What's New in Network Installation Management (NIM)?

This chapter provides an overview of the new features in the Network Installation Management (NIM) interface for AIX 5.2.

Working with EZNIM

The SMIT EZNIM menu helps the system administrator by organizing the commonly used NIM operations and simplifies frequently used advanced NIM operations.

Features of SMIT EZNIM include:

• Task-oriented menus
• Automatic resource naming that includes the level of the software used to create them.
• The user can review what steps will take place before executing a task, whenever possible.

For information about EZNIM, see EZNIM.

Creating Resources Simultaneously

Previously, when NIM ran a process that calculated and consumed file system space, such as creating a SPOT, lpp_source and mksysb resource, it would lock a server for the duration of the process. Because these operations calculate free space and enlarge the size of a file system, NIM limited servers to one of these operations at a time. Other operations could occur on the locked server that did not interfere with the operation that was calculating free space and enlarging a file system.

Beginning in AIX 5.2, you can use NIM to simultaneously create multiple lpp_source and mksysb resources in separate file systems on the same server. You cannot simultaneously create multiple SPOT resources, but you can simultaneously create a SPOT, lpp_source, and mksysb resource. The locking mechanism is set for each file system instead of for each server.

However, if you know that you have enough space in a file system to create multiple resources simultaneously, you can use the force option (-F flag) to prevent the locking mechanism from being used. This allows you to create multiple resources simultaneously in the same file system.

LPP Source Enhancements

Enhancements to the management of lpp_source resources include the following:

• The lpp_source resource is no longer a required for mksysb installations.
• The update operation, which allows you to update an lpp_source resource by adding and removing packages. Previously, you could copy packages into an lpp_source directory or remove packages from an lpp_source directory and run nim -o check to update the lpp_source attributes. Previously, SMIT allowed you to add packages to a lpp_source through the smit nim_bffcreate fast path. However, this SMIT function does not check to see if the lpp_source is allocated or locked, nor does it update the simages attribute when finished.

  The update operation has been created to address this situation. For more information, see update.

• The lppmgr operation is available to help you manage your lpp_source resources. The lppmgr operation is available through the command line and through SMIT. For more information, see lppmgr.

Resource Groups

Resource groups allow you to create a group of resources and specify clients (or a group of clients) as defaults. Previously, every time a NIM operation occurred, the NIM resources had to be specified. A default resource group can be created containing the required resources, so when a NIM operation is performed, the resources are already associasted to the client by the default resource group.

Alternate Disk Migration Installation

Alternate disk migration installation allows the user to create a copy of rootvg to a free disk (or disks) and simultaneously migrate it through Network Installation Management (NIM) to a new release level. Using alternate disk migration installation over a conventional migration provides several advantages:

• Less downtime (the migration is performed while the system is up normally, and there is no need to boot from any media).
• Quick recovery in case of migration failure.
• High degree of flexibility and customization.

For more information about alternate disk migration installation, see the Alternate Disk Migration Installation section.

NIM Commands

The following NIM commands have been added to AIX:

• The nim_master_setup command. For further information, see Network Installation Management Commands Reference.
• The nim_clients_setup command. For further information, see Network Installation Management Commands Reference.