Network Installation Management Guide and Reference

About This Guide and Reference

AIX Version 4.3 Network Installation Management Guide and Reference provides information about managing the installation and configuration of software by using a network interface. Network Installation Management (NIM) enables you to centrally manage the installation of AIX Version 4.1 (and later) Base Operating System (BOS) and optional software on machines within a networked environment. NIM enables you to install AIX Version 4.1 (and later) on one or more machines from a server that already has AIX Version 4.1 (or later) installed.

This guide does not:

Describe how to install BOS onto a single machine without the use of a network installation server. For complete information about installing BOS, see AIX Version 4.3 Installation Guide.
Describe how to manage networks. See AIX Version 4.3 System Management Guide: Communications and Networks for information about network management.

The information in this book can also be found on the AIX Version 4.3 Base Documentation CD. This online documentation is designed for use with an HTML 3.2 web browser.

Who Should Use This Book

This guide is for system administrators who manage the installation and configuration of one or more AIX machines in a network environment.

Readers of this guide should be familiar with the installation procedures in AIX Version 4.3 Installation Guide, understand AIX system administration, and know how to manage a network environment.

How to Use This Book

This section describes the contents of this book, the highlighting conventions, and related publications.

Overview of Contents

This section lists the contents of this guide and briefly describes each chapter and appendix.

Chapter 1, Network Installation Management (NIM) Introduction, provides an introduction to the basic elements of the NIM environment and the operations you can perform to manage the installation of the Base Operating System and optional software on one or more machines.
Chapter 2, Choosing a NIM Master, discusses the requirements of the master machine in the NIM environment.
Chapter 3, Basic Network Installation Management (NIM) Operations and Configuration, describes the procedures for performing basic NIM operations and simple configuration tasks.
Chapter 4, NIM Client Operations, describes the procedures for performing NIM installation operations from client machines.
Chapter 5, Advanced NIM Installation Tasks, describes the procedures for performing advanced NIM installation tasks.
Chapter 6, Advanced NIM Configuration Tasks, describes the procedures for performing advanced NIM configuration tasks.
Chapter 7, Additional Topics, provides information about additional tasks you may need to perform in the NIM environment. These tasks are not part of the usual NIM environment setup and installation procedures.
Chapter 8, Network Installation Management Concepts, discusses the concepts required to understand the operation of Network Installation Management (NIM).
Chapter 9, Network Installation Management Commands, contains information about NIM commands.
Chapter 10, Error and Warning Messages, provides an explanation of error and warning messages displayed by NIM commands, with recovery information.
Chapter 11, Network Installation Management Troubleshooting, provides information for solving network installation problems.
Appendix A, Network Boot, describes the procedures for booting a machine over a network.
Appendix B, Hardware-Related Tasks, describes the procedure for determining a machine's network hardware address and the procedures that enable a machine to boot using the network interface.
Appendix C, Sample Files, provides sample bosinst.data and script resource files, as well as a sample definition file for the nimdef command.
Appendix D, NIM Compatibility and Limitations, contains information about compatibility and limitations between AIX Version 4.1 and AIX Version 4.2 (and later).
Glossary defines terms used in this guide.

Highlighting

In this publication, the following conventions are used:

bold	Identifies commands, flags, keywords, files, directories, and other items whose names are predefined by the system.
italics	Identifies parameters whose actual names or values are to be supplied by the user.
`monospace`	Identifies examples of specific data values, examples of text similar to what you might see displayed, examples of portions of program code similar to what you might write as a programmer, messages from the system, or information you should actually type.

ISO 9000

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

Corequisite Publications

The following books supplement the information in AIX Version 4.3 Network Installation Management Guide and Reference:

AIX and Related Products Documentation Overview, order number SC23-2456
AIX Version 4.3 Installation Guide, order number SC23-4112
AIX Version 4.3 System Management Guide: Communications and Networks, order number SC23-4127

Related Publications

The following publications contain information related to AIX Version 4.3 Network Installation Management Guide and Reference:

AIX Version 4.3 Commands Reference, order number SBOF-1877 (six volumes)
AIX Version 4.3 Problem Solving Guide and Reference, order number SC23-4123
AIX Version 4.3 System Management Guide: Operating System and Devices, order number SC23-4126
AIX Version 3.2 Installation Guide, order number SC23-2341
AIX Version 4.1 Installation Guide, order number SC23-2550
AIX Version 4.2 Installation Guide, order number SC23-1924

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 SC23-4113. Use AIX and Related Products Documentation Overview for information on related publications and how to obtain them.