AIX 5.3 Installation Tips
This document contains the latest tips for successful installation of AIX 5.3, and will be updated as new tips become available.
APARs and PTFs mentioned in this document, when available, can be obtained from the following web site.
http://www.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/fixcentral/main/pseries/aix
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 these fixes may be critical to the proper operation of your system. We recommend that you update to the latest service level, which can be obtained from http://www.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/fixcentral/main/pseries/aix.
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.
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.
* Incorrect Build Date in 5300-11-02 oslevel Output
* Firmware Update Required for 7043-150 and 7046-B50
* Port 80 in Use by Web-Based System Manager
* Common 32-bit Kernel Installation Issues
* Update Required Twice
* 5300-06 Fixes Required for Fibre Channel Attached Storage
* 5300-06 Service Pack 1
* Oracle Crashes with ORA-600 Errors
* Minimum Firmware Levels Required for AIX 5.3
* DB2, Informix and SAP May Fail to Start
* Installation of man Command Content for AIX
* oslevel -r Does not Indicate 5300-03 Due to Docsearch
* Memory DLPAR Not Supported with Infiniband
* Reads from Frozen JFS2 Filesystem Hang
* NIM SPOT Resources
Incorrect Build Date in 5300-11-02 oslevel Output
For the 5300-11-02 Service Pack, the oslevel -s command outputs “5300-11-02-1007″, where the actual build date is 1009. This does not cause any functional issues, but differs from what is shown in Fix Central.
Firmware Update Required for 7043-150 and 7046-B50
System firmware level TCP09267, or later, is required for the 7043-150 and 7046-B50 systems, before installing or updating to the 5300-11 or later level of AIX 5.3. The system will not boot AIX without this update.
To determine if the firmware level of your system, use the command:
lscfg -vp | grep -p openprom
The output should be similar to:
Name: openprom
Model: IBM, TCP09267
Node: openprom
Physical Location: P1
Firmware updates can be obtained from Fix Central. Select the following options.
Product Group: System P
Product: Firmware and HMC
Processor type: POWER4 and earlier
Firmware type: System and device firmware
Port 80 in Use by Web-Based System Manager
Starting with the 5300-09 Technology Level, port 80 is used by default by the Web-Based System Manager web server. This will cause other applications, such as WebSphere’s IBM HTTP Server, that use port 80 to fail to start. The Web-Based System Manager web server can be disabled using the following commands.
stopsrc -s http4websm
rmitab webserverstart
This issue will be resolved by the following APARs.
Technology
Level APAR
5300-09 IZ47650
5300-10 IZ47726
Common 32-bit Kernel Installation Issues
The following failures can occur when doing a network installation with a 32-bit network boot image:
* Client will fail to boot in a Logical Partitition with more than 512 GB of memory.
* When installing to a rootvg that is > 1.2 TB, the installation will fail with the message:
ATTENTION: The total size of a disk selected for rootvg is larger than what the running kernel supports. Select a smaller disk size or reboot using media that supports running the 64-bit kernel.
The above errors do not occur when using a 64-bit network boot image.
Update Required Twice
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.
This problem is known to occur when updating from the 5300-05 Technology Level to the 5300-08 Technology Level. In this case, the ifor_ls.html.en_US.base.cli fileset is not fully updated during the first pass.
5300-06 Fixes Required for Fibre Channel Attached Storage
APAR IY99798 is required for customers connecting fibre channel attached storage to systems running AIX 5.3 with the 5300-06 Technology Level. This problem is known to affect the DS8000 Storage unit and SDDPCM, although it could affect other fibre channel attached storage subsystems.
This APAR is included in the 5300-06-02 Service Pack. Prior to availability from the AIX Support web site, the PTFs may be obtained from:
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/iy99798/
5300-06 Service Pack 1
Service Pack 1 is considered a mandatory update for customers installing the 5300-06 Technology Level. To determine if you already have Service Pack 1 installed, use the command:
oslevel -s
The output should include “5300-06-01″. Service Pack 1 can be obtained from the Fix Bundles section of the IBM Support web site.
Oracle Crashes with ORA-600 Errors
After installing AIX 5.3 Technology Level 5 or later, Oracle 9i or 10g may intermittently crash with ORA-600 errors in the Oracle AlertLog. Customers must contact Oracle support to obtain Oracle patch number 5496862.
Minimum Firmware Levels Required for AIX 5.3
The follow are minimum system firmware levels for required for AIX 5.3. You system firmware needs to be at this level, or later, before installing AIX 5.3, or updating to a higher AIX 5.3 Technology Level.
Model Number Product Name Minimum Firmware Level
7017-S70 RS/6000 Model S70 20040716
7017-S7A RS/6000 Model S7A 20040716
7017-S80 RS/6000 Model S80 20040716
7017-S85 pSeries 680 Model S85 20040716
7025-F50 RS/6000 Model F50 L04197
7025-F80 RS/6000 Model F80 CL050203
7025-6F0/6F1 pSeries 620 Models 6F0/6F1 CL050203
7026-B80 pSeries 640 Model B80 NAN04194
7026-H50 RS/6000 Model H50 L04197
7026-H70 RS/6000 Model H70 SST04195
7026-H80 RS/6000 Model H80 CM050203
7026-M80 RS/6000 Model M80 MM050203
7026-6H0/6H1 pSeries 660 Models 6H0/6H1 CM050203
7026-6M1 pSeries 660 Model 6M1 MM050203
7028-6C1 pSeries 610 Model 6C1 CLT04194
7028-6C4 pSeries 630 Model 6C4 3R041029
7028-6E1 pSeries 610 Model 6E1 CLT04194
7028-6E4 pSeries 630 Model 6E4 3R041029
7029-6C3 pSeries 615 Model 6C3 3F041029
7029-6E3 pSeries 615 Model 6E3 3F041029
7038-6M2 pSeries 650 Model 6M2 3K041029
7039-651 pSeries 655 Model 651 3J041029
7040-671 pSeries 670 Model 671 3H041029
7040-681 pSeries 690 Model 681 3H041029
7043-150 RS/6000 Model 150 TCP04195
7043-260 RS/6000 Model 260 SPX04197
7043-270 RS/6000 7043 Model 270 SPH04194
7044-170 RS/6000 Model 170 SPH04194
7044-270 RS/6000 Model 270 SPH04194
7046-B50 RS/6000 Model B50 TCP04194
9112-265 IntelliStation POWER Model 265 CLT04194
9114-275 IntelliStation POWER Model 275 3F041029
Firmware updates are available from:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/firmware/gjsn
If you experience problems booting your POWER4 system after updating AIX or firmware, then you should verify and correct the value of the real-base firmware variable according to these instructions:
1. Go to the open firmware prompt when the system is booting by typing 8 when a beep is heard or the banner is seen. If applicable, the HMC can also be used to set to boot to SMS menu. From SMS menu type 0 and go to OF prompt.
2. At the prompt, type:
printenv real-base It will display text similar to:
————– Partition: common ——– Signature: 0×70 —————
real-base 2000000 c00000
3. Verify that the number following real-base is c00000. If it is any value other than c00000, then run this command to change it:
setenv real-base c00000 (That is the letter c followed by 5 zeroes.)
4. After updating the real-base variable, reboot system using power switch.
DB2, Informix and SAP May Fail to Start
After installing bos.mp64 at the 5.3.0.40 level, which is included in the 5300-04 Technology Level, 64-bit executables with runtime linking enabled (built with the -brtl flag) may fail to start with an error message simiar to:
exec(): 0509-036 Cannot load program
This problem is known to affect DB2, Informix and SAP, but could also affect other 64-bit applications.
APAR IY83580 resolves this issue.
Installation of man Command Content for AIX
AIX content for the man command is contained in the following filesets:
infocenter.man.EN_US.commands – installed by default
infocenter.man.EN_US.files – not installed by default
infocenter.man.EN_US.libs – not installed by default
To install the infocenter.man.EN_US.files and infocenter.man.EN_US.libs filesets, perform these steps:
1. Insert CD 1 of the AIX 5L Version 5.3 set of CDs into the CD drive of your AIX system.
2. At the AIX command line, type:
smit installp
3. Select Install Software.
4. Press F4 to list the available options and select the CD drive that contains the AIX CD (for example /dev/cd0) and press Enter.
5. At the Software to install press F4 to display a list of all software filesets.
6. Once the list displays, search for infocenter by typing “/infocenter” and press Enter.
7. The following list displays:
infocenter.man.EN_US.commands ALL
@ 5.3.0.30 AIX manual commands – U.S. English
infocenter.man.EN_US.files ALL
@ 5.3.0.30 AIX manual files – U.S. English
infocenter.man.EN_US.libs ALL
@ 5.3.0.30 AIX manual libs – U.S. English
8. Move the cursor to the infocenter filesets you wish to install and press F7 next to each fileset name. Press Enter three times to start the install.
To install the infocenter.man.EN_US.files and infocenter.man.EN_US.libs filesets, you will be instructed to insert CD 3 into the CD drive.
oslevel -r Does not Indicate 5300-03 Due to Docsearch
When the 5300-03 Recommended Maintenance package is installed on a system that was migrated to AIX 5.3 from a previous release of AIX, the ‘oslevel -r’ command may not indicate 5300-03. This problem occurs because bos.docsearch filesets were not removed during the AIX 5.3 migration.
To resolve this, the bos.docsearch filesets should be uninstalled after migrating to AIX 5.3 and before installation of the 5300-03 Recommended Maintenance package. This can be accomplished using the command:
installp -ugX bos.docsearch.rte
Memory DLPAR Not Supported with Infiniband
Memory DLPAR is not currently supported when using the Infiniband Host Channel Adapter. If installed and configured, fileset devices.chrp.IBM.lhca disables memory DLPAR functions on the resident LPAR.
Reads from Frozen JFS2 Filesystem Hang
After application of the 5.3.0.20 level kernels (bos.mp, bos.mp64), which are included on the 5/2005 Update CD and in the 5300-02 Recommended Maintenance package, reads from a frozen JFS2 filesystem will no longer be possible. All reads from a frozen filesystem will be blocked until the filesystem is thawed. Because of this, a filesystem level backup, such as a backup using the backup command or through TSM, will appear to hang until the filesystem is thawed. This restriction will be lifted in APAR IY70224.
Backups using FlashCopy or similar logical volume or device level backups are still possible on a frozen filesystem.
NIM SPOT Resources
NIM SPOT resources at 5.3 and later require approximately 500 MB of free space. When creating a SPOT from a 5.3 LPP_SOURCE with updates, it may be necessary to have 500 MB of free space in the SPOT filesystem. This implies that the user should change the default value from 350 to at least 500 for the SPOT option “Filesystem SIZE (MB)” in SMIT panels nim_mkres_spot_only and nim_mkres_inst.
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