IBM AIX Tools at Your Fingertips

Having the right tool for the job just got easier for AIX users thanks to the newAIX Support Center Tools web site, just announced by IBM. The site is easy to navigate and it contains some commonly used tools for AIX 7.1, 6.1, and 5.3. The tools currently available fall into two categories: Data Gathering tools and Recommendation tools. 

The Data Gathering tools are really helpful for problem determination. They can be especially useful if you’re facing difficulties in your AIX configuration or if you're dealing with a performance problem. 

The Recommendation tools provide health check reports or cross-product compatibility information -- the sort of information you'd use before upgrading your system software, firmware or hardware. 

There’s also some documentation for all of these tools, showing the features of the tools and how to use them. 

Here's a quick look at the tools available. 

DATA GATHERING TOOLS

snap
There's the snap command for capturing system configuration information for AIX and PowerHA. If you've logged a software or hardware call with IBM for your Power System or for AIX, chances are you've been asked to send a snap using a command such as snap -ac. The snap tool is a quick way of gathering information quickly so the next level of support can look at it to identify possible trouble spots. 

zsnap 

Related to the snap tool is zsnap. This captures additional debugging data in an easy-to-understand format. Zsnap has some new support for components such as NFS, SAN, MPIO, PowerHA, and Cluster Aware AIX. You can capture and send data to IBM with zsnap, after answering a few simple questions such as the Problem Management Record (PMR) number, and the email address for confirmation of the data upload. You can run zsnap using the SMIT fast path: smit zsnap. 

Performance and Tuning (perfpmr) 

When you want to investigate a performance problem, the one package you need is perfpmr. This contains a set of tools which help collect data for submitting to AIX Support Centers. perfpmr can be used to hone in on the root cause of performance bottlenecks. One bonus of perfpmr is that it provides valuable instructions which help you describe and diagnose performance problems. 

RECOMMENDATION TOOLS

VIOS Advisor 

At present, there are two recommendation tools available on the AIX Support Center Tools web site.  

The VIOS Advisor runs on the PowerVM Virtual I/O (VIOS) partition, and gives a quick view of VIOS performance, with some assessments and recommendations on what can be improved–or at least investigated further. The VIOS advisor is quick to install and run. It can give you some quick wins in improving your VIOS configuration and performance. 

Fix Level Recommendation Tool (FLRT)
If you're looking to install a new system, upgrade firmware, hardware, operating systems or even Middleware, then the Fix Level Recommendation Tool (FLRT to its friends) should be your first port of call. FLRT offers an impressive list of infrastructure components which may need to be updated as part of a wider upgrade. You can choose an OS family (for example AIX, IBM i, Linux), a platform (Power or Blade) and a host of products. Best of all, the FLRT tool gives you links to most of the software or firmware you may need to download. 

Free and Easy

When you're managing IBM Power Systems, it's a big help to have free tools available. Knowing where to find them is just as important. The new AIX Support Center Tools web site is a great place to start. 

Resources
VIOS Advisor Wiki 
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/WikiPtype/VIOS+Advisor  

Wiki for Perfromance Monitoring Tips and Techniques 
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/WikiPtype/Performance+Monitoring+Tips+and+Techniques 

The Performance Detective: Where does it hurt? Describing performance problems helps you diagnose them. 
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-performancedectective/