Edit: Some links no longer work.
Originally posted January 4, 2011 on AIXchange
If you’re not following along on Twitter, you should be. Most recently, Twitter brought me this update about VIOS Next Generation:
“VIOS Next Generation or ‘NextGen VIOS’ was released on Dec. 9 as VIOS 2.2 SP01. I recently installed it on my test cluster and put it through its paces to see what was included in the nearly 900MB download.
“First of all, pay close attention to the README prior to installing this code. There are more than a few caveats that are important to pay attention to. Some notable one are:
- The reject option of updateios is not supported in this release. Once you install this service pack, you are committed.
- The new shared storage pool functionality requires 4 GB of RAM in the VIO server.
- There is a maximum of one (1) VIOS node per shared storage cluster in this release.
- VIO servers that host shared storage pools may not participate in Live Partition Mobility operations or Partition Suspend/Resume Operations.
- VIO clients that make use of storage from shared storage pools are not supported for Live Partition Mobility.”
Here’s more I’ve recently gleaned from tracking various AIX enthusiasts on Twitter:
In his blog, Anthony English notes that the depreciation of the the bootinfo –s command means we should instead use the getconf command to track disk size. Anthony’s post points to the following techdoc:
“The command /usr/sbin/bootinfo has traditionally been used to find out information regarding system boot devices, kernel versions, and disk sizes. This command has been depricated in favor of the command /usr/bin/getconf. The bootinfo man page has been removed, and the command is only used in AIX by the booting and software installation utilities. It should not be used in customer-created shell scripts or run by hand.
“The getconf command will report much of the same information that bootinfo will:
“What was the device the system was last booted from?
$ getconf BOOT_DEVICE
hdisk0
“What size is a particular disk in the system?
$ getconf DISK_SIZE /dev/hdisk0
10240
“What partition size is being used on a disk in the system?
$ getconf DISK_PARTITION /dev/hdisk0
16
“Is the machine capable of running a 64-bit kernel?
$ getconf HARDWARE_BITMODE
64
“Is the system currently running a 64-bit or 32-bit kernel?
$ getconf KERNEL_BITMODE
64
“How much real memory does the system have?
$ getconf REAL_MEMORY
524288.”
Here’s an interesting story (link not active) about Apple dumping its Xserve rack-mounted servers, and the conjecture that maybe running Snow Leopard Server on an IBM Power 710, 720 or 750- or on a PS700, PS701 or PS702 blade–might be a good option in the future. Of course getting the OS running on the hardware is a hurdle, but you have to admit that the idea of running yet another operating system on Power Systems servers is intriguing.
Sure, a lot of Twitter is devoted to people sharing what they had for breakfast or where they’re going for the weekend. But if you look around, Twitter can be a valuable resource for the AIX pro (e.g., go to Twitter.com and try searching for #aix, #ibmtechu or #ibmwatson).
So what hashtags or users are you interested in?