IBM AIX 7.1 – Common Problem 174 – 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

Users defined in LDAP cannot log in after a certificate rotation on the directory server. SSH and ftp logins fail until trust is repaired.

Environment & Reproduction

Affects AIX clients using secldapclntd to bind via TLS to enterprise LDAP.

lssrc -s secldapclntd
oslevel -s
uname -a

Root Cause Analysis

Cause is missing or expired CA certificate in client GSKit keystore used by secldapclntd.

Quick Triage

Verify daemon, configuration, and certificate trust.

lssrc -s secldapclntd

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Capture deeper evidence to isolate the failure path.

lssrc -s secldapclntd
ls-secldapclntd | head
cat /etc/security/ldap/ldap.cfg | head
gsk8capicmd_64 -cert -list -db /usr/ldap/etc/cert.kdb -stashed
errpt | head

Solution – Primary Fix

Apply the proven primary fix in a controlled change window.

gsk8capicmd_64 -cert -add -db /usr/ldap/etc/cert.kdb -stashed -label NEWCA -file /tmp/newca.pem
stop-secldapclntd
start-secldapclntd
lsuser -R LDAP ALL

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Use these alternatives when the primary fix is blocked by environmental constraints.

ldap-cli -h newldap -D 'cn=svc' -W -b 'dc=example,dc=com'
edit /etc/security/ldap/ldap.cfg useSSL=no
fallback to local auth

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Confirm the system meets acceptance criteria after the change.

lsuser -R LDAP -a id user01
ssh user01@localhost
lssrc -s secldapclntd

Rollback Plan

Revert cleanly if regressions appear during validation.

stop-secldapclntd
rm /etc/security/ldap/ldap.cfg.new
cp /etc/security/ldap/ldap.cfg.bak /etc/security/ldap/ldap.cfg

Prevention & Hardening

Reduce recurrence with monitoring and preventive tuning.

automate cert renewal via cron
monitor with errnotify
backup kdb files

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related to PAM stack issues, AD integration via IBM Tivoli, and lsuser -R caching.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.1.

View all aix-7.1 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM AIX 7.2 LDAP integration guide, secldapclntd and gsk8capicmd references.