Top 12 AIX Administrator Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the competitive field of AIX administration, showing a balanced mix of deep technical ability and practical soft skills on your resume can spark real attention. The following breakdown zeroes in on 12 skills AIX administrators rely on every day—what they are, why they matter, and crisp ways to sharpen them so your profile rises above the stack.

AIX Administrator Skills

1. AIX Installation
2. PowerVM
3. HMC Management
4. VIO Server
5. LPAR Configuration
6. NIM Administration
7. AIX Security
8. Shell Scripting
9. PowerHA
10. Storage Management
11. Performance Tuning
12. Network Configuration

1. AIX Installation

AIX installation is the setup of the AIX operating system on IBM Power Systems (Power9, Power10), including initializing disks, laying down filesystems, configuring networks, and preparing the box for production. Planning matters: partitioning, LVM layout, packages, security baseline—the groundwork for everything that follows.

Why It's Important

A clean, well-planned install yields a stable, secure, and fast environment. It shortens later troubleshooting and makes scaling or patching far less painful.

How to Improve AIX Installation Skills

1. Prepare with intent: Validate hardware and firmware levels, confirm AIX 7.3 compatibility, define naming standards, and prebuild bosinst.data for repeatable outcomes.

2. Leverage NIM: Use NIM for consistent installs, nimadm for migrations, and SUMA for automated download of updates.

3. Design LVM smartly: Separate rootvg from datavg. Plan PP sizes, mirroring for resilience, and striping for throughput. Prefer JFS2 with dedicated jfs2log where appropriate.

4. Secure from day zero: Baseline with AIXPert, disable legacy services, enforce RBAC, and set sane password and SSH policies.

5. Automate the boring bits: Script post-install steps (users, limits, tunables, packages). Use alt_disk_install for safer changes.

6. Tune post-install: Adjust network (no), storage (ioo), and memory (vmo) tunables after capturing a baseline.

7. Stay current: Track levels with oslevel -s, manage fixes via SUMA or your patching process, and document every change.

How to Display AIX Installation Skills on Your Resume

2. PowerVM

PowerVM is IBM’s virtualization stack for AIX, Linux, and IBM i on Power Systems. It delivers logical partitions (LPARs), dynamic resource moves, and high availability options for dense, flexible consolidation.

Why It's Important

It’s the control plane for resource efficiency. PowerVM lets you squeeze more out of the hardware while maintaining isolation and agility.

How to Improve PowerVM Skills

1. Stay updated: Keep HMC, system firmware, and VIOS at supported, tested levels to gain features and fixes.

2. Right-size resources: Use DLPAR, shared processor pools, and capped vs. uncapped modes based on workload behavior.

3. Harden the network layer: Configure SEA failover or LACP for redundancy. Consider vNIC with SR-IOV where appropriate.

4. Optimize storage paths: Choose vSCSI or NPIV deliberately, tune queue_depth and num_cmd_elems, and deploy dual VIOS for path redundancy.

5. Monitor relentlessly: nmon, topas, and HMC dashboards reveal drift, contention, and hot spots—trend them.

6. Secure the fabric: Use SSH, rotate keys, restrict VIOS commands with roles, and audit periodically.

7. Prove mobility: Test LPM on real workloads and networks. Validate pre-checks and rollback plans.

How to Display PowerVM Skills on Your Resume

3. HMC Management

HMC Management covers the Hardware Management Console that configures and controls IBM Power servers, firmware, and LPAR lifecycle. It’s where policies, profiles, and maintenance converge.

Why It's Important

Centralized control means safer changes, cleaner firmware rollouts, and fewer surprises. Stability starts here.

How to Improve HMC Management Skills

1. Keep code levels aligned: Update HMC and managed system firmware together, following compatibility matrices and maintenance windows.

2. Network it properly: Separate public and private networks. Use dual HMCs for redundancy when the platform supports it.

3. Back up without fail: Export system plans, partition profiles, and HMC data regularly. Test restores, not just backups.

4. Lock it down: Enforce RBAC, change defaults, disable weak ciphers, and review access logs on a schedule.

5. Watch capacity: Track trends for CPU, memory, and I/O at the HMC level to inform pool designs and growth plans.

How to Display HMC Management Skills on Your Resume

4. VIO Server

Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) is a specialized AIX partition that shares physical adapters and disks with client LPARs. It’s the traffic cop for virtual networking and storage.

Why It's Important

Without VIOS, consolidation crumbles. It enables efficient I/O sharing, resilience, and reduced hardware sprawl.

How to Improve VIO Server Skills

1. Modernize safely: Update VIOS using alt_disk_copy or concurrent updates to minimize risk and downtime.

2. Engineer network resilience: Build SEA failover or load sharing, and consider vNIC with SR-IOV on newer hardware.

3. Tune and verify: Use lsmap, entstat, fcstat, and lsattr to validate paths, queueing, and driver settings.

4. Go dual: Deploy dual VIOS per frame, enable MPIO on clients, and test path failures regularly.

5. Adopt Shared Storage Pools when useful: SSP can simplify capacity management and mobility; size and secure it with care.

6. Harden the host: Limit root access, use role separation, and audit privileged commands.

How to Display VIO Server Skills on Your Resume

5. LPAR Configuration

LPAR Configuration is the art of carving a Power System into isolated logical partitions that run their own AIX instances, each with specific CPU, memory, and I/O allocations.

Why It's Important

Good partitioning brings predictability and flexibility. Bad partitioning traps resources and hurts performance.

How to Improve LPAR Configuration Skills

1. Know the workload: Profile CPU, memory, disk, and network patterns with tools like nmon and topas before sizing.

2. Embrace DLPAR: Allow headroom and use dynamic moves to keep pace with demand without restarts.

3. Tune memory wisely: Right-size pinned vs. virtual memory; consider AMS or AME only when it truly benefits the use case.

4. Design I/O thoughtfully: Choose NPIV or vSCSI on purpose, balance adapters, and align SAN zoning with redundancy goals.

5. Network with redundancy: Use SEA failover, LACP, or vNIC depending on platform capabilities.

6. Document and iterate: Keep profile templates, change logs, and regular review cycles to avoid configuration drift.

How to Display LPAR Configuration Skills on Your Resume

6. NIM Administration

NIM (Network Installation Management) centralizes installation, patching, and image deployment for fleets of AIX systems. One master, many clients, one consistent standard.

Why It's Important

Scale and speed. NIM slashes manual toil, reduces variance, and speeds recovery when the unexpected hits.

How to Improve NIM Administration Skills

1. Master the building blocks: lpp_source, SPOT, mksysb, bosinst.data, nimsh—know what each does and when to use it.

2. Automate routines: Script common operations (backups, allocations, client resets). Fold these into change pipelines.

3. Migrate cleanly: Use nimadm and alt_disk_install for in-place migrations with quick rollback.

4. Design for resilience: Back up the NIM database and resources, and stage a standby NIM or DR copy for emergencies.

5. Optimize transport: Prefer nimsh over rsh, choose NFS versions carefully, and ensure fast, reliable LANs for big pushes.

6. Observe and troubleshoot: Read nim logs, validate resource permissions, and test tasks in a sandbox first.

7. Secure access: Restrict who can define or allocate resources; use SSH keys and firewall controls.

How to Display NIM Administration Skills on Your Resume

7. AIX Security

AIX Security spans hardening, patching, access control, auditing, and network protection to guard systems and data against misuse or compromise.

Why It's Important

Integrity, confidentiality, availability. Without them, compliance fails and trust erodes.

How to Improve AIX Security Skills

1. Patch with purpose: Track oslevel -s, apply TL/SP updates, and manage interim fixes with emgr where needed.

2. Enforce least privilege: Use RBAC, sudo, and role separation. Eliminate shared accounts and rotate credentials.

3. Retire legacy services: Disable rsh, rexec, telnet, and ftp. Use SSH with modern ciphers and keys.

4. Audit what matters: Enable the audit subsystem to record privileged actions and security events; review routinely.

5. Harden filesystems: Fix ownership/permissions, hunt SUID/SGID risks, and use mount options like nodev and nosuid where practical.

6. Measure compliance: Apply password policies, screen locks, AIDE for integrity checks, and benchmark against internal standards.

7. Plan for bad days: Keep tested mksysb images, off-host backups, and a recovery runbook that’s actually rehearsed.

8. Keep watch: Run vulnerability scans on a cadence and close the loop with remediation tracking.

How to Display AIX Security Skills on Your Resume

8. Shell Scripting

Shell scripting strings commands into repeatable workflows. On AIX, ksh (and ksh93) shine, with bash available via the AIX Toolbox if needed.

Why It's Important

Automation reduces mistakes and speeds operations. Scripts turn tribal knowledge into reusable, testable assets.

How to Improve Shell Scripting Skills

1. Nail the fundamentals: Variables, quoting, conditionals, loops, pipes, and redirection—no skipping the basics.

2. Write modular code: Functions, getopts for flags, and trap for cleanup. Log verbosely; fail fast on errors.

3. Test like production: Use temp sandboxes and representative data. Add sanity checks before destructive actions.

4. Adopt tooling: Version scripts with git, and use linters or peer review to catch pitfalls early.

5. Schedule and observe: Run jobs with cron, supervise background daemons via SRC, and alert on failures.

6. Keep learning: Short practice problems, code reviews, and reputable training platforms keep skills sharp.

How to Display Shell Scripting Skills on Your Resume

9. PowerHA

PowerHA SystemMirror orchestrates high availability for AIX by automating failover and recovery of applications, networks, and storage.

Why It's Important

When critical apps must stay up, PowerHA keeps services online through node, network, or site hiccups.

How to Improve PowerHA Skills

1. Build clean foundations: Separate heartbeat networks, validate DNS and time sync, and ensure consistent LVM layouts.

2. Tune resource groups: Pick proper start/stop scripts, dependencies, and policies (fallover/fallback) that match the app’s reality.

3. Keep the stack current: Align AIX TLs, RSCT/CAA, and PowerHA levels. Change one layer at a time, with rollbacks ready.

4. Test like you mean it: Simulate failures (process, disk, adapter, site). Capture timings and refine thresholds and heartbeats.

5. Integrate storage replication: Coordinate with Metro/Global Mirror or GLVM, using enhanced concurrent VGs where appropriate.

6. Watch the cluster: Monitor clstat, logs, and event streams; audit changes and keep configs in source control.

How to Display PowerHA Skills on Your Resume

10. Storage Management

Storage Management covers planning, provisioning, and tuning of AIX disks, volume groups, logical volumes, and filesystems—plus the SAN fabric beneath.

Why It's Important

Fast, reliable storage underpins databases, apps, and backups. Missteps here ripple everywhere.

How to Improve Storage Management Skills

1. Measure and trend: Use df, du, iostat, filemon, and alerts for growth and hot spots.

2. Design LVM well: Choose proper PP sizes, mirror where needed, and consider disabling quorum on mirrored rootvg to avoid needless outages.

3. Prefer JFS2 with intent: Size logs, set agblksize for workloads, and consider mount options like noatime when safe.

4. Harden SAN paths: Enable MPIO, set queue_depth and reserve policy correctly, turn on dynamic tracking, and balance across HBAs.

5. Tier and archive: Keep hot data on fast tiers, archive the cold, and prune debris on a schedule.

6. Maintain the stack: Update device drivers, microcode, and AIX levels after validation in non-prod.

7. Control consumption: Apply quotas where helpful and publish housekeeping guidelines for teams.

How to Display Storage Management Skills on Your Resume

11. Performance Tuning

Performance tuning means shaping AIX kernel, CPU, memory, I/O, and network settings to meet workload needs, then watching the results like a hawk.

Why It's Important

Better throughput, lower latency, and fewer bottlenecks. Users feel it; SLAs reflect it.

How to Improve Performance Tuning Skills

1. Establish baselines: Capture normal with nmon, vmstat, iostat, topas, and keep snapshots over time.

2. Tune memory: Adjust vmo settings (paging targets, readahead, LRUD behavior) and size paging space based on evidence.

3. Shape CPU behavior: Review SMT levels, processor sharing settings, and use schedo where appropriate. Pin where it makes sense.

4. Accelerate I/O: Tune ioo and JFS2 attributes (read-ahead, write-behind), align with storage queueing, and validate at scale.

5. Hone the network: Tweak no parameters such as tcp_recvspace, tcp_sendspace, and enable RFC1323 when needed.

6. Manage contention: Use WLM to prioritize workloads and prevent resource hogging.

7. Iterate safely: Change one thing at a time, record settings, and have a rollback ready.

How to Display Performance Tuning Skills on Your Resume

12. Network Configuration

Network configuration on AIX covers adapter setup, IP addressing, routing, link aggregation, and failover so systems can talk quickly and securely.

Why It's Important

Strong connectivity underpins manageability, performance, and availability. If the network stumbles, everything does.

How to Improve Network Configuration Skills

1. Keep levels fresh: Maintain current AIX TL/SP and adapter firmware. Verify with oslevel -s.

2. Tune adapters and kernel: Adjust MTU (use jumbo frames where justified), flow control, and no parameters like tcp_sendspace and tcp_recvspace.

3. Add redundancy: Use EtherChannel (802.3ad), Network Interface Backup, or SEA failover for virtualized setups.

4. Secure the plane: Prefer SSH for admin, restrict inbound services, and align firewall rules with least access.

5. Observe traffic: entstat, netstat, nmon, and netpmon expose errors, drops, and saturation quickly.

6. Document everything: IP plans, VLANs, routes, tunables, and change history—keep it current and accessible.

How to Display Network Configuration Skills on Your Resume