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Introduction
The AIX operating system is the particular IBM flavor of UNIX. IBM first released AIX in 1986 as AIX
version 1.0 and, through several iterations over the past 22 years (AIX version 6.1 was the latest
version at the time of writing), AIX has matured into a solid UNIX system.
While many interchange the terms AIX and RS/6000, they are not the same thing. AIX is the UNIX
operating system; IBM RS/6000® is the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) server hardware
that AIX can run on. IBM initially launched AIX on the IBM 6150 RT workstation; through the years,
AIX has progressed through IBM PS/2 Intel® 386 computers, IBM mainframes, and the POWER
architecture. AIX now runs on IBM System p™ (formerly known as RS/6000) and System i™
(formerly known as IBM iSeries® and AS/400®) computers.
To set the bootlist for a specific boot method, type the switch m and the appropriate boot method
followed by the desired boot devices. In the following example, the bootlist for a normal boot is
altered to attempt to boot the server in the order of hdisk0, cd0, or cd1:
bootlist -m normal hdisk0 cd0 cd1
As you can see from the previous examples, the m switch has been used each time to discern which
boot method to modify or display. This option allows modification to normal, service (single-user
maintenance mode), both (normal and service), and prevboot (the previous bootlist).
The descriptions for the fields defined in the /etc/inittab file are:
The init or run levels are different on AIX from other UNIX- or Linux®based systems. The
following run levels are defined in AIX:
The following example shows running a shell script named /usr/bin/rc.atc_bin when run level 2 has
been initiated and respawn every other time run level 2 is called:
CORMANY_B IN :2 : respawn: /us r /b in / rc .a tc _b in
The following example adds the /usr/bin/rc.atc_bin script in the inittab with a run level 2.
mki tab
“CORMANY_B IN :2 : respawn: /us r /b in / rc .a tc _b i n”
• chitab: Changes records in the inittab file. The syntax is identical to the actual record in the
inittab file.
The following example changes the previous example's /usr/bin/rc.atc_bin script in the
inittab file to run level 3:
ch i tab
"CORMANY_B IN :3 : respawn: /us r /b in / rc .a tc _b in "
• lsitab: List records in the inittab file. Using lsitab is a safe means of viewing the inittab
records individually or all together.
The following example removes the record identified by CORMANY_BIN from the inittab file:
rm i tab CORMANY_B IN
Conclusion
Now that the inittab file has been read and all the proper processes have been executed, the system
is at a login waiting for you! You may now log in to and enjoy your AIX system.
It may not seem like a lot when you press the power button on a server and it magically starts up,
but as you can see, there's a lot to the AIX system when it is starting. Hopefully, by reading this
article you have gained a new appreciation of what AIX has to go through to provide the base of a
solid operating system.