IBM AIX System Administration Cheat Sheet

Beginner-friendly IBM AIX 6.1/7.1 administration cheat sheet.

Operating System

oslevel -s
uname -a
prtconf
lscfg

Disk Management

lspv
lspv hdisk0
lsvg
lsvg rootvg
lsvg -l rootvg
lsfs
df -g
du -sm *
chfs -a size=+2G /data
mount /data
umount /data

Memory & CPU

lsattr -El sys0 | grep realmem
svmon -G
vmstat
lsps -a
lsps -s
lsdev -Cc processor
prtconf | grep Processor
vmstat 2
topas

User Administration

lsuser ALL
mkuser username
rmuser username
passwd username
chuser account_locked=true username
chuser account_locked=false username

Process Management

ps -ef
ps -ef | grep oracle
kill PID
kill -9 PID

Service Management

lssrc -a
startsrc -s service_name
stopsrc -s service_name
refresh -s service_name

Network

ifconfig -a
hostname
ifconfig en0
netstat -rn
ping hostname
netstat -an

Hardware Changes

After adding disks, HBAs, NICs or SAN LUNs:

cfgmgr
lsdev -C
lsdev -Cc disk
lsdev -Cc adapter
rmdev -dl hdisk5
rmdev -d -l hdisk5
mkdev -l hdisk5
lscfg -vl hdisk0

Firmware

lsmcode
lscfg -vp
lscfg -vl fcs0
prtconf
lsmcode

Error Logs

errpt
errpt -a
errpt | head
errclear 0

Shutdown

shutdown -F
shutdown -Fp
shutdown -Fr

Daily Commands

Task	Command
OS Version	oslevel -s
System Info	prtconf
Hardware	lscfg
Disks	lspv
Volume Groups	lsvg
File Systems	lsfs
Disk Usage	df -g
Memory	svmon -G
CPU	topas
Processes	ps -ef
Error Logs	errpt
Detect Hardware	cfgmgr
Firmware	lsmcode

Best Practices

• Run cfgmgr after hardware changes.
• Check errpt daily.
• Verify free space before extending filesystems.
• Confirm firmware before and after upgrades.
• Use topas during performance troubleshooting.