Test 223: System p Administrator

Section 1 – Planning

1. Determine resource needs, features and limitations of required and installed hardware and OS levels, and redundancy requirements.
2. Describe Virtualization
1. LPAR and DLPAR and Advanced Power Virtualization features, benefits, functions, and VIO capabilities)
2. Micropartioning and Virtual I/O
3. Differentiate between the methods used to assign resources to virtual and standard LPARs
4. Requirements for installing a virtual server and virtual client LPARs
5. LPAR resource requirements for processor, memory and disk
6. Partition mobility
7. Energy requirements and strategy

Section 2 – AIX and other OS Installation and Update

1. Install AIX from Media using CD ROM or DVD
2. Install software updates (including a new version, technology level, service pack, Interim Fixes or efix)
3. Evaluate the options available for adding and removing filesets (e.g. commit, apply, remove, reject)
4. Identify the operating system technology level and service pack level and installed filesets
5. Verify integrity of OS (e.g. lppchk)
6. Use the lslpp command to identify
1. back level filesets
2. install history
3. to which fileset a program belongs
4. content of a fileset


7. Differences between migration, preservation, and new and complete overwrite installation

Section 3 - Boot Process

1. Describe the boot process (cfgmgr, file system mounts, application startup, rootvg varyon, BIST, POST, boot, sector load, login enablement)
2. Manage the boot process
3. Troubleshoot the boot process

Section 4 – Configuration

1. Describe the function of smit and wsm
2. Configure and check network configuration
1. Describe the function of NSORDER, /etc/netsvc.conf. and /etc/resolv.conf
2. Determine the daemons that are running in TCP/IP
3. +Describe the function of inetd and /etc/inetd.conf
4. Describe the function of /etc/hosts
5. Describe the methods of adding and removing routes
6. Check for possible exposure in system access files (e.g. /etc/hosts.equiv, .rhosts, .netrc, .forward /etc/inetd.conf /etc/rc.tcpip)
7. Describe the methods of Network security (IP filtering, TCP wrapper


3. Configure Ethernet adapter (e.g. speed, duplex, virtual Ethernet, and Etherchannel)
4. Use NFS to import/export file systems (e.g. /etc/exports, biod, nfsd, lssrc –g nfs.)
5. Configure, list and modify paging space
6. Determine/modify existing device configuration

Section 5 - Storage and LVM

1. Describe the relationship between physical volumes, volume groups, and logical volumes
2. Describe the relationship between logical volumes and filesystems
3. Describe the relationship between physical and logical partitions
4. Describe the differences between JFS and JFS2, including snapshot VGs
5. Manage VGs (varyonvg, varoffvg, mkvg, importvg, exportvg, lsvg)
6. Manage logical volumes (mklv, rmlv, and lslv)
7. Manage filesystems (mount, fsck, chfs, mkfs, defragfs) including filesystem logs
8. Determine whether a filesystem is protected at a hardware or software level (striped, mirrored, or RAID)

Section 6 – Monitoring and Tuning

1. Monitor root mail, error log, system log, and console log for error messages
2. Monitor filesystem growth
3. Use and interpret output from system monitoring tools
4. Understand and use AIX tuning commands and parameters (vmo, ioo, lvmo, nfso, no, and /ect/tunables)
5. Monitor current security settings and access

Section 7 – Problem Determination and Resolution

1. Select and use appropriate problem determination tools (e.g., errpt, diag, netstat, ifconfig, ping, filemon, traceroute, truss, trace, dbx, set-x)
2. Describe how to determine and recover from a full filesystem
3. Manage a support call with IBM (e.g., open, severity levels, escalation, closing, information gathering)
4. Describe hot plug procedure for replacing devices
5. Select appropriate actions (e.g., usrck, grpck, file permissions, resetting failed login, attempts, user limits) to correct user id issues
6. Select appropriate actions (e.g., usrck, grpck, file permissions, resetting failed login, attempts, user limits) to correct user id issues

Section 8 – Backup and Recovery / Disaster Recovery

1. Describe and employ methods of backing up and restoring the operating system (e.g., mksysb, mkcd, mkdvd, alt_disk) including selectively altering and excluding data during backup and restore process , and extracting individual files
2. Describe the differences between full, differential, and incremental backups and their effect on backup and restore window
3. Identify the elements of disaster recovery plans based on business needs
4. Describe the system commands that document current system configuration
5. Describe methods of backing up and restoring data and data structures (savevg and restvg, backup and restore, tar, cpio, pax, mkcd, gzip, and alt_disk_copy)
6. Describe methods to list and verify contents of backup media
7. Describe how to set and check local and global variables

Section 9 - Daily Management

1. Manage user and group accounts (add / delete / alter userids and passwords)
2. Alter default user profiles and limits (i.e., command shell profiles and /etc/security)
3. Define or modify AIX file and directory permissions (e.g., user, group, other) using chmod, chown, chgrp
4. Monitor user access (who, w, last)
5. Describe methods to monitor and manage processes (e.g., ps, kill, nice, jobs, fuser, lsof, topas, svmon, contents of /proc, lssrc, stopsrc, startsrc, and refresh commands)
6. Use available network access functionality (telnet, rsh, rexec, /etc/inetd.conf, /etc/services)
7. Determine which directories and files are filling a filesystems (du, sort, find)
8. Manage the print queuing subsystem
9. Edit a file using vi
10. Describe how to redirect stdin, stdout, and stderr
11. Describe how to schedule tasks ( cron or at)