AIX Power PC + Apple Hardware

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aixaix
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I know very little about Apple and AIX. However I was wondering whether it is possible to run AIX on an Apple hardware being Power PC.

Has anyone tried this?

Does anyone have any recommendations about Apple hardware and version of AIX?

Am I am able to buy AIX separately from IBM?



I would like to learn more about AIX and I am looking for a low cost home solution. ie Apple Emac + AIX?



Thank you

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    I have to wonder... *why*?



    AIX is a Unix variant, I'm assuming that's the draw for you.





    Well, MacOS X is based on BSD... Unix.



    What precisely about AIX is that you are interested in?
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  • Reply 2 of 15
    aixaix Posts: 3member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    I have to wonder... *why*?



    AIX is a Unix variant, I'm assuming that's the draw for you.





    Well, MacOS X is based on BSD... Unix.



    What precisely about AIX is that you are interested in?



    The reason is for self education purposes. I have had experience with a few different UNIX operating systems however I have no experience with AIX and would like to learn how to use it.
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  • Reply 3 of 15
    trailmaster308trailmaster308 Posts: 699member
    No you cannot load AIX on a Mac. The firmware are two different things. Besides you would not like the results. AIX is not a gui based OS although I do have CDE running on 5.1. However, its slow (GUI that is) even though its on a P690 will dual 1.0's. AIX shines when you load a DB on it and feed tons of data to it, then use a middleware srv to get/format that data. Cheers!
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  • Reply 4 of 15
    trailmaster308trailmaster308 Posts: 699member
    AIX is a differnt monkey in the Unix world, but if you are comfortable with one platform then working on AIX is fairly simple. IBM did a good job with the SMIT menu, much better than SCO Admin menu in my opinion, which will help you get around once you get started. That said, you cannot d/l AIX nor can you load it on anything else besides IBM Pseries (RS6000) hardware. Best bet to learn AIX would be to find a job where they alow you to work on it.
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  • Reply 5 of 15
    trailmaster308trailmaster308 Posts: 699member
    Some info for your curiosity:



    rootvg.net



    IBM Library
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  • Reply 6 of 15
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Apple's Network Server 500 and 700 were designed to run AIX, IIRC.
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  • Reply 7 of 15
    aixaix Posts: 3member
    Thanks for all the replies.

    I use Solaris and Linux every day. Is there much of a jump between AIX and Solaris or Linux? ie will this be a worthwhile exercise?
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  • Reply 8 of 15
    trailmaster308trailmaster308 Posts: 699member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by aix

    Thanks for all the replies.

    I use Solaris and Linux every day. Is there much of a jump between AIX and Solaris or Linux? ie will this be a worthwhile exercise?



    I do not know about Solaris since I have never worked on that platform. However, some of the admin level commands are different in AIX compared to linux. Also, AIX is based on a volume group structure. Say you have 200 SSA drives (hdisk 0 though 200), well you create VG's with those disks. Then within those VG's you need to create logical volumes. After creating lv's you then have to create a filesystem and assign it a mount point, which would be an lv. At this point you have say the Rootvg, that contains things like /etc, /usr, /tmp, /var, /home. They will show up now in your df -k commands things like that. Thats kinda the guts of how its set up, but things like networking, .ksh scripting, its all the same.



    Again, you are not going to be able to load any "current" version of AIX on anything Mac. And if your not playing with at least 4.3 then you are wasting your time. You would be better off buying a used f50, h50 with the OS already loaded. But to be honest, there is a growing trend in the IBM world to getting off the AIX platform onto Redhat. AIX, like the AS400 are aging. Our IBM client managers have been saying this for a while.
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  • Reply 9 of 15
    dobbydobby Posts: 797member
    AIX won't load on any current G series mac (not even an Xserve which I tried).

    There is very little in compatible hardware so there are no drivers.

    I though the G5 cpu differed from that used in the RS6000's anyway (too little second level cache).



    Dobby.
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  • Reply 10 of 15
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Hmm, btw, I'm still looking to acquire a Network Sever so if anyone has any leads...
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  • Reply 11 of 15
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Wow, didn't know that my post would be the kiss of death for this thread.
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  • Reply 12 of 15
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Dude. . . .



    You can run Linux on an eMac if you'd really like, but Mac OS X is full blown UNIX. There's no reason to learn an OS that's, well, dead. Especially when it's not exactly a far-cry from any other UNIX underpinnings wise, and is essentially regarded as a much worse version of Mac OS X. That is, an Apple OS with UNIX underneath.
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  • Reply 13 of 15
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Splinemodel

    Dude. . . .

    You can run Linux on an eMac if you'd really like, but Mac OS X is full blown UNIX. --snip--



    Err... Linux and OSX are both Unix-like opperating systems... neither is "full blown". This is why Apple got in legal trouble with their power of unix ads/pics.
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  • Reply 14 of 15
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by \\/\\/ickes

    Err... Linux and OSX are both Unix-like opperating systems... neither is "full blown". This is why Apple got in legal trouble with their power of unix ads/pics.



    In that respect, the only full-blown UNIX is what came from AT&T (IIRC) a couple decades ago. What lawyers say is by no means the effective truth. It's the affective truth.
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  • Reply 15 of 15
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    True, however if french cheese was only a couple of decades old does that mean someone else can make english cheese and market it as "the power of french cheese". Both are cheese-like foods... but only one is "full blown" french.
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