos authentication support in Live Update
    2. 1.2 Server Flash Caching
      1. 1.2.1 Flash caching concepts
      2. 1.2.2 Implementation modes
    3. 1.3 Multipath I/O
      1. 1.3.1 AIX Path Control Module
      2. 1.3.2 Subsystem Device Path Control Module
    4. 1.4 iSCSI software initiator
      1. 1.4.1 iSCSI overview
      2. 1.4.2 Configuring the initiator
    5. 1.5 Network Installation Manager
      1. 1.5.1 Object classes
      2. 1.5.2 HTTP service
      3. 1.5.3 Live Update
      4. 1.5.4 The nimadm support for MultiBOS environments
    6. 1.6 Logical Volume Manager
      1. 1.6.1 LVM mirroring to IBM FlashSystem for enhanced performance
      2. 1.6.2 LVM reclamation support
    7. 1.7 JFS2
      1. 1.7.1 JFS2 defragger
      2. 1.7.2 Reclaiming JFS2 space
    8. 1.8 Multiple alternative disk clones
      1. 1.8.1 Cloning concepts
    9. 1.9 Active Memory Expansion
    10. 1.10 The nmon tool and current processor frequency reporting
    11. 1.11 Globalization
      1. 1.11.1 Unicode support
      2. 1.11.2 Common Locale Data Repository updates
      3. 1.11.3 International Components for Unicode for C
    12. 1.12 AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications
  8. Chapter 2. Security enhancements
    1. 2.1 AIX Trusted Execution
    2. 2.2 AIX Secure boot
      1. 2.2.1 PowerVM Secure Boot
      2. 2.2.2 AIX Secure boot implementation
      3. 2.2.3 AIX Secure boot policies and controls
    3. 2.3 AIX trusted installation and update
      1. 2.3.1 Digital signature and package signing
      2. 2.3.2 AIX package signing and digital signature catalog definition
      3. 2.3.3 AIX digital signature catalog signing process
      4. 2.3.4 Signature validation during AIX installation and update process
      5. 2.3.5 AIX trusted installation and update controls
    4. 2.4 Multifactor authentication
      1. 2.4.1 Authentication factors
      2. 2.4.2 Authentication methods
      3. 2.4.3 In-band MFA
      4. 2.4.4 Out-of-band MFA
      5. 2.4.5 Authentication on AIX systems by using RSA SecureID
    5. 2.5 Cryptographic libraries
      1. 2.5.1 OpenSSL
      2. 2.5.2 CryptoLite for C library
    6. 2.6 Address space layout randomization
      1. 2.6.1 Process address space randomized entities in AIX
      2. 2.6.2 ASLR tuning and control
    7. 2.7 Trusted shared library area support
  9. Chapter 3. Networking enhancements
    1. 3.1 Redundant link aggregation network interface backup
    2. 3.2 Shared memory communication over Remote Direct Memory Access
  10. Chapter 4. Virtualization and cloud capabilities
    1. 4.1 AIX on public cloud
    2. 4.2 IBM Power Virtualization Center
      1. 4.2.1 Introduction
      2. 4.2.2 IBM PowerVC in the virtualization and cloud software stack
      3. 4.2.3 IBM PowerVC features
    3. 4.3 IBM Cloud Automation Manager
      1. 4.3.1 Terraform
      2. 4.3.2 Configuring a cloud connection
      3. 4.3.3 Creating a template for AIX deployment
      4. 4.3.4 Deploying an AIX partition by using a template
    4. 4.4 Ansible automation and AIX
      1. 4.4.1 Installing Ansible on an AIX control node
      2. 4.4.2 AIX specific Ansible modules
    5. 4.5 Chef Infra client on AIX
    6. 4.6 Puppet Enterprise on AIX
  11. Chapter 5. IBM AIX and IBM PowerVM features
    1. 5.1 Storage access
    2. 5.2 Network access
      1. 5.2.1 Dedicated adapters
      2. 5.2.2 Virtual Ethernet adapters
      3. 5.2.3 VIOS Shared Ethernet Adapter
      4. 5.2.4 Virtual Network Interface Cards
    3. 5.3 Dynamic LPAR support
    4. 5.4 Virtual processors
    5. 5.5 Simultaneous multi-threading and logical processors
    6. 5.6 Active System Optimizer and Dynamic System Optimizer
    7. 5.7 Shared storage pools
      1. 5.7.1 SSP consideration and procedures
      2. 5.7.2 SSP setup procedure
    8. 5.8 PowerVM NovaLink
      1. 5.8.1 Components of PowerVM NovaLink
      2. 5.8.2 Software-defined infrastructure capabilities
      3. 5.8.3 Resource Monitoring Control communication
      4. 5.8.4 PowerVM NovaLink and Hardware Management Consoles
    9. 5.9 Power Enterprise Pools
      1. 5.9.1 Power Enterprise Pools first edition
      2. 5.9.2 Power Enterprise Pools second edition
      3. 5.9.3 Comparison between PEP first and second edition
    10. 5.10 Linux on Power
    11. 5.11 Virtual I/O Server enhancements
      1. 5.11.1 Key features
      2. 5.11.2 N_Port ID Virtualization
      3. 5.11.3 iSCSI support
      4. 5.11.4 Upgrading Virtual I/O Server to Version 3.1
  12. Chapter 6. Disaster recovery and high availability
    1. 6.1 IBM VM Recovery Manager for Power Systems
      1. 6.1.1 IBM VM Recovery Manager versions and lifecycle
      2. 6.1.2 IBM VM Recovery Manager HA components
      3. 6.1.3 IBM VM Recovery Manager DR components
    2. 6.2 PowerHA
      1. 6.2.1 PowerHA editions
      2. 6.2.2 PowerHA versions and lifecycle
      3. 6.2.3 AIX requirements for various PowerHA levels
      4. 6.2.4 PowerHA licensing
  13. Chapter 7. IBM AIX fundamentals
    1. 7.1 Logical Volume Manager
      1. 7.1.1 Introduction to the LVM
      2. 7.1.2 LVM components
      3. 7.1.3 Principles to optimize LVM disks
      4. 7.1.4 LVM strategies of various storage types
      5. 7.1.5 LVM configuration
    2. 7.2 AIX Enhanced Journaled File System
      1. 7.2.1 Enhanced Journaled File System functions
      2. 7.2.2 JFS2 features
    3. 7.3 Role-based access control
      1. 7.3.1 RBAC elements
      2. 7.3.2 RBAC Kernel Security Table and exact files
      3. 7.3.3 Customizing an RBAC role for certain tasks
      4. 7.3.4 Domain RBAC
      5. 7.3.5 Domain RBAC implementation scenario
    4. 7.4 Encrypted File System
      1. 7.4.1 EFS commands
      2. 7.4.2 Sample scenario of EFS
      3. 7.4.3 Integrating an EFS keystore with OpenSSH key authentication
    5. 7.5 AIX Security Expert and IBM PowerSC integration
      1. 7.5.1 Using AIXpert
      2. 7.5.2 Using AIXpert to generate a compliance report by running the IBM PowerSC pscxpert command
    6. 7.6 The AIX Auditing subsystem and Autonomic Health Advisor File System
      1. 7.6.1 The AIX Auditing subsystem
      2. 7.6.2 Implementing the AIX Auditing subsystem for exact events
      3. 7.6.3 Autonomic Health Advisor File System
    7. 7.7 MultiBOS
      1. 7.7.1 Standby BOS setup
  14. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. Help from IBM
  15. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IBM AIX Enhancements and Modernization
  • Author(s): Scott Vetter, Navdeep Dhaliwal, Ahmed Mashhour, Armin Röll, Liviu Rosca
  • Release date: May 2020
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738458281