AIX 5L Kernel Internals

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Description:

Through lecture and machine exercise develop working knowledge of key AIX 5L Kernel concepts. Get the necessary background information needed by support engineers and AIX development engineers and application engineers who are new to the AIX 5L kernel environment.

Audience:

This is an advanced course for AIX technical support individuals and application developers who want to achieve a conceptual understanding of AIX 5L Kernel internals.

Objectives:

• List the major features of the AIX 5L kernel
• Quickly traverse the system header files to find data structures
• Use the kernel debugger (KDB) to examine and modify kernel information
• Use the kdb command to examine data structures in the memory image of a running system or system dump
• Describe the structures used by the kernel to manage processes and threads, and key relationships between these structures
• Describe the segmented addressing model used by AIX 5L and explain how logical to physical address translation is achieved
• Explain the operation of Virtual Memory Management (VMM) subsystem and the different paging algorithms used by AIX 5L
• Describe the kernel-related mechanisms used to implement logical partitioning
• Discuss the purpose of the logical file system and virtual file system layers and the data structures they use
• List key components and functions of the Journaled File System (JFS) and Enhanced Journaled File System (JFS2)
• Identify the steps required to compile, link, and load kernel extensions

Prerequisites:

You should complete:

• AIX System Administration II: Problem Determination (AU160) or (Q1316)
• or have equivalent experience

In addition, the following courses are helpful:

• AIX 5L Korn and bash Shell Programming (AU231) or (Q1323)
• AIX 5L Application Programming Environment (AU250) or (Q1325)

You are expected to have programming knowledge in the C programming language, working knowledge of AIX system calls, and user-level working knowledge of AIX/UNIX, including editors, shells, pipes, and Input/Output (I/O) redirection. Additionally, knowledge of basic system administration skills is required, such as the use of System Management Interface Tool (SMIT), configuring file systems and configuring dump devices.

Topics:

• Introduction to the AIX 5L kernel
• Kernel analysis tools
• Process management
• Addressing memory
• Memory management
• Logical partitioning concepts
• The Logical and Virtual File Systems
• AIX 5L native file sytems
• Key Logical Volume Manager (LVM) structures
• Kernel extensions