AIX for Breakfast: A Guide for Programmers and System Administrators: Phillip Houtz
ISBN: 0133996840 / 0-13-399684-0
by Phillip Hout
Prentice-Hall 1996

Editorial Reviews:

Synopsis: IBM's AIX is no longer just another flavor of UNIX. With the advent of the POWER PC architecture, IBM RISC computers are finding their way into most organizations. Most of these use AIX for their operating system. This means a lot of people have suddenly become AIX system administrators. Whether your background is UNIX, DOS, or something else, AIX for Breakfast provides everything you'll need to know to handle AIX system administration and programming. By orienting you to the AIX paradigm first, you'll learn from the inside out, focusing on two major areas: customization and system configuration. You'll start by setting up user accounts and shells, then learn to tailor them to individual needs. Choose a GUI interface; learn to customize X Windows, Motif, and X Desktop to fine tune your GUI. Explanations, examples, and diskette samples will take you from the initial file manipulations needed for any user up to complete customization of your organization's working environment.

As you proceed, you'll learn tips for AIX's InfoExplorer to find advanced help and resolve error messages. AIX's most innovative feature is the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT). AIX for Breakfast examines the SMIT menu items one by one, with many tips and insights along the way. SMIT can make software installation a snap. You can also add and configure peripheral devices, both physical and virtual, easily. A special chapter is devoted to the configuration of "unsupported" or third-party printers. You'll even be able to explore the Internet. Using SMIT to configure network services, like TCP/IP, will get you out surfing the Internet in no time. SMIT also helps with error reporting, performance tuning, and maintenance of system parameters.

File management is covered in the chapter devoted to LVM, the Logical Volume Manager. AIX for Breakfast presents a full discussion of partitions, storage, disk mirroring, and backup and recovery. This includes a detailed description of creating bootable backups and operating system re-installation. For administrators who must convert from AIX version 3.2 to AIX 4.1, or who must administer both, an entire chapter documents the changes brought by AIX 4. The enclosed diskette offers practical sample user file customizations, sample scripts, and performance monitoring software.