IBM AIX SMIT

The AIX System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) provides a menu-based alternative to the command line for managing and maintaining the AIX operating system.

Features

*Two modes of operation (text and graphical)
*An interactive, menu-driven user interface
*User assistance
*System management activity logging
*Fast paths to system management tasks
*User-added SMIT screens

Modes of Operation

SMIT can run in one of two modes: ASCII (non-graphical) or X Window (graphical). The ASCII mode of SMIT can run on either terminals or graphical displays. The graphical mode of SMIT (which supports a mouse and point-and-click operations) can be run only on a graphical display running an X Window manager. The ASCII mode is often the preferred method to run SMIT because it can be run from any machine.

To start SMIT using ASCII mode, type the following at the command line:

smitty or smit -a

To start the graphical mode of SMIT, type the following:

msmit or smit -m

If you try to run SMIT using its basic form:

smit

it will automaticially detect if your display has graphical capabilities, and run itself in the graphical mode, if possible.

End User Interface

SMIT is an interactive, menu-driven user interface that allows a user to more easily perform routine system management tasks and to manage and maintain the AIX operating system configuration. System management tasks are grouped by application and presented in a series of menu, selector, and dialog screens. For example, all common software installation tasks are grouped in the Software Installation and Management application. This task-oriented structure makes SMIT easy to use, allowing even novice users to perform routine system administration tasks.

While a selected task is running, the screen shows the message RUNNING. The result of the task is indicated by an OK or FAILED message. When running the graphical version of SMIT, an animated figure of a man running will show while the task is running. The man will jump up and down upon the command success, or fall down on failure.

SMIT screens display the actual system configuration. The displayed information varies from system to system, based on what is installed on a particular system. Adding customized system management tasks for user applications or changing the existing SMIT screen information is one example of what causes this variation. Another example can be seen in the Devices screens. The available system management tasks are based on what type of devices, such as network and storage adapters, disk drives, and other I/O devices, are installed on the system.

Example

This is an example of the top-level SMIT screen.

System Management Move cursor to desired item and press Enter. Software Installation and Maintenance Software License Management Devices System Storage Management (Physical & Logical Storage) Security & Users Communications Applications and Services Print Spooling Problem Determination Performance & Resource Scheduling System Environments Processes & Subsystems Applications Cluster Systems Management Using SMIT (information only)

Function keys

F1=Help F2=Refresh F3=Cancel F6=Show command F8=Image F9=Shell F10=Exit Enter=Do

See also

* AIX operating system
* IBM Web-based System Manager (WSM)
* linuxconf, Webmin
* Yet Another Setup Tool, for GNU/Linux.

External links

* [http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/whitepapers/smit.html System Management Interface Tool (SMIT)]