Edit: The link no longer works. I do not think anyone uses physical media anymore. With virtual optical and usb flash drives I cannot remember the last time I had CDs or DVDs, although I still have old media in that format that I should get rid of.
Originally posted June 14, 2010 on AIXchange
While I always try to be available to answer your questions, this week I have some questions for you. First, why isn’t ssh installed and running by default when I load AIX? Honestly, I’ve been asking myself this for years.
Admittedly, my complaint is trivial, since getting ssh running on a newly installed server is quick and easy — especially now that the openssh file sets are included with AIX install media. And in my case, since I typically build up a gold image before deploying it in an environment, all of my images will have it loaded as well.
But it still bugs me.
I mean, ssh is installed by default when I load Linux, so why isn’t it installed for AIX?
On the flip side, why are telnet and FTP enabled by default on AIX? Again, I know it’s not a big deal to go edit /etc/inetd.conf and comment out these unwanted services and restart the daemon. But it just seems like these insecure daemons shouldn’t be running at all. It’s great that they’re included, but to me, a freshly installed AIX server should have ssh enabled and telnet and FTP disabled by default.
One more question on another topic: I keep seeing retweets on Twitter about downloading installation .iso images from IBM. But why would I want to do this?
Even years ago, when IBM offered AIX installation CD images for download, I still preferred to have IBM send me a set of CDs or DVDs. And nothing’s changed. Yes, I can download the .iso images, but I’d rather IBM send me a set.
“But Rob,” you say, “you love virtual optical devices!” Yes, I most certainly do. However, if I have the physical media, I can always run mkvtopt in my VIO server and create .iso images.
I can hear you again: “But Rob, it’ll take forever for that physical media to spin and create that copy!” Actually, I think it’s quicker to do this than it is to download an installation image (depending of course on the available bandwidth). If I’m installing AIX on a new machine and I don’t already have a NIM server in the environment, what will I need? Install images burned to optical media. So now I have to download the image and then find some media to burn the images to, etc.? No thanks. I’ll just have IBM send me a set.
Now, if my environment is already built and I just want to stick the .iso image in my virtual media library and either migrate or install my client LPARs or install these filesets to my NIM server, downloading is fine, I guess. But I just like having the physical media on hand in case I need it. I don’t know, maybe I’m old school.
But please make your case in Comments. Get me on the downloading .iso bandwagon. Or tell me why ssh isn’t enabled with AIX, or why telnet and FTP are. Help me sort out my questions.