About This Book

This book contains information for understanding the concepts of the AIX operating system and the tasks that you perform in your day-to-day life as a system administrator, as well as the tools AIX provides for system management. Use this book together with the AIX Version 4.3 System Management Guide: Operating System and Devices, SC23-4126.

Note: You can also find the information in this book on the AIX Version 4.3 Base Documentation CD. This online documentation is designed for use with an HTML version 3.2 compatible web browser.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is for persons performing system management on the computer and operating system. Readers of this book are expected to know basic operating system commands.

It is assumed that you are familiar with the information and concepts presented in the following publications:

• AIX Version 4.3 System User's Guide: Operating System and Devices, SC23-4121
• AIX Version 4.3 System User's Guide: Communications and Networks, SC23-4122
• AIX Version 4.3 Installation Guide, SC23-4112

How to Use This Book

This book is organized to help you quickly find the information you need. The tasks of each chapter are arranged in the following order:

• Overview of topic/task group
• Configuration tasks
• Maintenance tasks
• Troubleshooting

  Note: The troubleshooting sections are helpful when you know the cause of your problem. If you encounter a problem for which you do not know the cause, refer to the AIX Version 4.3 Problem Solving Guide and Reference.

Overview of Contents

This book contains the following chapters and appendixes:

• Chapter 1, "AIX System Management," introduces the major tools provided to assist you in system management and the features specific to the system.

• Chapter 2, "System Startup and Shutdown," contains conceptual information about starting and stopping the system as well as procedural information to guide you in performing these tasks.

• Chapter 3, "Security," introduces the security features, including the Trusted Computing Base (TCB), the virscan command that detects viruses, auditing, and access control.

• Chapter 4, "Administrative Roles," contains conceptual information about roles and authorization as well as procedural information to guide you in setting up and maintaining roles.

• Chapter 5, "Users and Groups," discusses the features available to manage individual users and illustrates procedures used to manage groups of users.

• Chapter 6, "Logical Volumes," contains an overview of managing logical volume storage concepts and procedures.

• Chapter 7, "File Systems," contains in-depth concepts and procedures for managing files, directories, and file systems.

• Chapter 8, "Paging Space and Virtual Memory," discusses the practical uses of paging space allocations, how to create and maintain paging space for your system, and the Virtual Memory Manager program.

• Chapter 9, "Backup and Restore," introduces the commands and concepts used to save your data and restore it from backup.

• Chapter 10, "System Environment," discusses basic environment components you can manage and how to work with these components. Also included are instructions that explain how to change the message of the day, broadcast messages to users, and work with profiles.

• Chapter 11, "National Language Support," introduces the special considerations necessary for managing a system in various languages and time zones.

• Chapter 12, "Process Management," introduces system processes and how to use them.

• Chapter 13, "System Resource Controller and Subsystems," introduces this feature and discusses ways to use the controller.

• Chapter 14, "System Accounting," introduces the conceptual background information needed to use the wide array of system accounting commands and subroutines.

• Chapter 15, "Web-based System Manager" describes Web-based System Manager in both stand-alone and Client-Server environments.

• Chapter 16, "System Management Interface Tool," describes the use and structure of the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT). SMIT is a command-building user interface that assists the system manager in constructing and recreating many system management tasks. The interface can be used in an ASCII or windows environment.

• Chapter 17, "AIX Common Desktop Environment," describes the AIX Common Desktop Environment.

• Chapter 18, "Documentation Search Service" allows you to search online HTML documents on your documentation server that have been indexed. This section provides information on installation and configuation, and how to create your own indexes to search User created documents.

• Chapter 19, "Power Management," describes the system management and general user tasks for Power Management.

• Chapter 20, "Devices," provides a brief overview of the methods used by the operating system to manage a wide range of devices.

• Chapter 21, "Tape Drives," discusses system management functions related to tape drives.

• Appendix A, "AIX for BSD System Managers," contains information for system managers who are familiar with the 4.3 BSD UNIX or System V operating system. This chapter explains both similarities and differences.

Highlighting

The following highlighting conventions are used in this book:

ISO 9000

ISO 9000 registered quality systems were used in the development and manufacturing of this product.

Other Key Sources of System Management Information

Publications Covering Other Aspects of System Management

In today's computing environment, it is impossible to create a single book that addresses all the needs and concerns of a system administrator. While this guide cannot address everything, we have tried to structure the rest of our library so that a few key books can provide you with direction on each major aspect of your job.

The following books cover other key topics of interest to you:

• AIX Version 4.3 System Management Guide: Communications and Networks, SC23-4127, covers network administration and maintenance.
• AIX Version 4.3 Installation Guide, SC23-2550
• Problem Solving and Messages:
  • AIX Version 4.3 Problem Solving Guide and Reference, SC23-4123
  • AIX Version 4.3 Messages Guide and Reference, SC23-4129
• AIX Version 4.3 General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs, SC23-4128, introduces you to the programming tools and interfaces available for writing and debugging application programs.
• AIX Version 4.3 Communications Programming Concepts, SC23-4124, provides conceptual and procedural information about various communications programming tools.
• AIX Version 4.3 Quick Beginnings, SC23-4114.
• AIX Version 4.3 Kernel Extensions and Device Support Programming Concepts, SC23-4125.
• AIX Version 4.3 Files Reference, SC23-4168.
• Monitoring and tuning system performance:
  • AIX Versions 3.2 and 4 Performance Tuning Guide, SC23-2365, describes the performance monitoring and tuning tools available with the base operating system.
  • Performance Toolbox Version 1.2 and 2 for AIX: Guide and Reference, SC23-2625, describes the additional monitoring tools available with Performance Toolbox for AIX.
• AIX Version 4.3 Network Installation Management Guide and Reference, SC23-4113, covers configuration and maintenance of diskless workstations.
• AIX Version 4 Xstation Management Guide, SC23-2713, covers Xstation configuration and maintenance.
• Distributed SMIT 2.2 for AIX: Guide and Reference, SC23-2667 , covers information about the Distributed System Management Interface Tool (DSMIT).
• Common Desktop Environment 1.0: Advanced User's and System Administrator's Guide, SC23-2795, covers advanced tasks in customizing the appearance and behavior of the Common Desktop Environment (CDE).
• Object Data Manager (ODM) Overview in AIX Version 4.3 General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs.

AIX Support for the X/Open UNIX95 Specification

Beginning with AIX Version 4.2, the operating system is designed to support the X/Open UNIX95 Specification for portability of UNIX-based operating systems. Many new interfaces, and some current ones, have been added or enhanced to meet this specification. Beginning with Version 4.2, AIX is even more open and portable for applications.

At the same time, compatibility with previous AIX releases is preserved. This is accomplished by the creation of a new environment variable, which can be used to set the system environment on a per-system, per-user, or per-process basis.

To determine the proper way to develop a UNIX95-portable application, you may need to refer to the X/Open UNIX95 Specification, which can be obtained on a CD-ROM by ordering the printed copy of AIX Version 4.3 Commands Reference, order number SBOF-1877, or by ordering Go Solo: How to Implement and Go Solo with the Single Unix Specification, order number SR28-5705, a book which includes the X/Open UNIX95 Specification on a CD-ROM.

Reference Information

The following publications contain information on the commands and files used in the operating system.

• AIX Version 4.3 Commands Reference, SBOF-1877, is a six-volume set that contains supported commands in alphabetical order.
• AIX Version 4.3 Files Reference, SC23-4168, contains information on the files available with the operating system.

The following books contain other information you may find useful in day-to-day managing:

• AIX Version 4.3 Quick Reference, SC23-2529, contains brief descriptions of frequently used commands, along with brief summaries of the commands.
• AIX Version 4.3 INed Editor User's Guide contains information on the INed editor.

Ordering Publications

You can order publications from your sales representative or from your point of sale.

To order additional copies of this book, use order number SC23-4126.

Use AIX and Related Products Documentation Overview for information on related publications and how to obtain them.