Network Installation Management operations include:
Note: For detailed information about the install process, see AIX 5L Version 5.1 Installation Guide.
NIM can be used as a utility for installing the AIX Base Operating System (BOS) on machines. NIM supports installation using any of the three BOS install types:
NIM also supports the use of mksysb images, bosinst.data files, and other resources to install machines.
Installation of software packages and updates can be performed over the network using NIM. The NIM master can "push install" software onto a remote client, or a client can "pull install" software from a server.
From the NIM master, you can deinstall software that resides on client machines. NIM also gives you the capability of committing and rejecting updates over the network.
NIM provides the capability of running shell scripts on client machines for configuration after software has been installed.
Hardware diagnostics can be performed on NIM clients using a diagnostic boot image from a NIM server, rather than booting from a diagnostic tape or CD-ROM. Not only does this eliminate the need for diagnostic boot media, it eliminates the need to have diagnostics installed on the local disks of machines.
For maintenance operations, you can boot a NIM client into maintenance mode from the boot image on a NIM server instead of using a bootable tape or CD-ROM.
You can manage resources for diskless and dataless clients from the NIM master.
NIM can be used to clone the running of rootvg (root volume group) to an alternate disk, or install a mksysb image to an alternate disk.