AIX Boot Process

After powering on a machine,

the hardware is checked and
initialized. This phase is called
the Power On Self Test (POST).
After the POST is complete, a
boot image is located from the
boot list and is loaded into
memory.
Passing control to the operating
system means that the AIX
kernel (which has just been
loaded from the boot image)
takes over from the system
firmware that was used to find
and load the boot image.

Boot Process Overview

Rc.boot1
rc.boot phase 1 actions
The init process started from the RAM file system,
executes the boot script rc.boot1. If init fails for
some reason (for example, a bad boot logical
volume), c06 is shown on the LED display.
Following steps are executed when rc.boot 1 is called:

1.The restbase command is called which copies the

ODM from the boot image into the RAM file system.
After this step, an ODM is available in the RAMFS.

2.When restbase has completed successfully, the

configuration manager, cfgmgr, is run with the
option -f (first). so that the rootvg can be activated
in the next rc.boot phase.

3.Base devices are all devices that are necessary to

access the rootvg. If the rootvg is stored on a hdisk0,
all devices from the motherboard to the disk itself
must be configured in order to be able to access the
rootvg.

4.At the end of rc.boot 1, the system determines the

last boot device by calling bootinfo -b. The LED
shows 511.

Rc.boot2 (1 of 2)
rc.boot phase 2 actions (part 1)

rc.boot is run for the second time and is passed the

parameter 2. The LED shows 551.
The following steps take part in this boot phase:
1.The rootvg is varied on with a special version of the
varyonvg command ipl_varyon.
2.The root file system, hd4, is checked by fsck. The
option -f means that the file system is checked only if
it was not unmounted cleanly during the last
shutdown. This improves the boot performance.
3.Afterwards, /dev/hd4 is mounted directly onto the
root (/) in the RAM file system. If the mount fails, the
boot process stops.
4.Next, /dev/hd2 is checked and mounted. If the
mount fails, the boot stops.
5.Next, the /var file system is checked and mounted.
This is necessary at this stage, because the copycore
command checks if a dump occurred. If a dump exists
in a paging space device, it will be copied from the
dump device, /dev/hd6, to the copy directory which
is by default the directory /var/adm/ras. /var is
unmounted afterwards.
6.The primary paging space /dev/hd6 is available.

Rc.boot2 (2 of 2)
rc.boot phase 2 actions (part 2)
After the paging space /dev/hd6 has been made
available, the following tasks are executed in rc.boot 2:
To understand this step, remember two things:
a./dev/hd4 is mounted onto root(/) in the RAMFS.
b. In rc.boot 1, the cfgmgr has been called and all base
devices are configured. This configuration data has been
written into the ODM of the RAM file system. Now,
mergedev is called and all /dev files from the RAMFS are
copied to disk.
2.All customized ODM files from the RAM file system
ODM are copied to disk as well. At this stage, both ODMs
(in hd5 and hd4) are in sync now.
3.The /var file system (hd9var) is mounted.
4.All messages during the boot process are copied into a
special file. You must use the alog command to view this
file# alog -t boot o.
As no console is available at this stage all boot
information is collected in this file.When rc.boot 2 is
finished, the /, /usr, and /var file systems in rootvg are
active.

Rc.boot3 (1 of 2)

rc.boot phase 3 actions (part 1)

At this boot stage, the /etc/init process is started.

It reads the /etc/inittab file.
It runs rc.boot for the third time, passing the
argument 3 that indicates the last boot phase.

rc.boot 3 executes the following tasks:

1.The /tmp file system is checked and mounted.
2.The rootvg is synchronized by syncvg rootvg.
3.The configuration manager is called again. The
cfgmgr is called with option -p2. Boot mode is
service, the cfgmgr is called with option -p3.
4.The configuration manager reads the ODM
class Config_Rules and executes either all
methods for phase=2 or phase=3.
5.The console will be configured by cfgcon.
6.To synchronize the ODM in the boot logical
volume with the ODM from the / file system,
savebase is called.

Rc.boot3 (2 of 2)

rc.boot phase 3 actions (part 2)

After the ODMs have been synchronized again, the
following steps take place:

1.The syncd daemon is started. All data that is written

to disk is first stored in a cache in memory before
writing it to the disk. The syncd daemon writes the
data from the cache each 60 seconds to the disk.
Another daemon process, the errdemon daemon, is
started. This process allows errors triggered by
applications or the kernel to be written to the error
log.

2.The LED display is turned off.

3.If the file /etc/nologin exists, it will be removed.

During the boot process /etc/nologin will be
removed.

4.The last message, System initialization completed, is

written to the console. rc.boot 3 is finished. The init
process executes the next command in /etc/inittab.