Troubleshooting Failed OS Updates

Learn which common factors affect the outcome of a deployment.

The most common reasons for failure include:

  • Filesets that are locked by interim fixes.
  • Missing filesets from a local NFS repository.
  • An outdated table of contents (.toc) file in the repository.

In each case, begin troubleshooting by generating a list of filesets that are lower than the latest levels of the service packs recognized by the AIX operating system.

Use the instfix command to identify filesets that are not at the latest level. The following command processes all known service packs and provides details for any packages with known updates.

An example command includes the following format:

for LEVEL in `instfix -i | grep SP | grep "Not all" | awk '{print $5}'`; 
do instfix -ciqk $LEVEL | grep :-:; done

The output of this example is in the following format:

<Service Pack>:<Package Name>:<Installed Version>:<Expected Version>:
<Version Status (+,=,-)>:<Package Description>

An example output includes the following format:

 61-04-111140_SP:perfagent.tools:6.1.4.11:6.1.6.16:-:AIX 6100-04-11 Service Pack 

With the results of the instfix command, you can check locked filesets by using the AIX Interim Fix analysis. Remove interim fixes with the Uninstall All Interim Fixes task.

If no locked filesets are identified and a local NFS repository is used, the following command can identify filesets that are missing from the .toc file of the local repository. In the following example, the version adds zeros to maintain the format of xx.xx.xxxx.xxxx.

grep -n "<Package Name> <Package Version>" /path/to/.toc 

An example command includes the following format:

grep -n "perfagent.tools 06.01.0004.0011" /AIX/Repo/OS_6100/.toc

If filesets are missing from the .toc file, but the fileset exists in the repository, you can rebuild the .toc file by using the Generate Fileset Repository TOC File task. If files are missing, run the AIX Download Cacher Tool through the Run Download Cacher - AIX task. When prompted, specify the path to the repository. For more information about using the AIX Download Cacher, see Using the AIX download cacher.