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System management is the task of an individual who is usually referred to in UNIX literature as the system administrator. Unfortunately, only a few of the system administrator's activities are straightforward enough to be properly called administration. This and related guides are intended to help system administrators with their numerous duties.

The system administrator has three main objectives:

• See to it that the system does its job effectively and efficiently.
• Ensure that the information stored on the system is secure from intentional or accidental destruction.
• Administer the system owner's rules for the use of the system.

To achieve these objectives the system administrator must understand more than just the structure and interaction of the hardware and software under his or her control. He or she must also understand the interconnected environment in which almost all of today's systems exist, and the effects of that environment on the local system's function and performance.

A contemporary computer system includes a number of hardware, software, and information elements that must work cooperatively if the system is to satisfy the needs of its users. The main elements and their management functions are:

• Fixed-disk drives
  • Control the grouping and subdivision of disk space
  • Control the location of data and programs for optimum performance
  • Control the amount of space allocated for different purposes
• Application programs
  • Control the use of sensitive or costly programs
  • Install and performance-tune major applications
• Application data
  • Control access to sensitive data
  • Ensure that appropriate backup measures are taken
• Individual computer processors and memory
  • Ensure that resources are used in accordance with the organization's priorities
  • Control access to the system by individuals and groups
  • Tune the operating system for optimal use of the available resources
• Local area networks
  • Ensure that networks are tuned for optimum performance
  • Control network addressing mechanisms
• Local terminals
  • Control the connection of terminals to processors
  • Ensure that terminals and processors are set up for maximum performance
• Connections to other networks
  • Ensure that bridges and gateways to other networks are properly configured
  • Ensure that interaction with remote networks does not degrade local systems
• Access to and from remote systems
  • Control the access permissions in both directions
  • Monitor and performance-tune the workload imposed by remote connections
• Access to remotely owned data
  • Control the methods and availability of access

AIX provides its own particular version of system-management support in order to promote ease of use and to improve security and integrity. This chapter presents information on these unique features:

• Available interfaces
• Unique features of the operating system
• the man command

In addition to conventional command-line system administration, AIX provides these optionally installable interfaces:

• System Management Interface Tool (SMIT), a menu-based user interface that constructs commands from the options you choose and executes them.

  With SMIT, you can:

  • Install, update, and maintain software
  • Configure devices
  • Configure disk storage units into volume groups and logical volumes
  • Make and extend file systems and paging space
  • Manage users and groups
  • Configure networks and communication applications
  • Print
  • Perform problem determination
  • Schedule jobs
  • Manage system environments.
  See System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) Overview for more information on managing your system with SMIT.
• Distributed System Management Interface Tool (DSMIT), an ASCII-based user interface that allows you to perform system administration tasks on "clusters" of workstations, including machines running Sun/OS 4.1.3 and HP/UX 9.0. This product can be purchased separately. For more information on this product, see the Distributed SMIT 2.2 for AIX: Guide and Reference.

Following are brief discussions of unique system-management features of the operating system.

Logical Volume Manager

The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) allows logical volumes to span multiple physical volumes. Data on logical volumes appears to be contiguous to the user, but can be discontiguous on the physical volume. This allows file systems, paging space, and other logical volumes to be resized or relocated, span multiple physical volumes, and have their contents replicated for greater flexibility and availability.

For more detailed information, see the overview of logical volume storage .

System Resource Controller

The System Resource Controller (SRC) provides a set of commands and subroutines for creating and controlling subsystems and is designed to minimize the need for human intervention in system processing. It provides a mechanism to control subsystem processes by using a command-line C interface. This allows you to start, stop, and collect status information on subsystem processes with shell scripts, commands, or user-written programs.

For more detailed information, see the overview of the System Resource Controller .

Object Data Manager

The Object Data Manager (ODM) is a data manager intended for the storage of system data. Many system management functions use the ODM database. Information used in many commands and SMIT functions is stored and maintained as objects with associated characteristics. System data managed by ODM includes:

• Device configuration information
• Display information for SMIT (menus, selectors, and dialogs)
• Vital product data for installation and update procedures
• Communications configuration information
• System resource information.

Software Vital Product Data

Certain information about software products and their installable options is maintained in the Software Vital Product Data (SWVPD) database. The SWVPD consists of a set of commands and Object Data Manager (ODM) object classes for the maintenance of software product information. The SWVPD commands are provided for the user to query (lslpp) and verify (lppchk) installed software products. The ODM object classes define the scope and format of the software product information that is maintained.

The installp command uses the ODM to maintain the following information in the SWVPD database:

• Name of the installed software product
• Version of the software product
• Release level of the software product, which indicates changes to the external programming interface of the software product
• Modification level of the software product, which indicates changes that do not affect the external programming interface of the software product
• Fix level of the software product, which indicates small updates that are to be built into a regular modification level at a later time
• Fix identification field
• Names, checksums, and sizes of the files that make up the software product or option
• Installation state of the software product: available, applying, applied, committing, committed, rejecting, or broken.

Recommended Links

IBM AIX SMIT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Introducing SMIT: The powerful AIX System Management Interface Tool (developerWorks, September 2006): Read this article for an introduction to SMIT.
   
• Object Data Manager (ODM) and SMIT chapters of General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs: Browse through this online documentation.
   
• man page for the smit command (part of the bos.man.en_US.cmds fileset): This site provides information about the flags and arguments that you can use to modify SMIT's behavior.

Distributed SMIT 2.2 for AIX: Guide and Reference - Chapter 1 ...

Chapter 1. AIX System Management

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HOW TO: Easily Configure TCP/IP on Your AIX System

Printing on AIX

Commands Reference, Volume 6