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  • 1.  Building a career out of AIX

    Posted 5 days ago

    Dear community,

    Not too long ago I got my introduction into the wonderful world of Power and AIX by an IBM champion nonetheless, and I absolutely love it. Mind you, being 25 years old my experience with a "UNIX" system is mostly through Linux, Mac (yes, it is UNIX ;)) and history books. So it was a pleasant surprise to discover a UNIX that is not inches away from retirement, but is instead alive and kicking in the shape of AIX. The reliability baked into the system, from the hardware up to the operating system, combined with its performance and modern capabilities, instantly hooked me-it was like taking the first bite of your favourite food; you keep coming back for more. I would genuinely love to make a career out of working with these systems, and I hope some of the veterans here are willing to share their advice with me.

    My Core Questions

    1. Career Path and Mastery: What are the key steps, technologies, or certifications required to not just be an AIX administrator, but to be truly good at it? Any specific advice on moving beyond the basics?

    2. Market Concerns and Future Outlook: At the same time, I have one worry: the seemingly niche position AIX appears to have in the current market. Should I be worried about a shrinking job market? Or will AIX continue to grow in a world where people realize that cloud and complex distributed applications are not the end-all be all?

    Thank you all for your time and wisdom!



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    Thomas Wolfis
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  • 2.  RE: Building a career out of AIX

    Posted 5 days ago

    1.- I would say that to truly become proficient in AIX, as you mentioned, it would primarily depend on which area of ​​administration you want to specialize in. The modern sysadmin doesn't just focus on knowing the operating system, operating it, troubleshooting it, and setting up functional services. I think that to achieve a background beyond the basics, you have to have experience in different environments. I believe there's little point in being an expert by repeating the same thing a thousand times without varying anything. Taking courses helps; there's a very interesting learning path offered by IBM, ranging from the basics to understanding kernel internals or driver development, and going even further, I would consider becoming an expert not only in AIX but also in products and solutions that complement the operating system and infrastructure capabilities such as PowerVM, PowerVC, PowerSC, and other essential solutions like PowerHA or GPFS (Storage Scale), to name a few. Coming from environments like Linux and other UNIX systems, you'll already be familiar with programming and automation, for example, with Ansible. And of course, let's not forget that it's certainly possible to work in the cloud and its different commercial options. The point is to broaden your experience by implementing new environments, migrating, patching, upgrading, trying new things, facing challenges, and solving problems. Taking courses is valuable, but the sysadmin is self-taught, experimenting, testing, trying, and often repeating the process. You can't be an expert in everything, but you can be very good at something.

    Of course, being in contact with the group of experts is always an invaluable source of knowledge and mutual support.

    2.- From my point of view, the AIX market is growing rather than declining. The AIX offering goes hand in hand with IBM's offering of POWER equipment, since together they achieve a very interesting combination that provides very high performance and reliability. The workloads that currently run on Linux and other UNIX systems are easily migratable to an AIX environment, which is much more stable. Certainly, some sectors have chosen to migrate workloads to Linux and other platforms with the intention of reducing costs; however, in many cases, they return when they find that the 9s of availability are drastically reduced. As the saying goes, the cure is worse than the disease.



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    Luis Alberto Rojas Kramer

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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Building a career out of AIX

    Posted 5 days ago

    Hi Thomas,

    Just hang out with us more often :) 

    I agree with Luis AIX, and Linux on Power is by far the most reliable platform. Also investments in new features and technologies never stood still.

    Following the right certifications will sure help you, with your learning path.

    I can help you with this, as you know, and Chris will support you with this also.



    ------------------------------
    Christian Sonnemans
    Tactical Unix system engineer
    AsnBank
    Den Bosch
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Building a career out of AIX

    Posted 4 days ago

    Hello Thomas,

    Well, I am one of those long-time AIX admins. I've worked in AIX since 1987 - even on an old PC/RT, believe it or not. AND - still working. Because I love what I do.  The work is challenging and keeps me engaged and in top form in all aspects of my life.

    I've heard all the continuing comments about AIX "dying" for I don't know how many years. But we're still here! Has the market "shifted" - yes. But there is still very much a place for the AIX platform. High-end, performance dependent work loads. I see AIX moving into the space that "used" to be delegated (in the old days) to "main frames". By definition, that will somewhat "shrink" the market space. As someone who's considering a career - I think what that means is basically fewer positions to choose from. BUT - those positions will be commensurate with the platform itself. High end platforms = higher salaries.

    I think the direction you choose is dependent on where your interests lie. If you are someone who really likes to dive into the "nitty gritty" of things - then you can "specialize" in one of the many areas of AIX as Luis mentioned. PowerVC, PowerSC, HA, etc. Or even in the internals. Any of these areas allow for a pretty strong career path in AIX. Because I entered this space at its infancy - as well as really just IT itself, I have become more of a "generalist". I know AIX inside and out. Not as strong on the "specialties", but I am viewed as a "problem solver" because of my knowledge of other technologies. Such as database, storage, etc. So, I get brought into scenarios that aren't necessarily AIX specific. But I am still the primary on a cluster of new 1080's in our organization.

    For someone just starting out, one piece of advice I would give is - NETWORK. Meet people. Meet the "experts". Develop professional relationships. I have relationships with AIX counterparts going back more than 20 years. These are the people whom you can rely on to help you out when you get "stuck", Or when you run into something you've never seen before.

    Good luck!



    ------------------------------
    Vicky Logan
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    Original Message


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