AIX Implementation Best Practices Updated for POWER9

Edit: One of my go-to reference guides

Originally posted June 26, 2018 on AIXchange

An updated version of AIX implementation best practices for commercial workloads was released in May. This should not be confused with the POWER9 performance best practices document I referenced three weeks ago. In this case, I’m talking about the latest in Fredrik Lundholm’s popular series of presentations, which I previously wrote about here

Here’s Fredrik’s introduction to his current presentation:

Dear Power Team,

It is that time of year to renew the best practices for the spring and POWER9 implementations. Please read and enjoy! As always please share any comments or requests for improvement with me.

In next version I am planning to include a section on VIOS rules and how they complement the best practices.

I’ve included a section on rootvg failure monitoring in PowerHA donated by Chris Gibson… .

On slide 3 you can see the changelog since the last time I wrote about it.

Changes for 1.20:
Rootvg failure monitoring in PowerHA 7.2, Default Processor mode,

Changes for 1.19:
2018 Apr Update, POWER9 enablement, Spectrum Scale 4.2 certified with Oracle RAC 12c,

Changes for 1.18:
2017 Sep Update,, new AIX default multipathing for SVC

Changes for 1.17:
2017 Update, VIOS 2.2.5, poll_uplink clarification (edit)

The reminder from page 4
This presentation describes the expected best practices implementation and documentation guidelines for Power Systems with AIX. These should be considered mandatory procedures for virtualized Power servers.

The overall goal is to combine simplicity with flexibility. This is key to achieve the best possible total system availability with adequate performance over time.

While this presentation lists the expected best practices, all customer engagements are unique. It is acceptable to adapt and make implementation deviations after a mandatory review with the responsible architect (not only engaging the customer) and properly documenting these:

General Design Principles for Power System implementations (page 6)
System and PowerVM Setup recommendations (page 15)
AIX Setup recommendations (page 28)
PowerHA (page 38)
Linux/IBM i (page 43)
FAQ (page 44)
Reference Slides: Procedures for older AIX/VIOS releases (page 49)

Fredrik has developed a good following over the years, and it’s easy to see why. If you’ve not checked out his previous presentations, take the time to go through this.