AIX Observability | Germain Documentation

⚙️ IBM AIX Observability

👀 Overview

GermainUX monitors the availability, performance, capacity, processes, and logs of IBM AIX systems.

A GermainUX Engine connects to the monitored AIX host through SSH and executes approved, read-only commands on a configured schedule. The returned data is parsed into KPIs that can be displayed on dashboards, analyzed, reported, and used to trigger alerts.

Monitoring can cover:

Area
Host availability and uptime
CPU and processor utilization
Physical and virtual memory
Paging space
Filesystems and disk activity
Network interfaces and connections
Processes
System errors and logs
Application-specific commands and files

🏗️ Architecture

The GermainUX Engine does not need to run directly on AIX. It can monitor one or more AIX hosts remotely through SSH.

The Engine must have:

Requirement
Network access to the AIX SSH service
A dedicated monitoring account
Permission to execute the configured commands
Access to required logs and files
Network access to the GermainUX environment

Use synchronized system clocks on the GermainUX Engine and monitored AIX hosts.

📋 Prerequisites

Before configuring monitoring:

Deploy and register a GermainUX Engine.
Confirm that SSH is enabled on the AIX host.
Create a dedicated least-privilege monitoring account.
Configure SSH key authentication or an approved credential.
Restrict the account to the required read-only commands and files.
Verify that the Engine can resolve and reach the AIX hostname.
Identify the metrics, processes, services, filesystems, and logs to monitor.

Do not use the root account for routine monitoring.

🔧 Configure AIX Monitoring

Go to Workspace > Automation > SSH.
Create an SSH configuration for the AIX host.
Select the GermainUX Engine that will execute the commands.
Enter the hostname, SSH port, and approved credentials.
Add the commands required to collect each measurement.
Configure output parsing and the corresponding KPI.
Define the execution schedule and timeout.
Test each command.
Save and enable the configuration.
Confirm that the resulting data appears in GermainUX.

Each command can be configured independently with its own schedule, parsing rules, KPI, and alert conditions.

📊 Common AIX Measurements

📶 Host availability

Monitor whether the Engine can establish an SSH connection and execute a lightweight command.

Useful measurements include:

Measurement
Host availability
SSH availability
Command response time
System uptime
Last successful collection

🖥️ CPU

Monitor:

Metric
Overall CPU utilization
User and system CPU
Idle and wait time
Logical processor activity
Run queue
Load and processor contention
LPAR capacity and entitlement, where applicable

Example commands include:

vmstat 1 4
lparstat

The precise options and output depend on the AIX release and system configuration.

📝 Memory and paging

Monitor:

Metric
Physical memory usage
Available memory
Virtual memory
Paging activity
Paging-space utilization
Memory pressure

Example commands include:

svmon -G
vmstat 1 4
lsps -a

AIX memory values should be interpreted according to AIX memory-management behavior. High memory utilization alone does not necessarily indicate a problem; paging activity and sustained memory pressure provide additional context.

📁 Filesystems and storage

Monitor:

Metric
Filesystem utilization
Available space
Inode usage, where available
Disk throughput
Disk busy time
I/O wait
Disk queues and service time

Example commands include:

df -P
iostat

Configure alerts for critical filesystems before they reach full capacity.

🌐 Network

Monitor available network information such as:

Metric
Interface state
Network errors
Connection counts
Packet activity
Listening ports
Failed or unavailable endpoints

Example commands include:

netstat -in
netstat -f inet -n

Additional interface statistics can be collected using approved AIX tools when required.

🏃 Processes

Monitor:

Metric
Required process availability
Process count
CPU and memory consumption
Process start time
Unexpected process termination
Duplicate or excessive processes

Example:

ps -ef

Define filters for the specific application, database, integration, or middleware processes that must remain available.

System errors and logs

GermainUX can collect or analyze accessible AIX diagnostics and text logs, including:

Log Type
System errors
Application errors
Security events
Service startup and shutdown
Resource failures
Filesystem warnings
Network errors

For example, approved errpt output can be collected and categorized when access is permitted.

Log and command output parsing must be configured for the formats used by the monitored environment.

📦 Application Monitoring

In addition to operating-system telemetry, GermainUX can monitor applications hosted on AIX through:

Method
Process checks
Port and endpoint checks
Application logs
File monitoring
HTTP or API transactions
Database queries
Application-specific read-only commands
Synthetic business transactions

Application-specific commands should be separately authorized, tested, and configured with appropriate timeouts.

🎯 KPIs

Common AIX KPIs include:

KPI	Description
Host Availability	Whether the AIX host is reachable
Uptime	Time since the last system restart
CPU Utilization	Processor capacity currently in use
CPU Wait	Time waiting for I/O or other resources
Run Queue	Work waiting for processor availability
Memory Utilization	Physical and virtual memory usage
Paging Activity	Paging operations over time
Paging-Space Utilization	Used paging space
Filesystem Utilization	Used space by filesystem
Disk Activity	Storage throughput and utilization
Network Errors	Errors reported by network interfaces
Process Availability	Whether a required process is running
Process CPU	CPU consumed by a monitored process
Process Memory	Memory consumed by a monitored process
System Error	Error or warning identified in configured diagnostics
Collection Status	Success or failure of the monitoring command

🔔 Alerts and Reports

Configure alerts for conditions such as:

Condition
Host or SSH unavailable
Required process stopped
Sustained high CPU utilization
CPU or I/O contention
Excessive paging
Paging space approaching capacity
Filesystem approaching capacity
Disk or network errors
New critical system errors
Monitoring command failure
Missing data

Scheduled reports can summarize availability, capacity, performance trends, recurring errors, SLA violations, and changes compared with the previous period.

Use sustained-duration and repeated-occurrence conditions where appropriate to avoid alerts from brief, harmless spikes.

🤖 Automation

When an issue is detected, GermainUX can initiate approved actions through the Engine, including:

Action
Sending an alert
Creating or updating a ticket
Executing a diagnostic command
Collecting additional system evidence
Calling an HTTP endpoint
Running an authorized script
Restarting an approved application process or service
Validating recovery

Corrective commands must be explicitly authorized and tested. Commands that stop processes, restart services, modify files, or change system configuration can affect production and should have appropriate safeguards and approvals.

🛡️ Security

Apply the following controls:

Control
Use a dedicated monitoring account.
Grant only the permissions required for configured commands.
Prefer SSH key authentication.
Protect private keys and credentials.
Restrict SSH access by source host and network policy.
Allowlist executable commands where possible.
Avoid collecting passwords, tokens, or sensitive command output.
Record and review automated administrative actions.
Rotate credentials according to organizational policy.

✅ Validation

After enabling monitoring:

Confirm that the Engine can connect through SSH.
Run each configured command from GermainUX.
Verify that output is parsed correctly.
Compare selected values with the AIX command output.
Confirm that the correct host and environment are assigned.
Test an alert condition safely.
Verify alert delivery.
Confirm that credentials and sensitive output are protected.
Review collection duration and system overhead.

🚑 Troubleshooting

⛔ SSH connection fails

Verify:

Check
Hostname and port
Network and firewall rules
SSH service availability
Credentials or SSH keys
Account restrictions
Host-key configuration
Supported authentication methods

🔧 A command fails

Confirm that:

Check
The command exists on the monitored AIX version.
The monitoring account has permission to run it.
The executable is available in the account’s path.
Required privileges are configured.
The command completes within the configured timeout.

Use explicit executable paths where necessary.

🔍 Metrics are missing or incorrect

Check:

Check
Command output for the installed AIX version
Locale and number formats
Parsing rules
KPI mapping
Collection schedule
Command timeout
Host and environment filters

ℹ️ Get More Information

GermainUX can help determine which monitoring, analytics and automation capabilities are appropriate for your AIX environment.

Contact GermainUX Support.

Component: Engine

Feature Availability: 2014.1 or later