AIX - Boot Tips

AIX Boot process

1. Contents of Boot Logical Volume (/dev/hd5) 
2. How to change the current Boot device order 
3. Viewing AIX Boot and console Logs 
4. Open Firmware

Contents of Boot Logical Volume:

• Kernal - Copy of /unix
• LVM Commands
• ODM Predefined Structure
• ODM Customized Structure
• rc.boot shell script

Listing and changing the current boot order:

bootlist -m normal -o          # Lists the current bootlist 

bootlist -m normal cd0 hdisk0  # To set cd0 and hdisk0 as first and second boot devices

bootlist -m service cd0 rmt0   # To change the bootlist for service mode

Viewing AIX Boot and Console Logs:

Boot and console messages can be used to identify and fix problems. These messages are automatically stored on disk by AIX. To view the stored messages, use the alog command. Here are a couple examples of the alog command:

 #alog -L        #  List the defined log types

 # alog -L

 boot

 bosinst

 nim

 console

 cfg

 dumpsymp

# alog -o -t boot  #  View the boot log

# alog -o -t console #  View the console log

To find out the properties of boot log file:

# alog -L -t boot

 file:size:verbosity

 /var/adm/ras/bootlog:131072:1

To find out whether a Hard drive is bootable:

 # ipl_varyon -i

 PVNAME          BOOT DEVICE     PVID                                    VOLUME GROUP ID

 hdisk0          YES             00c898eb372ea9410000000000000000        00c898eb00004c00

 hdisk1          YES             00c898eb38483a300000000000000000        00c898eb00004c00

 hdisk2          NO              00c898bbdd86318c0000000000000000        00c898bb00004c00

Open Firmware:

To get to open fimware, press F8 / 8 during system startup.

If the system hangs during boot, to get the detailed information of the boot messages, from the OK prompt:

OK> boot -s verbose