IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 89 – Diagnosis and Fix

📖 ~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

/var/perf/Topas fills the filesystem with old recordings.

Environment & Reproduction

topasrec or xmwlm has been running uncapped for weeks.

Root Cause Analysis

Daily binary recordings exceed the retention window.

Quick Triage

Run df -k /var and du -sh /var/perf/Topas/* to size offenders.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Check lssrc -s xmwlm and topasrec -L for active recordings.

Solution – Primary Fix

Trim with find /var/perf/Topas -mtime +14 -name ‘*.topas’ -delete.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Alternative: stopsrc -s xmwlm then restart with retention flags.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Verify df -k /var stays under 80 percent after the cleanup.

Rollback Plan

Move historical recordings to /audit before deleting if needed.

Prevention & Hardening

Configure topasrec -L -O type=bin -c 24 -s 60 -R 7 for 7-day retention.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related: JFS2 ENOSPC errors during xmwlm writes.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.3.

View all aix-7.3 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM Docs: topas recording and xmwlm daemon reference.