Administration Guide

Using Sysctl

Prerequisite checklist

Before using Sysctl, the following are required:

• Configuration of Sysctl is complete and the sysctld daemon is running on all target (server) nodes. See Sysctl configuration information.
• If the client and any server systems have the DCE authentication method in use, you have logged in to DCE either at AIX login through integrated login or using the dce_login command. This is not required if unauthenticated users are allowed to access the Sysctl facilities that you intend to use.
• If the client and any server systems have the compatibility authentication method in use and at least one of them does not use DCE authentication, you have logged in to Kerberos V4 either at AIX login or by using the k4init command. This is not required if unauthenticated users are allowed to access the Sysctl facilities that you intend to use.
• ACLs that protect Sysctl objects you intend to use have been updated to contain an entry that grants you access. The kinds of ACL entries you need depend on the forms of identity you will use when making Sysctl requests.

Note:

Keep in mind that output of Sysctl requests might contain unnumbered error messages. Sysctl procedures produce messages with and without message numbers. Those that are not numbered are text generated by Tcl code added by local customization or the output of the embedded Tcl interpreter. The internationalization of the public Tcl interpreter code by IBM did not include changing the content of messages to include AIX-style message numbers.

Using Sysctl in interactive mode

Sysctl has an interactive mode. Note that only one node can be communicated with at a time in interactive mode.

To enter interactive mode, enter the sysctl client command without a command argument. For example, to use Sysctl in interactive mode on the local node, enter:

sysctl

If you issued the command from diane.kgn.ibm.com, you get the following prompt:

Sysctl (Version 1.1) on diane.kgn.ibm.com
sysctl>

At this point, you can enter Sysctl commands.

You can also specify some of the Sysctl flags when going into interactive mode. For example, to use Sysctl in interactive mode for node redhook.kgn.ibm.com, enter:

sysctl -h redhook.kgn.ibm.com

Sysctl issues this response:

Sysctl (Version 1.1) on redhook.kgn.ibm.com
sysctl>

In this example, if you enter svcversion and pdf, the interaction is as follows, where your actions are in bold:

sysctl> svcversion

1.1 sysctl> pdf

redhook.kgn.ibm.com: ========================================================
Filesystem                Size-KB Used-KB Free-KB %Free  iUsed  iFree %iFree
/                            8192    5164    3028   37%    815   1233    61%
/var                        16384    4176   12208   75%    343   3753    92%
/usr                       552960  467888   85072   16%  23203 116061    84%
/tmp                        49152   23860   25292   52%    235  12053    99%
/home                       65536   63556    1980    4%   5375  11009    68%
sysctl> quit

To exit the interactive mode, enter one of the following:

exit

quit

<Ctrl-d>

Using Sysctl in noninteractive mode

Sending commands to a local server

If no target nodes are specified on the Sysctl command, the command is sent to the server on the local node. For example, to send the whoami command to the local server, enter:

sysctl whoami

Directing commands to remote hosts

To direct a command to remote host sivle, use -h and enter:

sysctl -h sivle sys:info

The system response is similar to:

sivle.kgn.ibm.com power AIX 4.3.2

To direct a command to remote hosts sivle, and yelserp, enter:

sysctl -h sivle -h yelserp sys:info

The system response is similar to:

>> sivle
sivle.kgn.ibm.com power AIX 4.3.2
<<
>> yelserp
yelserp.kgn.ibm.com power AIX 4.3.2
<<

Sending commands to a collection of nodes

Multiple nodes can be targeted with a single Sysctl command. The collection of nodes can be specified in a file. Alternatively, the Sysctl command will read node names from stdin. In the following example, the file /tmp/node-file contains node names r05n13.hpssl.kgn.ibm.com, r05n15.hpssl.kgn.ibm.com, and r05n09.hpssl.kgn.ibm.com.

To direct the pdf command to the /tmp/node-file collection, enter:

sysctl -c /tmp/node-file pdf

The response in this example is the following:

>> r05n13
r05n13.hpssl.kgn.ibm--------------------------------------------------------
Filesystem                Size-KB Used-KB Free-KB %Free  iUsed  iFree %iFree
/                            4096    3372     724   18%    792    232    23%
/var                         8192    6320    1872   23%    297   1751    86%
/usr                       335872  331632    4240    2%  17820  66148    79%
/tmp                         8192     520    7672   94%     67   1981    97%
/home                        4096     168    3928   96%     18   1006    99%
<<
>> r05n15
r05n15.hpssl.kgn.ibm--------------------------------------------------------
Filesystem                Size-KB Used-KB Free-KB %Free  iUsed  iFree %iFree
/                            4096    3364     732   18%    796    228    23%
/var                         8192    3028    5164   64%    281   1767    87%
/usr                       335872  331412    4460    2%  17825  66143    79%
/tmp                         8192     464    7728   95%     57   1991    98%
/home                        4096     168    3928   96%     18   1006    99%
<<
>> r05n09
r05n09.hpssl.kgn.ibm--------------------------------------------------------
Filesystem                Size-KB Used-KB Free-KB %Free  iUsed  iFree %iFree
/                            4096    3340     756   19%    790    234    23%
/var                         8192    3336    4856   60%    285   1763    87%
/usr                       331776  331012     764    1%  17742  66226    79%
/tmp                         8192    1212    6980   86%     58   1990    98%
/home                        4096     164    3932   96%     17   1007    99%
<<