Devices

Device configuration Database
Listing the installed and supported devices (lsdev)
Listing the system configuraion and Vital product data of devices (lscfg)
Listing the device attributes (lsattr)
Change the attributres of devices (chdev)
Configuring new devices (cfgmgr)
Make device files (mkdev)
Removing devices from system (rmdev)
To manually add a device to the system (mkdev)
To Find the boot informations, Disk Size, Kernel bits etc.. (getconf)
To display sytem configuration information (prtconf)


Device Configuration Database

Device informations are stored in ODM. There are two device configuratoin databases in AIX

  • Predefined Database contains data for all the supported devices based on the system configuration.
  • Customized Database contains configuration database for all currently defined and configured (available) devices.

The devices in AIX can be in any of the following states

01. Available  - Device is ready and can be used
02. Defined    - Device is unavailable
03. Unknown    - Undefined
04. Stopped    - Configured but unavailable


To list the devices

lsdev

      -C  to list customized database
      -P  to list predefined database
      -c (class) 
      -t (type) 
      -s (subtype)

To list all customised devices ie installed

 # lsdev -C  

To list all the Hard Drives in a system

 # lsdev -Cc disk

To list all the adapters in a sytem

 # lsdev -Cc adapter

To find out the type of Fibre adapter

 # lsdev -Ct df1000f* -F "type" -l fcs1

To find out the parent of ent0 device

 # lsdev -Cl ent0 -F parent


To display configuration and vital product data (VPD) about the system

lscfg

      -v   Displays the VPD found on customized Database
      -p   display paltform specifig device info. 
      -l <device_name>

To list all installed devices in detail

 # lscfg -v  

To find out the WWN, FRU #, firmware level of fibre adapter fcs0

 # lscfg -vpl fcs0


To display attributes and possible values of attributes for devices

lsattr

       -E Displays the effective value
       -D Displays the Default Value
       -R Displays the range of legal values
       -a <Attribute>
       -l <Device_name>

Examples:

To find out the possible media_speed values for ethernet card ent0

# lsattr -El ent0 -a media_speed -R
  10_Half_Duplex
  10_Full_Duplex
  100_Half_Duplex
  100_Full_Duplex
  Auto_Negotiation

To find out the effective attribute of a device "mem0"

 # lsattr -El mem0 
 goodsize 512 Amount of usable physical memory in Mbytes False
 size     512 Total amount of physical memory in Mbytes  False

To list the defaults in the pre-defined db for device ent0

 # lsattr -El sys0


To Change the attributes of devices-

chdev

       -l <device name>
       -a <attribute=new_value>
       -T to change the value temporarily
       -P to make the change permanent after reboot if the 
          device is currently in use and can not be changed

To change the SCSI ID of adapter scsi0 that cannot be changed made unavailable due to available disk drives connected to it

 # chdev  -l scsi0 -a id=6 -P

To change the maximum number of processes allowed per user

Find out the valid range of values using lsattr command
 # lsattr -El sys0 -a maxuproc -R
 40...131072 (+1)

Change the maxuproc value using chdev command
 # chdev -l sys0 -a maxuproc=10000


To remove the devices

rmdev

       -d removes the device from Customized DB
       -l <device_name>
       -R Unconfigure device and its chidren
       -S Makes deviec un-availabel by using stop method

To change device state from available to defined

 # rmdev -l (device)  

To delete the device

 # rmdev -l (device) -d 

To delete the scsi adapter scsi0 and all its child devices

 # rmdev -Rdl scsi0


Add device to the system

mkdev

      -d  define
      -c  class
      -l <logical device name>
      -p  parent name
      -s  subclass
      -t  type

Examples:

To define a tape device

 # mkdev -d -c tape -t 8mm -s scsi -p scsi0  -w 5,0

To make the predefined rmt0 tape to available status

 # mkdev -l rmt0

Configuring New Devices using cfgmgr:

cfgmgr configures devices and optionally installs device software by running the programs specified in the Configuration Rules object class.

cfgmgr

       -v   To give detailed output
       -l <Device_name>   To configure the device and
                          all it's chidren
       -i <device>   Location of installation medium

To search for new devices and configure them

 #cfgmgr

To configure detected devices attached to the fcs0 adapter

 # cfgmgr -l fcs0

To install device drivers which is in /tmp/drivers automatically during configuration

 # cfgmgr -i /tmp/drivers

Getting System configuration variable values

getconf, bootinfo commands can be used to collect the system configuration variable values such as kernel bit, hardware bit, boot device, real mem present, disk size etc... bootinfo command is not supported on Aix V5.2 onwards.

Using bootinfo command
To find out the Kernel whether it is 32-bit or 64bit

 # bootinfo -K      ---- > for Kernel  
 # bootinfo -y      ---- > for Hardware 

 # bootinfo -s hdiskx ----> to find out the size of the hard drive

Some useful getconf command examples

 # getconf KERNEL_BITMODE  
 64
 # getconf HARDWARE_BITMODE
 64
 # getconf DISK_SIZE /dev/hdisk0
 8678
 # getconf REAL_MEMORY
 524288
 # getconf BOOT_DEVICE
 hdisk0
 # getconf DISK_DEVNAME hdisk0
 10-60-00-4,0
 # getconf MP_CAPABLE
 0

Displaying system configuration information

prtconf command displays system Configuration information. If run without any flags, it displays the system model, machine serial, processor type, number of processors, processor clock speed, cpu type, total memory size, network information, filesystem information, paging space information, and devices information

Flags:-

 -c Displays cpu type, for example, 32-bit or 64-bit.
 -k Display the kernel in use, for example, 32-bit or 64-bit.
 -L Displays LPAR partition number and partition name if this is an LPAR partition, 
    otherwise returns "-1 NULL".
 -m Displays system memory.
 -s Displays processor clock speed in MHz.
 -v Displays the VPD found in the Customized VPD object class for devices.

Examples:-

 # prtconf -c
 CPU Type: 64-bit

 # prtconf -m
 Memory Size: 4096 MB

 # prtconf -s
 Processor Clock Speed: 1654 MHz

 # prtconf
 System Model: IBM,9119-595
 Machine Serial Number: 02898EB
 Processor Type: PowerPC_POWER5
 Number Of Processors: 2
 Processor Clock Speed: 1654 MHz
 CPU Type: 64-bit
 Kernel Type: 64-bit
 LPAR Info: 5 sapnims
 Memory Size: 4096 MB
 Good Memory Size: 4096 MB
 Platform Firmware level: Not Available
 Firmware Version: IBM,SF235_209
 Console Login: enable
 Auto Restart: true
 Full Core: false

 Network Information
        Host Name: sapnims
        IP Address: 10.253.1.24
        Sub Netmask: 255.255.255.0
        Gateway: 10.253.1.253
        Name Server: 128.137.24.4
        Domain Name: gene.com

 Paging Space Information
        Total Paging Space: 512MB
        Percent Used: 1%

 Volume Groups Information
 
 rootvg:
 PV_NAME           PV STATE          TOTAL PPs   FREE PPs    FREE DISTRIBUTION
 hdisk0            active            546         1           00..00..00..00..01
 hdisk1            active            546         1           00..00..00..00..01
 
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