AIX - Query ESS disk / vpath for reservation

lquerypr -vh /dev/vpath#

Migrating TSM Node Data from one Library to Another

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager 6.3

TSM for VE 6.3
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24030317

Upgrade recommendation:
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21455299

Performance tunning guide:
http://www-05.ibm.com/e-business/linkweb/publications/servlet/pbi.wss?PAG=C11&SSN=11LBI0002843955021&TRL=TXT&WRD=&PBL=GC23-9788-03&LST=ALL&RPP=10&submit=Go

Problem determination guide:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tsminfo/v6r3/topic/com.ibm.itsm.tshoot.doc/b_problem_deter_guide.pdf

How to determine which edition of AIX is installed

IBM offers an AIX operating system in three editions:
Express
Standard
Enterprise

Type of edition can be discovered using this command:

/usr/sbin/chedition -l

Source:
AIX 6.1 Editions
chedition command reference

IBM Storage Provider v 1.1.0 for VMware and IBM XIV

IBM Storage Provider for VMware VASA, Version 1.1.0

For IBM Storage and VMware users, the IBM Storage Provider for VMware VASA (referred to as 'VASA Provider') improves VMware vSphere's ability to monitor and automate storage related operations. The VASA Provider is a standard vSphere management plug-in that is deployed once on each vCenter server to interact with vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA). This tool is used to manage storage from vCenter server.

How to setup SSH in AIX to communicate with HMC

Download authorized_keys2 file from HMC
scp hscroot@HMC:/home/hscroot/.ssh/authorized_keys2 authorized_keys2_HMC

Add public key of your user on host:
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> authorized_keys2_HMC

Upload authorized_keys2_HMC file back to HMC
scp authorized_keys2_HMC hscroot@HMC:/home/hscroot/.ssh/authorized_keys2

SSH to HMC to add HMC to known hosts
ssh hscroot@HMC

TSM replacing damaged primary storage pool volume - tape

Failing tape can be replaced by different ways and I'll cover two of them:

If a tape can be read so you can issue move data command to move data from failing tape to another tape(s) in a same storage pool:
move data VOLUME

If a tape can not be read then it can be restored from backup storage pool.
For "how to" read more bellow:

AIX - foreground process to background and back

To place a foreground process in the background:
suspend the foreground process (with Ctrl-z) then enter the bg command to move the process into the background.

Show the status of all background and suspended jobs: jobs
Bring a job back into the foreground: fg %jobnumber
Bring a job back into the background: bg %jobnumber

How to Investigate a System Reboot of AIX

Successful logins on terminal to syslog on AIX

Problem description:
AIX sends just unsuccessful logins into syslog and successful logins like terminal login are missing (e.g. virtual console). For solution read more...

IBM Information Archive V 2.1.1 documentation

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments - Wiki

Update History: Version 6.3 Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments

Tivoli Storage Manager Version V6.1.5.1/V6.2.3.0 Server Reorg/Instrumentation Enhancements

AIX disk queue depth tuning for performance

SDDPCM - Multiple Path I/O in AIX

IBM Techdocs - the Technical Sales Library

PowerVM - vfc-client device to log in to the SAN - vfclogin and ioinfo

Alternate Disk Install to clone and update AIX to spare disk

IOmeter I/O - subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems

How to determine missing filesets to show correct oslevel in AIX

I have faced problem when upgrading AIX from AIX 6.1 TL2 (6100-02-10-1036) to TL6.
After upgrade AIX has shown me that I'm on same level.

This command "oslevel -r -l xxxx-yy" and "instfix -icqk 6100-06_AIX_ML | grep :-:" helps you to determine which filesets have not been upgraded to shows up correct TL level.
This command "oslevel -r -l xxxx-yy" and "instfix -icqk 6100-06_AIX_ML | grep :-:" helps you to determine which filesets have not been upgraded to shows up correct TL level.
Read more bellow...

IBM Power HW - Facts and features reports

Script for HA NIM synchronization from master to alternate_master

Here is the sample script for NIM synchronization.

DSCLI to show FW level of IBM DS8000 storage

Command to show DS8000 FW level from AIX:


dscli> ver -l
Date/Time: September 15, 2011 2:41:16 PM CEST IBM DSCLI Version: 5.3.1.101
DSCLI          5.3.1.101
StorageManager 6.1.3.20071026.1
================Version=================
Storage Image    LMC
==========================
IBM.2107-xxyyzzx 5.3.1.104

Source:
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S1002949

How to find port and slot ID by index port ID shown in name server on SAN Brocade Director

When you wanna find out physical port location - slot and port ID by WWN in name server you can see just index port ID and Port# which is not as same ID as physical port ID.

If you know Index port # or port ID gathered in name server you can link it with slot and port ID by using switchshow command:

42 is index port ID, 3 is slot ID and 10 is physical port ID


SAN:admin> switchshow | grep " 42"
Index Slot Port Address Media Speed State     Proto
===================================================
 42    3   10   642a00   id    N4   Online           F-Port  10:00:00:00:00:00:00:01

IBM TotalStorage SAN Hosts Data Gathering

This TIP discusses IBM TotalStorage SAN hosts data gathering.

NIM error and warning messages

Network Installation Manager - Education Assistant slides

AIX / VIOS CDP - Cisco Discovery Protocol to gather information about port on CISCO switch

The Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) is a proprietary Data Link Layer network protocol developed by Cisco Systems. It is used to share information about other directly connected Cisco equipment, such as the operating system version and IP address.

Device connected to CISCO CDP enabled switch can sniff CDP packets and gather inflormation about port like switch name, trunk and VLAN IDs, port number like Gi1/5.

VMware support it by default and it can be seen in GUI in networking tab.

AIX / VIOS doesn't support that by default but it can be gathered by script using tcpdump.

Script for CDP on AIX can be downloaded here:
http://the-welters.com/professional/scripts/

AIX - EMC Symetrix Inquiry tool to list - show LUN info for storage

How and where can I see information about LUNs in AIX from EMC Symetrix storage?
Utility is called inq.aix64_51 and can be found in this location: /usr/lpp/EMC/Symmetrix/bin

EMC Drivers / filesets have to be installed:

/usr/lpp/EMC/Symmetrix/bin # lslpp -L | grep EMC

EMC.Symmetrix.aix.rte 5.3.0.5 C F EMC Symmetrix AIX Support

EMC.Symmetrix.fcp.MPIO.rte

5.3.0.5 C F EMC Symmetrix FCP MPIO Support

Scripts and utilities are installed by default:

/usr/lpp/EMC/Symmetrix/bin # ls

bcvfcp.tar emc_odmupdate_uniqueid_v2.tar inq.aix32_51 rdfg.tar

boot_change_v3.tar emc_reserve_v1.sh inq.aix64_51 rmbcv

emc_cfgmgr emcgrab_AIX_v4.2.tar mkbcv

emc_odmupdate.tar emcpowerreset nsddevices.tar

Utility to show device linked to LUN with information like capacity, serial number, ID...

# /usr/lpp/EMC/Symmetrix/bin/inq.aix64_51 -sid -showvol

Inquiry utility, Version V7.3-1009 (Rev 0.0) (SIL Version V7.1.0.0 (Edit Level 1009)

Copyright (C) by EMC Corporation, all rights reserved.

For help type inq -h.

..................

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DEVICE :VEND :PROD :REV :SER NUM :Volume :CAP(kb) :SYMM ID

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/dev/rhdisk2 :EMC :SYMMETRIX :5773 :xxxxxxxx : 0097B: 75648000 :zzzzzzzzyyxx

Upgrading IBM Information Archive to software version 2.1.2

HMC command to list LPAR profile attributes

Log in HMC shell
List all profiles on one machine and it's CPU attributes.

for LPAR in `lssyscfg -r lpar -m MACHINE_NAME -F lpar_id | sort -n`
do
lssyscfg -r prof -m MACHINE_NAME --filter "lpar_ids=${LPAR}" -F "name:lpar_name:lpar_id:proc_mode:min_proc_units:desired_proc_units:max_proc_units:min_procs:desired_procs:max_procs:sharing_mode:uncap_weight" --header
done

LPAR network boot from HMC - lpar_netboot

Loop in KSH for range of values to list hdisks size

This example shows up how to create command in AIX using range of numbers in loop:

n=12

while [[ $n -le 21 ]]; do

bootinfo -s hdisk${n}

((n+=1))

done

Speaking UNIX, Part 9: Regular expressions

DS3950/4000/5000 Recommended Firmware Levels

Slot Calculator for TS3100, TS3200, TS3310, TS3400 and TS3500 (3584)

An Excel file to calculate the # of slots, LTO and 3592, for a given configuration of TS3100, TS3200, TS3310 and TS3500(3584). and D53, and gives the available capacity(TB) by using the different types of tape cartridges including LTO U1/U2/U3/U4/U5 and 3592 JJ/JR/JA/JW/JB/JX/JC/JY/JK. Also it supports for > 6,887 slots in TS3500 with the firmware level >= 9500 and TS3500 HD tape frames(S24, S54).
http://www-03.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/PRS1763

How to schedule backup of Brocade SAN switch configuration on UNIX/Linux

Brocade SAN switch can be backed up using Web tools or using CLI over SSH.
We can also schedule backup up of configuration.

Here is how to backup switch configuration from UNIX over SSH and SCP.

1, Generate key pair on switch as admin user:
SANSW:admin> sshutil genkey -rsa

2, Generate key pair on host as user used for backing up configuration (if you don't have it).
username@host:# ssh-keygen -t rsa -P ""

IBM AIX 5.3, 6.1 and 7.1 TL Lifecycle

AIX 5.3, 6.1 and 7.1 lifecycles
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg3T1012517


AIX 6.1 Lifecycle

Knowledge Xpert for Oracle

Replacing failed / missing PV on rootvg AIX

Replacing a failed PV when the configuration does not allow the use of the replacepv command (for hdisk in rootvg)

Speaking UNIX - Customize your shell in AIX

VMware vStorage API (VADP) and TSM 6.2.2

TSM 6.2.2 supports VADP backups:
- VADP for file-level proxy backup
- VADP for Full backups (direct read from VMDK files for backup and restore)
- Auto discovery of New VMware guests (Virtual Machines)

Proxy platforms:
- Windows Server 2003 - 2008 (32 - 64bit, 2008R2 - 64 bit only)
VMware patforms
- ESX / ESXi - 3.5, 4.0 - 4.1

TSM Operational Reporting - Client Schedules - Status - Restarted, Failed, Completed, Future, In Progress, Missed, Pending, Severed, Started, Uncertain

Meaning of status in TSM Operational Reporting of Client Schedules.

Status can be: Restarted, Failed, Completed, Future, In Progress, Missed, Pending, Severed, Started, Uncertain.

Statuses:

   Specifies the status of the event at the time the QUERY EVENT command
   is issued. Possible values are:

Useful HMC key combintaions: Switch to shell, restart xserver

CTRL-ALT-F1: Switch to Linux command line; no login possible. If you then click on CTRL-ALT-DEL the system will reboot.
CTRL-ALT-F2: Takes you back to the Xserver window.
CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE: Kills of the Xserver and will start a new -fresh- one, so you can login again.

vtmenu - Open virtual console from SSH on HMC

Here is short how to "open vitual console from SSH on HMC"

Login to HMC ant type vtmenu:

hscroot@hostname:~> vtmenu

 Retrieving name of managed system(s) . . . Server-xxxx-xxx-xxxxxxxxx

 ----------------------------------------------------------

  Partitions On Managed System:  Server-xxxx-xxx-xxxxxxxxx

  OS/400 Partitions not listed

 ----------------------------------------------------------

   1)    Partition name                           Running

   2)    Partition name                           Running

Recovering Oracle

Here is nice schema how to recover oracle:

http://examples.oreilly.com/unixbr/oracle.html

TSM WiKi

TSM Wiki:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/tivolistoragemanager/Home

LPAR and VIO on IBM AIX UNIX Servers

Virtual I/O (VIO) and Virtualization

Briefly What is Virtualization?

The Virtual I/O Server is part of the IBM System p5 Advanced Power Virtualization hardware feature. Virtual I/O Server allows sharing of physical resources between LPARs including virtual SCSI and virtual networking. This allows more efficient utilization of physical resources through sharing between LPARs and facilitates server consolidation.

This allows a single machine to run multiple operating system (OS) images at the same time but each is isolated from the others. POWER4 based machines started this in 2001 by allowing many Logical Partitions (LPAR) to run on the same machine using but each using different CPUs, different memory sections and different PCI adapter slots. Next came with POWER4, the ability to dynamically change the CPU, memory and PCI adapters slots with the OS running. With the introduction of POWER5 in 2005, further Virtualization items have been added:

1. Less than a whole CPU can be allocated to a LPAR
2. The LPARs sharing CPUs can be setup to allow automatic load balancing (in milliseconds)
3. The sharing of disks, networks, optical devices (CD/DVD) using a VIO Server (see below)

For whole article read:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/virtualization/VIO
Source: IBM DeveloperWorks Wiki

HA/Clustered SAN Storage Solution for VMware?

VMware server HA is resolved by "VMware HA" already but what's about HA on storage level?

I mean real storage HA, no single point of failure, switchover without down time, synchronous mirroring between two storages, CDP - continuous data protection.
Have you ever thought about any solution to ensure HA on storage level?
I have spent many hours, days to find out proper solution.

VMware ESX/ESXi hosts can be placed into groups called clusters. A cluster contains 2 to 32 ESX hosts that work cooperatively together to provide features such as VMware HA and DRS. All the virtual machines in this HA cluster are protected by VMware HA. VMware HA detects failures of the ESX hosts, so when an ESX host fails, VMware HA moves and restarts the virtual machines on another unaffected ESX host in the cluster. Shared storage is an important component of the solution. Since the storage array stores the virtual disks of possibly all the virtual machines, even the smallest disruption can create a wide range of effects in a storage array where availability is vital.

I've found solutions: SAN storage cluster or SAN virtualization.
Read more bellow....

TSM Reporting Error -- Server Information

Operational Reporting reports fail with errors, either ANS1051E Invalid password, or empty report with:
Error -- Server Information

Results

Cause:
The administrator password used in the Operational Reporting configuration is out of sync with the password stored on the TSM Server.

IOBlazer - Storage stack micro-benchmark for VMware

How to do stress test and benchmark of storage subsystem in virtual environment?
Here is the answer: IOBlazer is storage / disk benchmark for VMware.

IOBlazer is a multi-platform storage stack micro-benchmark. IOBlazer runs on Linux, Windows and OSX and it is capable of generating a highly customizable workload.

Oracle Database 11g: Interactive Quick Reference Guide to Oracle Database 11g Release 2

Oracle Database 11g: Interactive Quick Reference Guide to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 

	Top DBA Views: Key DBA static data dictionary views and dynamic performance views organized by product feature areas
	Architecture: A single diagram that illustrates the relationships between key database memory structures, processes, and storage
	Background Processes: A comprehensive list that categorizes the background processes and flags which are new in Oracle

Download the Oracle Database 11g Interactive Quick Reference

Source: Oracle's Database Application Developer Newsletter

Basic troubleshooting for library and tape drives in AIX and TSM

Basic troubleshooting for library and tape drives in AIX
Source:
IBM Technote:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21406601

Many times issues with Tivoli Storage Manager Server in AIX connecting to tape libraries and/or drives can be resolved by checking some basics. The first things to do when addressing hardware issues are given in the steps below.

1) AIX: Does AIX have the correct device driver for the library and/or tape drives?
2) AIX: Does AIX list the library and/or tape drives as Available?
If 6.1, does the db2 instance owner account have read/write access?
3) TSM: Does TSM list the drives as online?
4) TSM: Does TSM list the paths as online and using the correct device name?
5) AIX: Can you test the library and/or drives from device utilities in AIX?
6) TSM: Does reconfiguring the library and/or drives in AIX and TSM resolve the issue?