Since 1990, AIX has served as the primary operating system for the RS/6000 series (later renamed IBM eServer pSeries, then IBM System p, and now IBM Power Systems).
Sadly, the end of support (EOS) date for AIX 7.1 is April 30, 2023. This means that after this date, IBM will no longer provide regular updates, fixes, or technical support for AIX 7.1.
It’s important to note that end of support does not necessarily mean that AIX 7.1 will stop working or become unsupported overnight. However, it does mean that IBM will no longer release updates or provide technical assistance for issues related to AIX 7.1 beyond the EOS date. This can leave systems running AIX 7.1 vulnerable to security risks and other potential issues, as they will no longer receive official updates or patches from IBM.
If you are currently running AIX 7.1 or considering using it in your environment, it’s recommended to plan for an upgrade to a supported version of AIX, such as AIX 7.2 or later, before the EOS date to ensure continued access to official IBM support and to maintain the security and stability of your AIX environment. As always, please feel free to contact us to discuss the options available for the most up-to-date and accurate information on AIX support policies and EOS dates.
Our favourite Version AIX 7.2 highlights:
1. Faster than AIX 7.1
2. Better Multipath I/O
3. Live Update of AIX with zero reboots even across Technology Level upgrades
4. Active Memory Expansion 64KB – extra memory for low low prices
5. AIX Open Source Toolbox (Goland/Go, helm, Kubectl, Kubelet + auditbeat, filebeat, metricbeat, Calico, and more)
6. LVM + JFS2 enhancements particularly space reclaiming
7. On POWER9 gzip hardware acceleration enablement
8. On POWER9 XIVE for fast interrupts using lower number of CPU cycles
9. Of course, there are nmon improvements too.
Environment:
You are running AIX 7.1.
No sensible technical person would be running anything older than AIX 7.1 at this point in time, due to:
1. Lack of support or support comes at a high price via Service Extensions.
2. Lack of security updates.
3. Missing advanced functions and advanced features that are only found in later AIX releases, particularly AIX 7.2.
4. Not making full use of POWER8 and POWER9 servers. For example, AIX 6.1 can only do SMT=1,2 and 4 (no SMT=8!).
5. Missing years of development into removing serialisation on locks and latches, adding parallel execution, shortening path lengths (less CPU cycles used to get work done), better performance tuning options, better out-of-box performance settings, and field hardening like trace and diagnosiitics.
6. Putting these all together: older AIX versions run slower.
AIX 7.1 released 2010 – Amazing, that it is now 10 years ago.
• AIX 7.1 TL5 last significant update in 2017
• Functionally stabilised since then – fixes only
• All AIX 7.1 users should only be on Technology Level 5 with Service Pack 7
• AIX 7.1 TL4 or earlier are not full supported – by which I mean users may have to upgrade to TL5 to get an efix
• AIX 7.1 support fee-based Service Extension starts probably in late 2021 or 2022 (use this as a temporary stop gap)
• Last planned service pack Q4 2021 (9 months)
AIX 7.2 released 2015.
• All new features since are AIX 7.2 only – OK, a couple of items got back ported to AIX 7.1 but it is a short list.
• The upgrade process AIX 7.1 to AIX 7.2 is very clear and understood
• IBM Power Lab Services available to assist & very experienced
For more information please contact us
