Absolutley , These forums are really helpfull when you reach a dead end ...

fan of rootvg now . there are a lot of interesting topics that are being discussed. Maybe the motivation factor is missing here ... like the one i saw in Experts Exchange ....

were if a solution is given  , the guy who gives the soln is given some expert points .

This will def get some participation from the mass.

Thanks Michael ... interesting info .... should help me in my testing ...

Appreciate the information shared ... Always the first/only to respond in rootvg.

There are two areas you need to investigate:

1) NFS
2) oslevel (including technology level!) of your mksysb, and the oslevel of the spot you are using.

Making sure you have a correct spot is not too difficult. You can just make a new one. There are also commands in nim so that you can perform a "oslevel" on a spot resource. So here, I'll just pass a command I find very useful for installing clone images:

The source=aix5306_clone is using a mksysb resource, rather than an lpp_source and can only be done from the command line (maybe smit, although I have never seen it there. I know it is not in the websm gui interface).

The other problem concerns problems with AIX security around NFS and DNS (generally). When starting a new nim server you either need to be sure that you use only DNS, or dont use DNS - as NFS does not like it when hostname changes and/or are not the same. It has been a few years so I do not recall the exact details. Roughly, NFS client, on a mount, sends it's IP address and it's idea of it's hostname. NFS server compares the IP address sent, the IP address used, and the hostname of the IP address used.
So, what you need to check (and watch carefully the websm interface as the system installs - as you can see it, or the LED numbers (in the HMC GUI display, etc) for codes 610 and 612. If the install hangs (lsnim -l machine_name and check Cstate) with a message of LED 610:.... or LED 612:.... you have a problem with the NFS mounts of the resources.

Hope this helps you get to the next step!

some communication errors: boot, after boot? how far are you coming in the process?

Well, I used to use^* websm as my main user interface with nim - as I don't like the smit menu structure (up and down menu paths). websm works easier.

But to install systems you will first need to create a lpp_source from the CDs (or are they dvd now - I hope!) and from the lpp_source you create a spot.

Once these are complete you should be able to do some basic installs.

For now I'll point you towards a redbook: NIM from A to Z in AIX 5L (http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247296.html?Open) (The AIX 6 book has not been done, but I expect few differences. The main one I ran into when playing with openbeta is the system type. For AIX6 the AIX kernel type is "64" rather than up or mp.

^* I am going to learn to use https://hostname:5336/ibm/console (i.e. AIX IBM director console) because then I won't need to be root to do all this.

classroom is in the classroom, not eLearning.

Are you using the openBeta or a complete AIX 6.1. The openbeta is hard to use, as it is not complete.

If the main purpose is to serve and collect mksysb images (and maybe savevg images) then you can have a fairly simple NIM setup.

The NIM server will need to be at AIX 6.1, as NIM currently has a requirement that the master be equal or higher than systems being served - at the technology university I heard that IBM is discussing removing that requirement.

I suppose you could try the easy_nim (EZNIM) setup to get a basic NIM server setup. However, you could be even simpler (no lpp sources at all) if you use the smit advanced setup and just define the nim master. Depending on your diveristy of network interfaces and/or IP networks you may need to make some extra network objects.

After that you can let machines register themselves, make mksysb resources and (from the command line) make spots from the mksysb images to install them.

If you are considering doing software maintenance via nim, you will need to get comfortable with using lpp_source resources, and making bundles.

And I guess I just mention there is a two (or maybe three - it has been a while) course to learn NIM in the classroom - Class code is AU08, or perhaps AU008.