Overview
AIX is IBM’s UNIX operating system for Power Systems. It is a common choice for large Oracle and Db2 databases, SAP landscapes and core applications that need high availability and predictable performance. Keeping it healthy needs people who understand LVM, PowerVM, clustering and the applications on top.
VSR Tech supports AIX end to end: day-to-day administration, 24×7 monitoring, patching, clustering, security and performance, together with the PowerVM and VIOS layer underneath.
What we cover
System administration
- Logical Volume Manager: volume groups, logical volumes, mirroring and JFS2 filesystems
- Users, groups, sudo and role-based access control (RBAC)
- Networking: interfaces, EtherChannel, routing, DNS and NFS
- Storage connectivity: Fibre Channel, NPIV and multipath I/O (MPIO)
- Paging space, tunables, resource limits and system dump configuration
- Cron jobs, startup scripts and ksh automation
- Software installation and inventory with installp and RPM packages
Monitoring and operations (24×7)
- Error log (errpt) monitoring for hardware and software events
- Filesystem, paging space, CPU and memory thresholds
- Process and application availability checks
- Backup job results and mksysb completion
- PowerHA cluster state and resource group status
- First response by runbook, with escalation to L2 and L3 engineers
PowerHA SystemMirror clustering
- Cluster design for two-node, multi-node and multi-site setups
- Resource groups, service IP addresses, application controllers and monitors
- Shared and concurrent volume groups
- Planned failover tests with documented results
- PowerHA version upgrades and cluster health checks
- Day-to-day cluster administration with clmgr and SMIT
Patching and upgrades
- Technology Level and Service Pack planning
- Security fixes (ifixes) and APAR tracking
- NIM server setup for installs, mksysb backups and lpp_source
- Low-risk updates with alt_disk_copy or multibos, so you can roll back with a reboot
- AIX release migrations, for example from 7.1 or 7.2 to 7.3
- Firmware, VIOS and HMC compatibility checks before every change
Security hardening
- AIXPert security profiles and baseline checks
- RBAC roles and least-privilege sudo rules
- SSH hardening and no direct root login
- Password, login and account policies
- Trusted Execution and file integrity checks
- AIX audit subsystem with log forwarding to your SIEM
Performance and capacity
- nmon and topas data collection with trend reports
- CPU entitlement, virtual processors and SMT tuning
- Memory, paging and file cache tuning with vmo
- Disk and I/O tuning with ioo and queue depth settings
- Network tuning with no
- Capacity forecasts, so upgrades are planned before they become urgent
Application platform support
- Oracle Database and RAC on AIX, including ASM and shared storage
- Db2 databases
- SAP application servers and databases
- IBM MQ, WebSphere and other middleware
- Close work with your DBAs and application teams during incidents and changes
How we deliver
| Level | Who handles it | Typical work |
|---|---|---|
| L1 | NOC operators, 24×7 | Monitor, act on alerts by runbook, log and escalate |
| L2 | AIX administrators | Filesystems, users, storage, backups, patching and performance issues |
| L3 | Senior AIX and PowerHA engineers | Cluster design, upgrades, root-cause analysis and DR recovery |
Tools we use
- NIM, SUMA, installp, alt_disk_copy and multibos
- PowerHA SystemMirror, clmgr and clstat
- nmon, topas, iostat, vmstat and svmon
- AIXPert, RBAC and the AIX audit subsystem
- Ansible with IBM’s collections for AIX
- Your existing monitoring and ticketing tools
Frequently asked questions
Do you support AIX 7.1?
Yes. We support older AIX levels and help you plan the move to a supported release, including application and firmware checks.
Can you build a new PowerHA cluster for us?
Yes. We design, build, document and test PowerHA clusters, then support them day to day.
Do you work with our database team?
Yes. We look after the operating system, storage and cluster layer, and work closely with your DBAs or database vendor during incidents and changes.
Can you support the PowerVM layer too?
Yes. VIOS, HMC, LPAR configuration and storage paths are part of the same service, so one team owns the whole stack.