After joining IBM’s OpenBeta program, we have been able to download and test the new version of AIX 7.3, which comes on its 35th anniversary.
Among its novelties, the following stand out:
- Python and Bash frameworks that work directly with AIX, we won’t have to reinstall them manually!
- Support for the dnf command (standard in Red Hat) for installing open source packages from the AIX Toolbox. AIX has been speaking Linux for a long time, but since version 7.3 it is becoming more and more integrated, providing developers and system administrators with all the features needed to modernize UNIX environments.
- Reduced time to dynamically add processors/memory to a running LPAR, helpful for LPARs with databases using hundreds of GB or several TB of RAM. This is coupled with the reduction of IPL times for this type of partitioning.
- pigz and zlibNX commands now transparently use NX GZIP acceleration in Power9 and Power10
- Enhanced support for logical volume (LVM) encryption to include rootvg and dump device.
- The TCP protocol stack now supports CUBIC, a TCP network congestion avoidance algorithm that can get high-bandwidth connections across networks faster and more reliably.
- Additional IP security enhancements (IPsec)
- Possibility to create an OVA file from an mksysb using the create_ova command in order to speed up cloud (PowerVS) and hybrid deployments.
- Creating an ISO image from the new command mksysb_iso
- Integration with the new IBM Open XL C/C++ and Fortran compilers
- Increased file size and file system size
- Improved Ansible and Ansible Tower support
- PowerVC 2.X Integration