NIM master-client connectivity issue

UNIX AIX
1

Hello All,
I believe my NIM master is fine. lsnim and cat /etc/niminfo gives me the right output. While doing "lsnim" on a client machine, I get ksh:lsnim:"not found".
Please someone be nice enough to explain what are the steps to verify the master and client connectivity to do all the NIM supported task.

thanks in advance..

2

That's O.K. as lsnim is part of the nim master fileset.

3

There are several steps required to get the NIM master talking to the NIM client.

  1. NIM client fileset must be installed on the client.
  2. NIM master must be able to rsh to the client. (Later can change this to use nimsh protocol, but when starting it is easiest to use rsh.)
    a. Client /.rhosts file must contain line with hostname of master. Permissions on this file must be 600.
    b. /etc/inetd.conf file must not have commented out shell service -- sometimes security hardening turns off rsh. If you have to change file to remove comment, save file and enter command "refresh -s inetd" to make the daemon reload the file.
    c. Master and client must be able to resolve each other's hostname. Put in /etc/hosts entries on both (or update DNS) to make it so.
    d. From master must be able to enter command: "rsh clienthostname date" and get a response.
  3. Now can define client to master.
4

I've had good luck getting my NIM clients setup by doing this on machines that are already running:

On the NIM server, setup the remote machine as a NIM client.
smitty nim --> Perform NIM Administration Tasks --> Manage Machines --> Define a Machine --> [hostname of remote machine]

I set it up to use "nimsh" right off the bat because our security department hates rsh.

Once the NIM server is configured, log into the soon-to-be NIM client:
smitty nim --> Configure Network Installation Management Client Fileset --> [fill in the required fields (marked with *) and set "Communication Protocol used by client" to nimsh"]

After that is run, it should be setup as a NIM client.