NIM Installation fails on AIX 5.1, caused by RPM Packages

[creative83]

Hello everybody

I'm trying to do some basic NIM steps to learn more about NIM.
I installed a AIX 5.1 (ML4) as Master machine and did a lpp_source and
a spot from the base installation cdrom.

Now I'm trying to install the lpp to a new machine. The NIM
installation starts and begins to install all the bff's to the client.
After a while (the progress was about 80%) the installation stops with
the following error message:
----------
Validating RPM package seletions ...

RPM Error summary:

The following packages were requestet for installation but are not
valid RPM packages:
mtools
cdrecord
mkisofs
----------

I tried to remove those RPM's from the lpp_source tree and did also
remove the rte.rpm package. After doing this I got another error
message saying, that rpm.rte doesn't need to be installed because it
is already, and 2-3 lines later an error that rte.rpm wasn't found and
is needed to install those 3 RPM packages (cdrtools, mtools, mkisofs).

I don't really need this RPM stuff on the other machine. So how do I
remove the packages from the lpp_source and the spot completely?

Thanks for your hints and tips

With best regards

Stefan Rothenbühler

 

[creative83]

Hello everybody

I succeeded with the NIM installation after doing this steps:

- Remove the rpm.rte (lpp) and the rpms (mkisofs, cdrecord, mtools) from the lpp_source tree.

- Remove the .toc file located in the lpp_source tree

- Do a check &quot;nim -o check <lpp_source>&quot; on the lpp_source (for recreating the .toc file)

- Make a new spot from the changed lpp_source

- Remove the package entries from the SPOT (in <SPOT path>/usr/sys/inst.data/sys_bundles/MIN_BOS.autoi)

After doing this, the installation worked successfully.

My question now: Why does the standard installation fails with this RPM's? Why do I have to remove the package entries manually after recreating the spot from the modified lpp_source?

Thanks for your tips and hints

Stefan

 

[Yegolev]

if i had to guess it is because either Linux stinks or NIM just does not have full support for RPM, or those packages are built wrong? hard to say with open source, perhaps other RPMs will work? i have not tried to install RPM using NIM, although it worked fine using traditional smit methods when i installed gcc. perhaps that is a task for your installation post-processing?

IBM Certified -- AIX 4.3 Obfuscation

 

[franksoprano]

Hmm this is definately a good one because I have not came across this when NIM loading 5.1 to my NIM clients. Might have something to do with the particular ML you are running..

Just this past week I had a client where their home system was 4.3.3 ML10 and they created their NIM MASTER with the matching ML as well witht he LPP_SOURCE & SPOT.. When they tried to NIM load the systems they would complete the mksysb install successfully but on the final reboot it would hang. So to make a long story short the final resolution was to rebuild the NIM server with a lower ML and a lower ML LPP_SOURCE & Spot.. It worked perfectly then.

So I would try messing around with the ML's they might be the culpret..


Just my suggestion...


F.Soprano

 

[creative83]

Good morning

@Yegolev: I don't know if NIM has full support for RPM or not. But I expect at least the support for the RPMs which are included by default in a lpp_source. It's weird, that nobody else had this problem before, because I did no modification to the basic installation, nor the NIM resources and used the standard selection of software.

@franksoprano: It's a totally new NIM environment. Imagine a totally new setup NIM Master and a blank NIM Client. So, the ML level on the master should not be conflicting with the one on the client (because there i no software on the client). I'm using the newest ML for AIX5.1 (ML4).

Thanks a lot for your support

With best regards, Stefan

 

[franksoprano]

Creative83,

I understand what you are saying, I had a similar problem but it wasnt with RPM's or 5.1.. I had just created a whole new NIM enviroment with 5.2 , and as it turned out there was a bug in the base bos.sysmgt.rte file at the level on the installation CD.. It returned errors on any AIX levels lower then itself that I was trying to que up and get ready to push out. Once I upgraded the NIM related filesets the problem went away.


I would still try upgrading ML or downgrading to see if that produces any different results.

good luck!

Let us know how you make out

F.Soprano