Edit: The links still work. I do not think I know anyone still running IBM Systems Director.
Originally posted May 11, 2010 on AIXchange
You may be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but getting him to remember them is another matter. More than a year ago I wrote about an IBM Redbook and passed on some tips.
Among other things, I said that that by connecting to https:/hostname:5336/ibm/console on your AIX 6 machines, you’ll get a systems director console for AIX.
Unfortunately, this old dog continually forgets to do this. Usually I just ssh into a machine and do everything on the command line when I am managing systems.
Recently I was talking with a customer who had just returned from AIX training. He wanted to know how to get the director login. Since we hadn’t installed IBM Systems Director in the environment, I wasn’t sure what he meant.
When he retrieved his class notes, it jarred my memory some. Then he logged in and showed me how he learned to use the GUI to add users, configure his network, manage devices, etc. He also showed me that you could select a system health button and view metrics like system, network and paging space configs, and then scroll down for metrics like CPU utilization and physical and virtual memory. Other listings displayed real-time updates to top processes and filesystem utilization.
Much of it looked like a Web-based front end to smitty, along with other command line tools that I use day in and day out. Before scoffing and telling him not to use a dumbed down GUI, I had to remind myself that this tool was a good thing, especially for a new AIX administrator. Reducing the learning curve is a good idea. What’s the point of making powerful systems if people can’t use and manage them?
So, if you’re running AIX 6, run lssrc –a | grep pconsole and see if you have it enabled. And if you do, log in and take a look around.
You can set up so users are restricted from accessing to the console. From the welcome page when you first log in:
“Use the Console User Authority tool to add new or existing AIX users to the IBM Systems Director Console for AIX and grant them permission to perform tasks using the web console.
“Current AIX users will need to be added using the Console User Authority tool and assigned tasks before they will be able to use the Console. These users will rely on their AIX user account for user-logon security.
“Administrators can use the Console User Authority application to add new users to AIX and the Console and grant them authorizations in one step. If you add a new AIX user using the Console User Authority tool you will still be required to assign that user a password. That user will have to change the password using a command line interface before they can logon to the console for the first time.”
Troubleshooting tips are available here. Here’s an example:
“Issue: When I try to connect to the console URL, I get an Unable to Connect or the page cannot be loaded message.
“Check whether the console subsystem is active by running lssrc -s pconsole. If it is not active, try to start it by running startsrc -s pconsole.
“If it does not start and you get a message such as: The pconsole Subsystem could not be started. The Subsystem’s user id could not be established. Please check the Subsystem’s user id and try again, check that the pconsole user account has not been removed and that the UID matches the UID that owns the files under /pconsole. If the user account is missing, reinstall sysmgt.pconsole.rte so that the account is recreated with the required attributes. If the user account exists, but the UID is incorrect, remove the user account and reinstall sysmgt.pconsole.rte. …
“If the task you are trying to execute fails:
“Many of the tasks in the OS Management category are based on SMIT. If a task fails in the console, try the task in SMIT or smitty to see it it also fails there. Log in to the system on a local terminal or via telnet and try the task in SMIT/smitty. If it also fails in SMIT/smitty, then the problem may be in SMIT or in the commands or scripts executed by SMIT. Use the Show Command function (F6) to show the command and if possible try to perform the task using the command line to see if the failure is caused by the command or by SMIT/smitty.”
Don’t make the same mistake that I made and ignore something just because it’s a Web-based front end to your system. You — or your newer administrators — just might find uses for this function.