IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 237 – 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

After multibos -a created a standby BOS, rebooting boots the wrong instance or fails.

Environment & Reproduction

Occurs when SP update was applied with multibos and the bootlist was not updated.

Root Cause Analysis

Bootlist still points to the old hd5 or the standby BOS image is incomplete.

Quick Triage

Run multibos -s -p to preview state and bootlist -m normal -o.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Use lslv hd5 and multibos -X to confirm standby integrity.

Solution – Primary Fix

Reboot into the desired BOS with multibos -B then bootlist -m normal hdiskN, finally reboot.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Roll back to the previous BOS using multibos -S and remove the standby with multibos -R.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

uname -a confirms the expected TL/SP and applications run without regression.

Rollback Plan

Use multibos -R to discard a problematic standby instance and reboot from the active BOS.

Prevention & Hardening

Document the bootlist and standby state during every multibos cycle.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Tied to bosboot and SP install workflow issues.

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 multibos command reference and SP rollout best practices.