AIX v.3 on an IBM 6000 - locked up

[david7777777777]

I know little to nothing about the AIX system. It appears to be locked up. I cannot get it to change screens. I'm trying to re-boot it but every time I power it back on the same screen appears as if it never powered off. Can anyone give me a lcue as to what to look at or do? Thanks.

 

[dsn1]

What sort of machine is it? on the front of it, when you switch it on, you will see an LED/LCD display with a number on it. These numbers will cycle for several minutes before you see anything change on the screen. If the LED/LCD stays constant with a number and does not progress then you have a problem ( it can be a while before numbers change ). Depending on the machine it can be up to 30mins to boot up.

Power it up again and if it fails to boot come back with the value in the display and may be able to help you further

 

[Morsing]

The reason the screen show the same thing is probably because it is a terminal. It won't change until the computer actually writes something to it, which could be a while depending on the type.
Henrik Morsing
IBM Certified 4.3 Systems Administration

 

[david7777777777]

Thank you very much for responding. Here's what I've got from it this morning:

Machine: IBM PowerServer 570
O/S: IBM AIX Ver. 3 for RISC System/6000

Numbers listed on LED readout during boot up process:

120 - Start
150
154
211
214
219 - 5 seconds into boot process
291
223 - 20 seconds
299
868 - 40 seconds
869 - 3 minutes
990 - 5 minutes

I've now stopped observing the boot process. The screens remain the same.

There is a message at the top of one of the screens that reads: "Run diagnostics to determine the nature of the problem.nd:erials to" That's all it says and I obviously have no idea what it means or how to run diagnostics on it.

There are two terminals/monitors on that server and I really don't know what the difference is between them. One is used for certain tasks and the other for other tasks. I'm a Windows NT/2000 network administrator but I have no experience with this AIX stuff. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[david7777777777]

Thank you very much for responding. Here's what I've got from it this morning:

Machine: IBM PowerServer 570
O/S: IBM AIX Ver. 3 for RISC System/6000

Numbers listed on LED readout during boot up process:

120 - Start
150
154
211
214
219 - 5 seconds into boot process
291
223 - 20 seconds
299
868 - 40 seconds
869 - 3 minutes
990 - 5 minutes

I've now stopped observing the boot process. The screens remain the same.

There is a message at the top of one of the screens that reads: "Run diagnostics to determine the nature of the problem.nd:erials to" That's all it says and I obviously have no idea what it means or how to run diagnostics on it.

There are two terminals/monitors on that server and I really don't know what the difference is between them. One is used for certain tasks and the other for other tasks. I'm a Windows NT/2000 network administrator but I have no experience with this AIX stuff. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[anshudad]

In your message you have observed the LED upto 990. Does it stop there. Or it goes further and then goes blank. Without knowing that it is difficult to answer your question. If it stops at 990 then it is trying to configure the tape drive. It may have problem with the drive.What kind of machine is it ? Is it having a key. Then make sure your key is in normal position. Remove any tape from tape drive. Then try rebooting.

Give more input about the LED .Good Luck

 

[david7777777777]

Tek-tips was apparently down for a while today so I'm just getting back to you. I've since figured out that it was a network wiring problem and there was actually nothing wrong with the AIX system itself.

The LED's on the AIX server eventually do go out after the boot process. I'd like to know what these numbers mean. I'm guessing they indicate the different components being checked during boot or POST.

I also learned what the system logon was and I was able to navigate the simple menu hierarchy and get some information that helped me troubleshoot the problem and isolate it to a physical connectivity problem. Thanks for all of your help.