Edit: Some links no longer work.
Originally posted July 8, 2014 on AIXchange
Hopefully you regularly listen to the AIX Virtual User Group webinars, either live or on replay. Recent sessions have been devoted to the POWER8 server announcements, Linux on Power and SRIOV.
If you’re outside of the U.S., you should know that similar webinars are taking place worldwide. For instance, there’s the IBM Power Systems technical webinar series that originates from the U.K. This group’s next event, which is set for July 16, covers PowerVKM. Dr. Michael Perzl is the presenter, and as someone who’s already working with PowerVKM, I look forward to what he has to say.
Previously, this group presented “More tricks of the Power Masters,” which, as you might imagine, was an hour-long session consisting of tips and tricks for using IBM Power Systems hardware. Thirty-eight total replays of these sessions can be found here. Specifically, I recommend this video of several presentations by Gareth Coates. Gareth is an excellent speaker who’s always on the lookout for tips he can use in future sessions, and he mentioned that he is on the lookout for IBM i content as well. (He’ll be sure to give you credit for your help.)
As I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions, there’s little I love more than learning, finding and sharing AIX tips and tricks. With that in mind, please indulge me while I cite some specific information that’s available in the “Power Masters” videos:
* For starters, to force a refresh of the operating system level information on the HMC, run:
lssyscfg –r lpar –m –osrefresh
(In addition, Power Masters offers good info on performing HMC updates from the network, which I’ve also written about here and here.)
* To find out how many virtual processors are active on my system, use the kdb command (and use it carefully):
echo vpm | kdb
* To protect AIX processes when AIX is out of memory, use:
vmo –o nokilluid=X
* To test your RSCT connection, use:
/usr/sbin/rsct/bin/rmcdomainstatus –s ctrmc
Some other Power Masters topics:
* Using Live Partition Mobility checklists. (I wanted to point this out so I have a reason to add that FLRT now has LPM checks available.)
* viosbr (which I’ve also covered here).
Some of the other information presented was first used in a session that took place in 2013, called Power “Ask the Experts.” I covered that here.
Of course there’s much, much more on not just AIX but also IBM i topics, so check out the Power Masters videos on YouTube. And if you don’t already, be sure to tune into the AIX Virtual User Group and IBM Power Systems technical series webinars.