Controlling the Master or Client

AIX Version 4.3 Network Installation Management Guide and Reference

Controlling the Master or Client

In the NIM environment, control is held by the NIM master or the standalone client. The system allocating the resources has control. The allocation of resources is the act of making resources available to clients for NIM operations. Normally, resources are allocated automatically as part of an operation, but they may also be allocated prior to the initiation of an operation. The control status acts like a locking mechanism and remains with the client or the master until the resources are deallocated. Using NIM, if the installation of a standalone client completes successfully, the resources are automatically deallocated.

When there are no resources allocated to the standalone client by the NIM master, the standalone client takes control by allocating resources or disabling the NIM master's push permissions. The control attribute is managed by the master and indicates whether the master or the standalone client has permission to perform operations on the standalone client.

There are four control states indicated by the control attribute. You can display the control attribute from a NIM client by entering:

nimclient -l -l StandAloneClientName

The control attribute can be displayed from the NIM master by entering:

lsnim -l StandaloneClientName

The states are:

control attribute is not set	If the control attribute is not displayed when listing the machine object attributes, then neither the master nor the standalone client has control.
control = master	The master has allocated resources to the client and is ready to initiate an operation (or has already initiated an operation).
control = StandaloneClientName	The standalone client has allocated resources and can now initiate NIM operations on itself.
control = StandaloneClientName push_off
	The standalone client has prohibited the NIM master from allocating resources or initiating operations on the client. The client itself can still control the allocation of NIM resources and the initiation of NIM operations.

Disabling Master Push Permissions

From Web-based System Manager

From the main Web-based System Manager container, select the Software icon.
From the Software menu, select NIM Client > Permissions.
Select whether to grant or deny permission for the NIM master to initiate push installations.

From SMIT

To disable the master's push permissions, enter the smit nim_perms fast path from the client machine.

From the Command Line

To set control on the client to push_off, enter the following on the client machine:

nimclient -P

To re-enable push permission on the client, enter the following on the client machine:

nimclient -p