Understanding the version of your AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive) operating system is crucial for system administration, troubleshooting, and ensuring compatibility with applications and hardware. This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to determine your AIX version using various commands, focusing on the oslevel command.
AIX is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed by IBM for several of its computer system platforms. Determining the exact version of your AIX operating system is essential for maintaining system integrity, applying patches, and ensuring that you are following best practices for system management.
Using the oslevel Command
The primary command used to determine the AIX version is oslevel. This command provides the most straightforward way to identify the version and maintenance level of your AIX system.
Basic Usage
To get the base operating system level, you can use the oslevel command without any options:
oslevel
This command will return the base AIX level installed on your system. For instance, it might return something like:
7.2.0.0
Advanced Options
To get more detailed information, such as the technology level (TL) and service pack (SP) information, you can use the -s flag:
oslevel -s
This command will provide output in the format: <base level>_<TL>_<SP>, such as:
7200-05-03-2038
Where:
7200represents AIX Version 7.2.05is the Technology Level.03is the Service Pack.2038is the build date (in YYWW format).
Interpreting the Output
Understanding the output of the oslevel command is key to ensuring you have the correct information about your AIX version. Here’s a breakdown of a sample output:
7200-05-03-2038
- 7200: This indicates that you are running AIX Version 7.2.
- 05: This represents the fifth Technology Level for AIX 7.2.
- 03: This indicates the third Service Pack within Technology Level 05.
- 2038: This shows the build date in the year and week format (20th year, 38th week).
Additional Commands for Verification
While oslevel is the primary command for determining the AIX version, other commands can provide supplementary information:
lslpp
The lslpp command lists installed software packages and can be used to verify the AIX version:
lslpp -ha bos.rte
This command will display the installed filesets for the Base Operating System Runtime Environment, giving you detailed version information.
uname
The uname command, with various options, provides additional system information that can complement the oslevel output:
uname -a
This command will display all system information, including the machine hardware name, the node name, the operating system name, the kernel version, and more.
Conclusion
Determining your AIX version is a straightforward process using the oslevel command, with its various options providing detailed information about your system’s base level, technology level, and service pack. Supplementary commands like lslpp and uname offer additional verification and insights.
For further details and official documentation, you can refer to IBM’s AIX documentation.
References
- IBM AIX Documentation: AIX Version
- IBM Knowledge Center: oslevel Command
