IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 245 – 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/adm log files grow without bound and disk space alerts trigger on /var.

Environment & Reproduction

Default AIX syslogd does not rotate; only the configured destination files grow.

Root Cause Analysis

No rotate options in /etc/syslog.conf and no cron job trims target files.

Quick Triage

Run du -smk /var/adm/* | sort -n and inspect /etc/syslog.conf.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Validate file destinations and current sizes with ls -l /var/adm/messages.

Solution – Primary Fix

Add rotate size=10m files=5 options to /etc/syslog.conf and refresh -s syslogd.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Implement an alog-style rotation via cron with cp/cat /dev/null patterns.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

/var/adm files cap at the configured size and /var usage stabilizes.

Rollback Plan

Revert /etc/syslog.conf changes from backup and refresh syslogd to reload prior config.

Prevention & Hardening

Standardize syslog rotation across LPARs and ship logs offbox where possible.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Often combined with jfs2-filesystem-full on /var.

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 AIX 7.3 syslogd and /etc/syslog.conf references.