AIX-Lifecycle at your fingertips

How often have you searched the lifecycle informations (start of general availability and end of support) for AIX, VIOS, PowerHA or HMC via Google?

This information can also be found easily using the command line of the IBM FLRT API (https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/flrt/sas?page=jsonapi). All you need is:

  • a direct internet connection or connection via an HTTP proxy
  • an installed version of curl

You can get an overview of all AIX versions with the help of the following curl command:

$ curl "https://www14.software.ibm.com/support/customercare/flrt/liteTable?prodKey=aix&format=json"
{"results": [
{
"input": "7200-04-02",
"inputurl": "http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/aix/quickorder?fixids=U887468&function=fixId&includeRequisites=1&includeSupersedes=0&release=7.2&source=flrt",
"ga": "2020.05.15",
"eosps": "2022.11.30"
},
{
"input": "7200-04-01",
"inputurl": "http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/aix/quickorder?fixids=U886355&function=fixId&includeRequisites=1&includeSupersedes=0&release=7.2&source=flrt",
"ga": "2019.11.15",
"eosps": "2022.11.30"
},
...

The output is in JSON format and is greatly shortened in the example.

We packed everything necessary in a small shell script (show_life_cycle) and made it available in our download area  (https://powercampus.de/download).

Here is a sample run of the script without arguments:

$ show_life_cycle 
VERSION          GA          EOSPS       UPDATE           UPGRADE
7200-04-02       2020.05.15  2022.11.30  -                -
7200-04-01       2019.11.15  2022.11.30  -                -
7200-04-00       2019.11.15  2022.11.30  7200-04-01       -
7200-03-04       2020.02.14  2021.09.30  -                7200-04-01
7200-03-03       2019.05.10  2021.09.30  7200-03-04       7200-04-01 
7200-03-02       2018.11.16  2021.09.30  7200-03-04       7200-04-01
...

All AIX versions are listed. However, other products can be selected for display via an argument, e.g. RHEL versions, SLES versions, VIOS versions, HMC versions, PowerHA versions and even HMC models or power systems. A complete list can be found at https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/flrt/doc?page=prodTable. Here is a list of the RHEL versions as an example:

$ show_life_cycle rhel
VERSION          GA          EOSPS       UPDATE           UPGRADE
8.0              2019.05.07  NA          -                -
7.7              2019.08.06  NA          -                -
7.6              2018.10.30  NA          7.7              -
7.5              2018.04.10  NA          7.7              -
7.4              2017.07.31  NA          7.7              -
7.3              2016.11.03  NA          7.7              -
7.2              2015.11.19  NA          7.7              -
7.1              2015.03.05  NA          7.7              -
7.0              2014.06.10  2015.03.05  7.7              -
6.10             2018.06.19  NA          -                7.6
6.9              2017.03.21  NA          6.10             7.6
6.8              2016.05.10  NA          6.10             7.6
6.7              2015.07.22  NA          6.10             7.6
6.6              2014.10.14  NA          6.10             7.6
6.5              2013.11.21  2014.10.14  6.10             7.6
...

The output is very long in some cases. An additional argument can be used to specify a prefix for the desired versions, shown here using PowerHA 7.2.2 as an example:

$ show_life_cycle hacmp 7.2.2
VERSION          GA          EOSPS       UPDATE           UPGRADE
7.2.2.4          2020.05.28  2021.04.30  -                7.2.3.2
7.2.2.3          2019.09.13  2021.04.30  -                7.2.3.2
7.2.2.2          2018.11.30  2021.04.30  7.2.2.3          7.2.3.2
7.2.2.1          2018.06.29  2021.04.30  7.2.2.3          7.2.3.2
7.2.2            2017.12.15  2021.04.30  7.2.2.3          7.2.3.2
$

If only a connection using a proxy is possible, then the following options are available:

1. The HTTP proxy is specified using the ‘-p‘ option, e.g..:

$ show_life_cycle -p http://10.0.0.3:8000 hmc V9
VERSION          GA          EOSPS       UPDATE           UPGRADE
V9 R1 M941       2020.05.22  2021.04.30  -                -
V9 R1 M940       2019.11.22  2021.04.30  -                -
V9 R1 M931       2019.09.11  2021.04.30  -                -
V9 R1 M930       2019.05.17  2021.04.30  V9 R1 M931       -
V9 R1 M921       2018.11.16  2021.04.30  V9 R1 M931       -
V9 R1 M920       2018.08.17  2021.04.30  V9 R1 M931       -
V9 R1 M911       2018.05.25  2021.04.30  V9 R1 M931       -
V9 R1 M910       2018.03.20  2021.04.30  V9 R1 M931       -
$

2. The HTTP proxy is set directly in the script, shell variable PROXY:

$ grep ^PROXY show_life_cycle 
PROXY="http://10.0.0.3:8000"
$

3. If the script is executed as root on AIX, the proxy configuration of the Electronic Service Agent (ESA) is automatically taken over. This can be overwritten by using the command line option ‘-p‘ or by setting the variable PROXY.

The script should run on any UNIX system with a Korn shell (including MacOS). This means that searching via Google for lifecycle data is no longer necessary.

On the subject of Inventory Scout we have an article Automating Inventory Scout and another script for download available!

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