IBM-AIX Technical Help

UNIX AIX
1

Hi All :b:,

Motto : I am in need of IBM-AIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.

I am working as an a operator, on solaris 5.10 env. i have got an opportunity of IBM-AIX Administrator Job. I really don't want to miss this opportunity.

By the way i have basic knowledge of Solaris UNIX, I have confident i will clear 1st level of interview which will be interviewed by HR. But next round i will be facing to IBM-AIX Administrator and definately he will be bowling with technical question of which i am not aware:confused:. Therefore i need help of you guys as i dont know what kind of question he would ask me on AIX.

Everyone's help would be appreciated. If possible please advise me with some common question which are asked by AIX-Admins, It would be great help :b:.

Thanks & Regards,
Imran

2

Depends on if you told you have AIX knowledge or not and are willing to get it.
So if they know you didn't work with AIX and they are no morons, they would ask you somewhat generic questions, I guess.

Maybe read up about ODM, LVM and smit, which might be the most significant differences though I have never touched a Solaris box yet.

3

Thanks for advice...but i have never worked on AIX, and currently working as Unix Operator since 3 yrs.
I looking forward for UNix Admin job. Please let me know some generic question for solaris.
And please do let me know what role does Unix admin play and what are his primary Duties?
:b:Everyones help is appreciated.... :slight_smile:

Thanks,
Imran

4

Depends on where you work I guess.
Usually you have to care for the systems, check that no filesystem is getting full (df), check local mails (mail) sometimes, do shell scripting to make your day easier ie. write scripts that do checks on stuff like that mentioned checking for free filesystems.
You will also add/modify/delete users, groups, filesystems, directories and files etc., alter permissions etc., configure hardware and so on.

I wrote a categorized list for AIX/Linux commands for our apprentices - maybe it helps a bit to look up which commands might be interessting.

        LINUX                   AIX
===================================================
Text:
        cat                     "
        more                    "
        pg                      "
        cut                     "
        sort                    "
        grep                    "
        head                    "
        tail                    "
        join                    "
        paste                   "
        split                   "
        csplit                  "
        *awk                    "
        *sed                    "

Files:
        ls                      "
        cd                      "
        cp                      "
        mv                      "
        find                    "
        tr                      "
        df                      "
        du                      "
        cpio                    "
        file                    "
        diff                    "
        which                   "
        whatis                  "
        tar                     "
        gzip                    "
        bzip2                   "
        compress                "

Processes:
        ps                      "
        kill                    "
        nice                    "
        renice                  "
        nohup                   "
        &                       "
        ctrl+z                  "
        fg                      "
        bg                      "

Administrative stuff:
        su                      "
        passwd                  "
        chown                   "
        chmod                   "
        last                    "
        who (am i)              "
        whoami                  "
        useradd                 mkuser (better use smit)
        groupadd                mkgroup (better use smit)
        id                      "
        at                      "
        crontab                 "
        mount                   "
        -                       oslevel
        uname                   "
        ulimit                  "
        free                    bootinfo -r
        host                    "
        ifconfig                "
        netstat                 "
        ipcs                    "
        ipcrm                   "
        mail                    "
        dmesg                   alog -f /var/adm/ras/bootlog -o
        /var/log/messages       errpt
        -                       lsattr
        -                       chdev
        lsmod                   -
        modprobe                -
        insmod                  -

Printers:
        lpstat                  lpstat
        lp                      lp; enq



Performance/Monitoring:
        vmstat                  "
        sar                     "
        iostat                  "
        top; ntop               topas; monitor; nmon
        ethereal                (has to be compiled maybe)
        tcpdump                 "
        -                       filemon
        -                       svmon

LVM:
        pvdisplay               lspv
        vgdisplay               lsvg
        lvdisplay               lslv
        -                       lsfs
        pvcreate                "
        vgcreate                mkvg
        lvcreate                mklv

Paket management:
        rpm                     installp
        rpm -qa                 lslpp
        dpkg                    -
        apt-cache               -
        apt-get                 -
        -                       instfix

Shell:
        env                     "
        set                     "
        if; fi                  "
        else                    "
        elif                    "
        case; esac              "
        while; do; done         "
        for; do; done           "
        let                     "
        (())                    "
        eval                    "

Miscellaneous:
        ftp                     "
        rsh                     "
        rcp                     "
        ssh                     "
        scp                     "
        rsync                   "
        wget                    -
        yast                    smit(ty)

It would be rediculous to demand that you know many or the half of them as an operator, I think. But maybe you can surprise them :slight_smile:

Oh, the list is a bit messed up sorry - I try to fix that. Basically it has 2 columns :slight_smile: and at the end "yast" is especially for SuSE Linux.

5

Dear Zaxxon:b:,

Thanks for putting your efforts unknow person like me. But thanks again.
You have made my job very much easier i dont know what way i should thank you.
You have mentioned one thing that is 100% right i should not reveal what i am? but again i thought i should be true on this forum then and then only pals like will help me.....thanks again.....
But zax currently i have applied for solaris admin job within 10days please let me know if you have some technical questions like what happens when system crash what admin has to do:rolleyes:?

Thanks, Imran

6

You want to be asked Solaris questions? In the beginning you said you applied for an AIX admin job :confused: :slight_smile:
For Solaris I can't ask you anything, but there is a Solaris subforum too. I doubt that many Solaris people look into the AIX subforum.

7

To be honest i am always having mixed feelings when i read a thread like this: threadstarter wants to get a better job - so far so ok with me - but seeks help to appear someone else than he really is.

Save for the fact that i have a moral problem with deceit, i have been two times been in a position where i had to work with people who where successful in what threadstarter is attempting. Both occasions are not part the memories i am particularly fond of. Having to explain to a supposed fellow senior SysAdmin how to add a line in vi is nothing you want to do if the task is "set up a new NIM server". You instantly know that you are completely on your own. Call me vindictive, i let the management know in no unclear terms about this colleagues competences.

Having said this, here is my advice to NycUnxer:

  • don't try to look better in the interview than you really are. Even if you are successful and get away with it it will, more sooner than later, come out anyways. Do you really want to explain that to your colleagues? Do you want your new colleagues share your part of the load because you are not qualified to do it yourself? You are, what you are and if they don't like it - their bad.

There will be jobs where you will be accepted as a newcomer and this will be taken into consideration when handing out the tasks. You can gain experience there and an then move to a better job when you have the credentials to fill it.

  • Unix is, for one part, things you can learn: commands, facilities, structures, ... Unix is, for an even greater part, experience: you have to have worked with the tools over a longer time to really appreciate them and understand their inner harmony to the full. Experience is something you cannot emulate - even less so than knowledge. Real-Life-problems are not simple tasks like in textbooks. RL-problems are complex, interdependent tasks where every decision affects a lot of - sometimes only remotely connected - other things. Being aware of these interdependencies is part of this experience. You don't get this out of any book, you have to be exposed to the jobs tasks to build it.

You have to have attempted to write a 2000-line-shellscript and you have to have failed miserably in the last part of it to appreciate things like encapsulation, variable declaration, strict typing, naming conventions, etc. In a textbook you might find all these things explained along with a 5-line-example. On this the procedure looks usually superficial and finical. You will now "know" something, but you will not "feel" it. Again, write some 100k+-scripts and you will get the feeling pretty fast. This is experience.

Bottom line: if you are looking for some test questions like

Q: how to increase a filesystem?
A: use the "chfs -a size=+ ..." command

then you are wrong already. Not, because the answer is wrong, but because the question is wrong.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

8

Thanks for all your support.
Actually few days back i applied for job, their requirement was for AIX. Therefore i posted my query in this part of forum. But in between i got chance of shifting to Solaris Side therefore i thought of continuing the same thread here instead of Solaris as already i am working in Solaris environment. however the main reason is to get INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.
But thanks zaxxon & bakunin for showing me the right way for preparation & basic understanding :).
Soon i will pass on good news to all you guys once i get new role...:b:

Thanks :wink: