Affected versions: IBM AIX 7.2

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents
  1. Symptom & Impact
  2. Environment & Reproduction
  3. Root Cause Analysis
  4. Quick Triage
  5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
  6. Solution – Primary Fix
  7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
  8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
  9. Rollback Plan
  10. Prevention & Hardening
  11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
  12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

smit installp fails or installs stale filesets from a cached image.

Environment & Reproduction

Seen after partial NIM pushes or unmounted lpp_source updates.

Root Cause Analysis

/usr/sys/inst.images metadata is out of sync with current bff files.

Quick Triage

Run inutoc on the directory and check installp -L output for drift.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Re-run inutoc /usr/sys/inst.images then verify with installp -ld .

Illustrative mockup for aix-7.2 — smit_bff_install_stale_cache_diag
Diagnostic view for smit-bff-install-stale-cache — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Primary Fix

Refresh the bundle with installp -acgYXd . to reseed the table of contents.

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Illustrative mockup for aix-7.2 — smit_bff_install_stale_cache_fix
Remediation steps for smit-bff-install-stale-cache — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Alternative: copy fresh bff files from NIM lpp_source and rerun inutoc.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Confirm lslpp -L shows expected fileset levels with COMMITTED state.

Rollback Plan

Reject the partial install with installp -r if the upgrade misbehaves.

Prevention & Hardening

Schedule inutoc as part of every lpp_source sync to avoid drift.

Related: 0503-464 or 0503-105 errors from installp on stale images.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.2.

View all aix-7.2 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

See IBM Docs: installp Command and NIM lpp_source maintenance.

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