IBM AIX - Anyone work with it?

The title pretty much says it all. I am curious to know whether anyone works with it on a regular basis or not. I got a call from an IBM partner working downtown in my city. They basically said that it would be pretty basic work but I would need to do some support of AIX, Red Hat, and Sun. I know about Sun and Red Hat but nothing about AIX.

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brad-

We use AIX and Informix to host our main application. It was here long before me. It's very solid. The only thing from an admin perspective that is a little frustrating is printers.

I dont love it, but it is rock solid. Since it is so different though, our developer is trying to move us to W2k8/SQL2k8. It'll definitely have more problems, but at least we'll know what we're looking at.

tiersten

Yeah. I'm the sysadmin for all the AIX machines here. Most of it is fairly straightforward and configuration can generally be done with SMIT. The advantage of SMIT is that you can also see the commands it is actually running to do the changes if you ask it or look in the log. If you're dealing with LPARs and HMCs then things become a little more complicated however.

IBM have good documentation and if you do go into AIX administration then you should download the manuals and the redbooks.

Turgon

knwminus wrote: »

The title pretty much says it all. I am curious to know whether anyone works with it on a regular basis or not. I got a call from an IBM partner working downtown in my city. They basically said that it would be pretty basic work but I would need to do some support of AIX, Red Hat, and Sun. I know about Sun and Red Hat but nothing about AIX.

I installled 2.2.1 on an IBM 6150 back in 1998. Five and a quarter inch floppies, lots of them. A lot of production systems were installed on big blue back then and still are.

subl1m1nal

Unfortunately, I support one...kinda.

We pay for support, and I generally call them (application provider) for support.

I have to agree, printing is a *****.

tiersten

Turgon wrote: »

I installled 2.2.1 on an IBM 6150 back in 1998. Five and a quarter inch floppies, lots of them. A lot of production systems were installed on big blue back then and still are.

Yeah. IBM is big in production systems and financial systems. Loads of AS400s as well.

eMeS

I've worked with it quite a bit over the years, and in fact I have a p4 and p5 at home at the moment.

Occasionally you can find system p hardware on eBay for reasonable prices.

MS

Bl8ckr0uter

Thanks for the input guys. The position I was referencing is going to be a long shot. It is basically a JR *Nix tech, security tech, and backup tech. I would really like it, because it would take my career in a different direction (*Nix support/engineering) but they wanted someone with IBM experience (which I have basically none of). We will see, phone screen coming up later this week.

seuss_ssues

If you are comfortable with the linux command line then alot of that will transition easily over to AIX. Also smit is your friend.

Do a little reading and you should be fine.

eMeS

seuss_ssues wrote: »

If you are comfortable with the linux command line then alot of that will transition easily over to AIX. Also smit is your friend.

Do a little reading and you should be fine.

Agree with this completely....save for purists, pretty much *nix is *nix is *nix....

MS

Bl8ckr0uter

eMeS wrote: »

Agree with this completely....save for purists, pretty much *nix is *nix is *nix....

MS

Cool. I would really like this job. If I can get it, I might abandon the CCNP quest for a moment and pick up the SCSA and IBM Certified Admin. Who knows though, we will see.

eMeS

knwminus wrote: »

Cool. I would really like this job. If I can get it, I might abandon the CCNP quest for a moment and pick up the SCSA and IBM Certified Admin. Who knows though, we will see.

I know a ton of people that do AIX-related work, and I can't think of any of them that hold any of the IBM certs. Seems to be that in much of the *nix world certs either don't have a good rep, don't carry much weight, or are looked down upon for some reason....

MS

Bl8ckr0uter

eMeS wrote: »

I know a ton of people that do AIX-related work, and I can't think of any of them that hold any of the IBM certs. Seems to be that in much of the *nix world certs either don't have a good rep, don't carry much weight, or are looked down upon for some reason....

MS

I have noticed the same thing. This place is a IBM partner so getting those certs maybe advantageous (or required). Who knows though...

UnixGuy

knwminus wrote: »

Thanks for the input guys. The position I was referencing is going to be a long shot. It is basically a JR *Nix tech, security tech, and backup tech. I would really like it, because it would take my career in a different direction (*Nix support/engineering) but they wanted someone with IBM experience (which I have basically none of). We will see, phone screen coming up later this week.

Go for it...you'll get a very good experience, and you'll learn lot of things. You'll get good server/storage/backup experience as well.