System Management Interface Tool (SMIT): Overview

Although Web-based System Manager is the primary interface for AIX system management, the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) provides an alternative, natural-language, task-oriented interface. SMIT steps you through the desired task with the use of menus, selectors, and dialogs, thereby freeing you from the details of complex command syntax, valid parameter values, and system command spelling. In addition, SMIT creates log files that you can use to duplicate system configuration or to learn how to use specific commands.

Note: In a networked environment, you can use Distributed SMIT as discussed in the Distributed SMIT 2.2 for AIX: Guide and Reference.

The SMIT facility runs in two interfaces, ASCII (nongraphical) or AIXwindows (graphical).

After you enter SMIT, main menu selections lead to submenus, helping to narrow the scope of choice to a particular task. To skip the main menu and directly access a submenu or dialog, use the smit command with a Fast Path parameter.

• For a general overview of the purposes, functions, and conventions of SMIT select Using SMIT (Information Only) from the SMIT Main Menu.
• For information about a particular menu item or field, use the help function provided in SMIT for Help On Context (Ctrl+F1).

Basic SMIT tasks are shown in the following table.