10 Easy Steps For Monitoring IBM AIX
Many infrastructure monitoring services boast about their ability to monitor devices such as Windows servers, end user desktops and even Cisco equipment. These are common devices you will find on any number of networks. However, large 
enterprise organizations are extemely heterogenous and include devices such as UNIX, AIX, Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and Logical Partition devices (LPARs). Any solution worth its name should also have the abiltiy to monitor these devices as well. In this post we will address one of the toughest of the bunch - IBM AIX.
AIX can be a tough nut to crack. Not only is it UNIX based, but it is IBM's very own propriety version of UNIX. Normally when introducing any type of solution to an environment, the AIX stands alone in the data center like a digital bully daring anyone to look it in the eye. Well, we recently staired one down and made it sing the praises of Lucid's remote infrastructure monitoring solution. Below are the 10 easy steps we followed to conquer AIX. To avoid issues with permissions perform the below tasks as root, and be sure to use a binary FTP.
1. Download the NET-SNMP agent.
2. Login to the environment and switch user to root: < su - >
3. Use a dedicated directory for the install as a scratch space: < cd /ScratchDir>
4. Download the AIX4.x.tar file and untar the files: < tar –xvf AIX4.x.tar>
5. Uncompress and untar the required files: <compress –d aixsnmp.tar.Z | tar –xvf aixsnmp.tar>
6. Untar the aixadd.tar file to: /usr/local/bin <cp aixadd.tar /usr/local/bin; cd /usr/local/bin; tar –xvf aixadd.tar>
7. Run the install.snmp script: <./install.snmp>
8. Time to verify the snmp daemon is fully functional: <ps –ef|grep snmp. Your output should be as follows:
root 7217 1 0 May 19 - /usr/local/bin/sbsnmpD
root 7227 1 0 May19 - /usr/local/bin/snmp
9. Now you need to configure your SNMP community string. The string is located at /etc/snmpd.conf.
10. Finally, Point the snmp traps back to the trap destination or monitoring server.
NOTE: HMC will not use the default snmp community string. For more information on this issue see this IBM link.
That's it! It really is just that easy. In a future post we will discuss the more challenging part of this exercise, which is configuring trap monitors from the monitoring tool. If we missed anything or you want to add some helpful tidbits, please feel free to comment below.