Ever wonder what makes a computer tick or how a UNIX server does what it does? Discover what happens when you push the power button on your computer. This article discusses the different boot types, managing the AIX bootlist and the AIX boot sequence. After reading this article, you will better understand what exactly happens when your server starts.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-10-08
Interesting article. I like this complicated technical stuff. :-) Allthough I don't have much experience with AIX (due to OS/390 running on the AS/400), many things mentioned in the article are understandable, obvious, logical and expectable when you're coming from a UNIX background. So no matter which particular kind of UNIX or Linux you're using, most things look familiar.
The alternative to the runlevels is the use of an rc script and the rc.d/ entries, such as it is the case in the FreeBSD OS. Refer to "man boot", "man loader", "man init" and "man rc" for further education.
Another interesting read: "The magic garden explained" by Goodheart and Cox, pp 48, 273.
I already hear someone screaming: "But the PC does it on its own! I don't want to know anything!" :-)
Member since:2006-11-30
Member since:2007-05-20
The alternative to the runlevels is the use of an rc script and the rc.d/ entries, such as it is the case in the FreeBSD OS. Refer to "man boot", "man loader", "man init" and "man rc" for further education.
Hehe, I think we are two of the most prominent BSDers in this site
We all know which OS users cry out like that
Member since:2006-12-18
Doc Pain wrote: "The alternative to the runlevels is the use of an rc script and the rc.d/ entries, such as it is the case in the FreeBSD OS. Refer to "man boot", "man loader", "man init" and "man rc" for further education."
I have seen these rcX directories on some Linux distrobutions, and my debian installation has a init.d/ and several rcX.d/ direcotries in /etc.
In these rc0,1,2,3,4,5,6.d/ direcories are symlinks to scripts in /etc/init.d/, and it seems to me at least that this system uses both "rc.d/ entries" and runlevels, so I dont really get the destinction between rc-directories ans runlevels...
Care to explain?
Edited 2008-05-18 19:38 UTC
Member since:
2007-05-20
Not very different from many other *NIX systems, going through boot loader, kernel and init and using runlevels and an inittab file.
By the way for everyone wishing to learn this stuff in more details and for different systems (Linux, FreeBSD, HP-UX) may I suggest the "Unix System Administration Handbook" (Nemeth et al). It is an excellent read, a real eye opener. Knowing how your system boots, especially how the init scripts work will make you much more confident in using it and configuring it.