IBM AIX - How to create LPP Source and SPOT in NIM

IBM AIX - How to create LPP Source and SPOT in NIM

This is a quick and dirty method of setting up an LPP source and SPOT of AIX 5.3 TL10 SP2, without having to swap DVD's into the AIX host machine. What you basically need is the actual AIX 5.3 TL10 SP2 DVD's from IBM, a Windows host, and access to your NIM server.

Create ISO images of the DVD's through Windows, e.g. by using MagicISO. SCP these ISO image files over to the AIX NIM server, e.g. by using WinSCP.

We need a way to access the data in the ISO images on the NIM server, and to extract the filesets from it (see IBM Wiki).

Create a logical volume that is big enough to hold the data of one DVD. Check with "lsvg rootvg" if you have enough space in rootvg and what the PP size is. In our example it is 64 MB. Thus, to hold an ISO image of roughly 4.7 GB, we would need roughly 80 LPs of 64 MB.

# /usr/sbin/mklv -y testiso -t jfs rootvg 80

Create filesystem on it:

# /usr/sbin/crfs -v jfs -d testiso -m /testiso -An -pro -tn -a frag=4096 -a nbpi=4096 -a ag=8

Create a location where to store all of the AIX filesets on the server:

# mkdir /sw_depot/5300-10-02-0943-full

Copy the ISO image to the logical volume:

# /usr/bin/dd if=/tmp/aix53-tl10-sp2-dvd1.iso of=/dev/rtestiso bs=1m
# chfs -a vfs=cdrfs /testiso

Mount the testiso filesystem and copy the data:

# mount /testiso
# bffcreate -d /testiso -t /sw_depot/5300-10-02-0943-full all
# umount /testiso

Repeat the above 5 steps for both DVD's. You'll end up with a folder of at least 4 GB.

Delete the iso logical volume:

# rmfs -r /testiso
# rmlv testiso

Make also sure to delete any left-over ISO images:

# rm -rf /tmp/aix53-tl10-sp2-dvd*iso

Define the LPP source (From the NIM A to Z redbook):

# mkdir /export/lpp_source/LPPaix53tl10sp2
# nim -o define -t lpp_source -a server=master -a location=/export/lpp_source/LPPaix53tl10sp2 -a source=/sw_depot/5300-10-02-0943-full LPPaix53tl10sp2

Check with:

# lsnim -l LPPaix53tl10sp2

Rebuild the .toc:

# nim -Fo check LPPaix53tl10sp2

Define the SPOT from the LPP source:

# nim -o define -t spot -a server=master -a location=/export/spot/SPOTaix53tl10sp2 -a source=LPPaix53tl10sp2 -a installp_flags=-aQg SPOTaix53tl10sp2

Check the SPOT:

# nim -o check SPOTaix53tl10sp2
# nim -o lppchk -a show_progress=yes SPOTaix53tl10sp2

A small note when you're using AIX 7 / AIX 6.1:

Significant changes have been made in AIX 7 and AIX 6.1 that add new support for NIM. In particular there is now the capability to use the loopmount command to mount iso images into filesystems. As an example:

# loopmount -i aixv7-base.iso -m /aix -o "-V cdrfs -o ro"

The above mounts the AIX 7 base iso as a filesystem called /aix. You can now create an lpp_source or spot from the iso or you can simply read the files.