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AIX System Administration 1

Duration

This course is 5 days. Customizing the topic list will affect the time requirement.

Audience

System Administrators who are already familiar with the AIX Operating System, but desire more detailed and specialized information as listed below. (This course is a follow-on to AIX System Administration Lite, which contains an overview of system administration topics, but does not go into the level of detail that this course does.)

Course Contents

  1. System Administration Overview

    1. System Administrator's Role

    2. Traditional Unix System Management

    3. 7.x System Management

    4. System Management Interface Tool

    5. Sample smit Menus

    6. Managing Users

    7. System Security

    8. Managing Devices

    9. Logical Volume Manager

    10. System Performance

    11. Backup and Restore

    12. Summary

  2. System Management Interface Tool

    1. smit Characteristics

    2. smit Screens

    3. Function Key Summary (ASCII)

    4. Menu Screens

    5. Name Selectors

    6. Dialog Screens

    7. Dialog Screen Symbols

    8. smit.log and smit.script

    9. Summary

  3. Managing Devices

    1. Devices and the ODM

    2. Device Configuration Database

    3. Device States

    4. Device Run Modes

    5. stty and chdev Examples

    6. smit Devices

    7. Add a TTY Using smit

    8. Example: IBM 3151/3161 Setup

    9. The tput Command

    10. Summary

  4. Managing Printers (Optional)

    1. Overview of Printer Configuration

    2. Steps to Configuring a Printer

    3. Step 1. Attach and Configure the Device

    4. Step 2. Create a Queue for the Device

    5. Step 3. Submit a Print Job

    6. Managing Jobs in the Print Queue

    7. Configuring a Network Printer

    8. Summary

  5. Managing Users

    1. User Considerations

    2. User Information Database

    3. Files - passwd

    4. Files - group

    5. Files - user

    6. Files - limits

    7. Files - login.cfg

    8. Adding a User Via smit

    9. Password Commands

    10. Working With Groups

    11. Initialization Files

    12. Removing a User

    13. Summary

  6. Security

    1. File Permissions

    2. Access Control Lists

    3. The acledit Command

    4. Trusted Computer Base

    5. Summary

  7. Shell Scripts, Part 1

    1. Why Shell Programming?

    2. Steps to Creating a Script

    3. Menu Building With select

    4. Comments in Shell Scripts

    5. Working With Variables

    6. Shell Script Basics

    7. Error Messages

    8. Interactive Scripts

  8. Shell Scripts, Part 2

    1. Performing Arithmetic

    2. Using expr For String Matching

    3. The if Command

    4. Test Operations

    5. The while Loop

    6. The for Loop

    7. Changing the Script Parameters

    8. Changing the Flow

    9. The case Command

    10. Exiting a Shell Script

    11. Menu Building

    12. Summary

  9. Using at and cron

    1. Overview of at and cron

    2. The at Command

    3. Using cron and crontab

    4. Example: Crontab File

    5. Summary

  10. Logical Volume Manager

    1. History of the LVM

    2. LVM Terminology

    3. Intra-Policy

    4. Inter-Policy

    5. smit Menus for Disk Storage

    6. Configuring for Performance

    7. Configuring for Availability

    8. Reorganizing a Volume Group

    9. Summary

  11. Filesystems

    1. General Unix File System Terminology

    2. Mounting and Unmounting

    3. Determining Free Space

    4. Filesystem Components

    5. Directories and Inodes

    6. Indirect File Storage

    7. Links

      1. Hard Links

      2. Soft Links, a.k.a. Symbolic Links

    8. Filesystem Tools

    9. Why the Journaled File System?

    10. Summary

  12. Backup and Restore

    1. Backup Considerations

    2. Device Names

    3. Calculating Size Requirements

    4. Backup Commands

    5. The dd Command

    6. The cpio Command

    7. Considerations For cpio

    8. The tar Command

    9. Considerations For tar

    10. The backup And restore Commands

    11. Considerations For backup and restore

    12. Summary

  13. Performance Monitoring

    1. What is Performance Management?

    2. Monitoring

    3. The sar Command

    4. The vmstat Command

    5. The iostat Command

    6. Flowchart of the Basic Approach

    7. Capacity Planning

    8. Summary

  14. Introduction to TCP/IP LANs (Optional)

    1. What is a Local Area Network?

    2. LAN Topography

    3. TCP/IP Layered Protocol

    4. OSI Protocol Layering

    5. TCP/IP Protocol Layer Examples

    6. Communications Software

    7. Network Addresses

    8. TCP/IP Configuration

    9. LAN Components

    10. The Internet Naming Structure

    11. Summary

  15. Introduction to the Common Desktop Environment (Optional)

    1. What is a Windowing System?

    2. Components of the Desktop

    3. Important Areas of the Desktop

    4. Some Terminology

    5. Using the Mouse

    6. Window Decorations

    7. Menus

    8. A Sampling of Clients

    9. Summary

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to configure and manage a typical AIX system in a standalone environment.

Instructional Technique

Students are invited to bring their current ideas and questions to the classroom for discussion. Case studies, lecture, group problem solving, and online laboratories will be used. Students will be encouraged to enhance their skills utilizing the techniques presented through classroom problem solving and controlled online workshops.

Prerequisites

Familiarity with AIX commands, directory structure, and the text editor. The largest value is obtained when the student has been working as a system administrator for approximately 4 to 8 weeks.

Completion of certain labs is dependent upon appropriate access to the machine used for the workshops. For classroom setup requirements, see our AIX Setup Document For System Administration Courses.