Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

------------------------------
Andrey Klyachkin

https://www.power-devops.com

Original Message:
Sent: Tue August 29, 2023 04:55 AM
From: christophe derouet
Subject: Ansible for AIX system adminitrators / Help for beginners please !

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

------------------------------
christophe derouet
------------------------------

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

you see indeed two versions of Ansible:

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansibleAvailable Packagesansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolboxansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch

Many years ago IBM decided to provide Ansible as .noarch package but didn't delete the old RPM package. Now we have both of them. Usually if you issue yum install ansible, the latest version (ansible.noarch) should be installed. If it is not the case in your environment, add noarch to the command:

yum install ansible.noarch

Then it should install the correct version.

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

We tried to install ansible.noarch but we have the errors below...

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansible
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) / # yum install ansible.noarch
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:7.2.0-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: ansible-core >= 2.14.2 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9 >= 3.9.16 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: /opt/freeware/bin/python3.9 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cryptography >= 3.4.7 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-jinja2 >= 3.0.3 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-packaging >= 19.2 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyyaml >= 5.4.1.1 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-resolvelib >= 0.5.4 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9.ppc 0:3.9.17-1 will be installed
AIX_Toolbox/filelists_db                                                                                                        | 4.6 MB  00:00:00
AIX_Toolbox_noarch/filelists_db                                                                                                 | 2.0 MB  00:00:00
--> Processing Dependency: expat >= 2.5.0 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: sqlite >= 3.39.3 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: zlib >= 1.2.13 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.4.6-1 will be updated
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.5.0-1 will be an update
---> Package python3.9-cryptography.ppc 0:3.4.7-4 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cffi >= 1.13.2 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-six >= 1.13.0 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
---> Package python3.9-jinja2.noarch 0:3.0.3-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-markupsafe >= 2.1.2 for package: python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-packaging.noarch 0:19.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyparsing >= 2.4.4 for package: python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pyyaml.ppc 0:5.4.1.1-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-resolvelib.noarch 0:0.5.4-1 will be installed
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.37.2-1 will be updated
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.41.2-1 will be an update
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.12-1 will be updated
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.13-1 will be an update
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-cffi.ppc 0:1.13.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pycparser >= 2.19-1 for package: python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc
---> Package python3.9-markupsafe.ppc 0:2.1.2-1 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-pyparsing.noarch 0:2.4.4-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-six.noarch 0:1.13.0-2 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pycparser.noarch 0:2.19-2 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch (AIX_Toolbox_noarch)
           Requires: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
ataai018(root) / #

Hi Christophe,

you see indeed two versions of Ansible:

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansibleAvailable Packagesansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolboxansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch

Many years ago IBM decided to provide Ansible as .noarch package but didn't delete the old RPM package. Now we have both of them. Usually if you issue yum install ansible, the latest version (ansible.noarch) should be installed. If it is not the case in your environment, add noarch to the command:

yum install ansible.noarch

Then it should install the correct version.

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

With yum , now you won't be able to install the new ansible. 
Please check this thread --> https://community.ibm.com/community/user/power/discussion/important-aix-toolbox-users-please-use-dnf-instead-of-yum?ReturnUrl=%2fcommunity%2fuser%2fpower%2fcommunities%2fcommunity-home%2fdigestviewer%3fcommunitykey%3d10c1d831-47ee-4d92-a138-b03f7896f7c9

We tried to install ansible.noarch but we have the errors below...

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansible
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) / # yum install ansible.noarch
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:7.2.0-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: ansible-core >= 2.14.2 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9 >= 3.9.16 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: /opt/freeware/bin/python3.9 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cryptography >= 3.4.7 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-jinja2 >= 3.0.3 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-packaging >= 19.2 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyyaml >= 5.4.1.1 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-resolvelib >= 0.5.4 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9.ppc 0:3.9.17-1 will be installed
AIX_Toolbox/filelists_db                                                                                                        | 4.6 MB  00:00:00
AIX_Toolbox_noarch/filelists_db                                                                                                 | 2.0 MB  00:00:00
--> Processing Dependency: expat >= 2.5.0 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: sqlite >= 3.39.3 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: zlib >= 1.2.13 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.4.6-1 will be updated
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.5.0-1 will be an update
---> Package python3.9-cryptography.ppc 0:3.4.7-4 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cffi >= 1.13.2 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-six >= 1.13.0 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
---> Package python3.9-jinja2.noarch 0:3.0.3-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-markupsafe >= 2.1.2 for package: python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-packaging.noarch 0:19.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyparsing >= 2.4.4 for package: python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pyyaml.ppc 0:5.4.1.1-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-resolvelib.noarch 0:0.5.4-1 will be installed
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.37.2-1 will be updated
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.41.2-1 will be an update
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.12-1 will be updated
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.13-1 will be an update
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-cffi.ppc 0:1.13.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pycparser >= 2.19-1 for package: python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc
---> Package python3.9-markupsafe.ppc 0:2.1.2-1 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-pyparsing.noarch 0:2.4.4-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-six.noarch 0:1.13.0-2 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pycparser.noarch 0:2.19-2 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch (AIX_Toolbox_noarch)
           Requires: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
ataai018(root) / #

Hi Christophe,

you see indeed two versions of Ansible:

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansibleAvailable Packagesansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolboxansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch

Many years ago IBM decided to provide Ansible as .noarch package but didn't delete the old RPM package. Now we have both of them. Usually if you issue yum install ansible, the latest version (ansible.noarch) should be installed. If it is not the case in your environment, add noarch to the command:

yum install ansible.noarch

Then it should install the correct version.

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

Hello Ayappan,

We thank you very much for this information.

We will try to migrate to DNF on our AIX test lpar running under oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Will DNF work fine under oslevel 7200-05-04-2220 ?

Have a nice day,

With yum , now you won't be able to install the new ansible. 
Please check this thread --> https://community.ibm.com/community/user/power/discussion/important-aix-toolbox-users-please-use-dnf-instead-of-yum?ReturnUrl=%2fcommunity%2fuser%2fpower%2fcommunities%2fcommunity-home%2fdigestviewer%3fcommunitykey%3d10c1d831-47ee-4d92-a138-b03f7896f7c9

We tried to install ansible.noarch but we have the errors below...

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansible
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) / # yum install ansible.noarch
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:7.2.0-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: ansible-core >= 2.14.2 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9 >= 3.9.16 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: /opt/freeware/bin/python3.9 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cryptography >= 3.4.7 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-jinja2 >= 3.0.3 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-packaging >= 19.2 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyyaml >= 5.4.1.1 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-resolvelib >= 0.5.4 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9.ppc 0:3.9.17-1 will be installed
AIX_Toolbox/filelists_db                                                                                                        | 4.6 MB  00:00:00
AIX_Toolbox_noarch/filelists_db                                                                                                 | 2.0 MB  00:00:00
--> Processing Dependency: expat >= 2.5.0 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: sqlite >= 3.39.3 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: zlib >= 1.2.13 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.4.6-1 will be updated
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.5.0-1 will be an update
---> Package python3.9-cryptography.ppc 0:3.4.7-4 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cffi >= 1.13.2 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-six >= 1.13.0 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
---> Package python3.9-jinja2.noarch 0:3.0.3-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-markupsafe >= 2.1.2 for package: python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-packaging.noarch 0:19.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyparsing >= 2.4.4 for package: python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pyyaml.ppc 0:5.4.1.1-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-resolvelib.noarch 0:0.5.4-1 will be installed
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.37.2-1 will be updated
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.41.2-1 will be an update
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.12-1 will be updated
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.13-1 will be an update
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-cffi.ppc 0:1.13.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pycparser >= 2.19-1 for package: python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc
---> Package python3.9-markupsafe.ppc 0:2.1.2-1 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-pyparsing.noarch 0:2.4.4-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-six.noarch 0:1.13.0-2 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pycparser.noarch 0:2.19-2 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch (AIX_Toolbox_noarch)
           Requires: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
ataai018(root) / #

Hi Christophe,

you see indeed two versions of Ansible:

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansibleAvailable Packagesansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolboxansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch

Many years ago IBM decided to provide Ansible as .noarch package but didn't delete the old RPM package. Now we have both of them. Usually if you issue yum install ansible, the latest version (ansible.noarch) should be installed. If it is not the case in your environment, add noarch to the command:

yum install ansible.noarch

Then it should install the correct version.

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

With yum , now you won't be able to install the new ansible. 
Please check this thread --> https://community.ibm.com/community/user/power/discussion/important-aix-toolbox-users-please-use-dnf-instead-of-yum?ReturnUrl=%2fcommunity%2fuser%2fpower%2fcommunities%2fcommunity-home%2fdigestviewer%3fcommunitykey%3d10c1d831-47ee-4d92-a138-b03f7896f7c9

We tried to install ansible.noarch but we have the errors below...

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansible
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) / # yum install ansible.noarch
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:7.2.0-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: ansible-core >= 2.14.2 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9 >= 3.9.16 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: /opt/freeware/bin/python3.9 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cryptography >= 3.4.7 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-jinja2 >= 3.0.3 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-packaging >= 19.2 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyyaml >= 5.4.1.1 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-resolvelib >= 0.5.4 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9.ppc 0:3.9.17-1 will be installed
AIX_Toolbox/filelists_db                                                                                                        | 4.6 MB  00:00:00
AIX_Toolbox_noarch/filelists_db                                                                                                 | 2.0 MB  00:00:00
--> Processing Dependency: expat >= 2.5.0 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: sqlite >= 3.39.3 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: zlib >= 1.2.13 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.4.6-1 will be updated
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.5.0-1 will be an update
---> Package python3.9-cryptography.ppc 0:3.4.7-4 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cffi >= 1.13.2 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-six >= 1.13.0 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
---> Package python3.9-jinja2.noarch 0:3.0.3-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-markupsafe >= 2.1.2 for package: python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-packaging.noarch 0:19.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyparsing >= 2.4.4 for package: python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pyyaml.ppc 0:5.4.1.1-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-resolvelib.noarch 0:0.5.4-1 will be installed
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.37.2-1 will be updated
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.41.2-1 will be an update
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.12-1 will be updated
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.13-1 will be an update
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-cffi.ppc 0:1.13.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pycparser >= 2.19-1 for package: python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc
---> Package python3.9-markupsafe.ppc 0:2.1.2-1 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-pyparsing.noarch 0:2.4.4-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-six.noarch 0:1.13.0-2 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pycparser.noarch 0:2.19-2 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch (AIX_Toolbox_noarch)
           Requires: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
ataai018(root) / #

Hi Christophe,

you see indeed two versions of Ansible:

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansibleAvailable Packagesansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolboxansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch

Many years ago IBM decided to provide Ansible as .noarch package but didn't delete the old RPM package. Now we have both of them. Usually if you issue yum install ansible, the latest version (ansible.noarch) should be installed. If it is not the case in your environment, add noarch to the command:

yum install ansible.noarch

Then it should install the correct version.

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

So now DNF is installed on our AIX test lpar. Installation is successfull.    

Question N°1:

I can see the fileset rpm.rte is upgraded.  We will have to downgrade this fileset before migrating to AIX 7.3 for example ? 

It happened a few years ago when installing YUM. We had to downgrade rpm.rte to the initial level before the next AIX os migration...

Question N°2:

The "dnf list ansible" command does not work...    Nor "yum list ansible" command ...

ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # lslpp -l rpm.rte
  Fileset                      Level  State      Description
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Path: /usr/lib/objrepos
  rpm.rte                   4.15.1.3  COMMITTED  RPM Package Manager

Path: /etc/objrepos
  rpm.rte                   4.15.1.3  COMMITTED  RPM Package Manager
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #

ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # ./dnf_aixtoolbox.sh -y
Attempting download of dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar ...
Saving to 'dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar'...
208 MB received in 21 seconds (9.92 MB/sec)

Extracting dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar ...
x ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 991206 bytes, 1936 tape blocks
x dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 11135 bytes, 22 tape blocks
x dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 12450 bytes, 25 tape blocks
x dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 23693 bytes, 47 tape blocks
x extra_list, 384 bytes, 1 tape blocks
x install_dnf.sh, 13552 bytes, 27 tape blocks
x libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1273688 bytes, 2488 tape blocks
x libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 15816971 bytes, 30893 tape blocks
x libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3433754 bytes, 6707 tape blocks
x librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3653390 bytes, 7136 tape blocks
x libsmartcols-2.34-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 183412 bytes, 359 tape blocks
x libsolv-0.7.9-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1533540 bytes, 2996 tape blocks
x libzstd-1.4.4-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 469194 bytes, 917 tape blocks
x p11-kit-0.23.22-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2148539 bytes, 4197 tape blocks
x p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 274086 bytes, 536 tape blocks
x python3-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 8920 bytes, 18 tape blocks
x python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6128 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3-devel-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7699 bytes, 16 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 7598 bytes, 15 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6568 bytes, 13 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6776 bytes, 14 tape blocks
x python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7040 bytes, 14 tape blocks
x python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 23264 bytes, 46 tape blocks
x python3-idle-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7283 bytes, 15 tape blocks
x python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 13360 bytes, 27 tape blocks
x python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 23264 bytes, 46 tape blocks
x python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 12860 bytes, 26 tape blocks
x python3-six-1.13.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 5820 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3-test-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 6228 bytes, 13 tape blocks
x python3-tkinter-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 6120 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3.9-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 56782290 bytes, 110903 tape blocks
x python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 310485 bytes, 607 tape blocks
x python3.9-devel-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 19947643 bytes, 38961 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 196779 bytes, 385 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 8242 bytes, 17 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 33639 bytes, 66 tape blocks
x python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1192531 bytes, 2330 tape blocks
x python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3116653 bytes, 6088 tape blocks
x python3.9-idle-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2328852 bytes, 4549 tape blocks
x python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1049812 bytes, 2051 tape blocks
x python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 22550948 bytes, 44045 tape blocks
x python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2293000 bytes, 4479 tape blocks
x python3.9-six-1.13.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 45630 bytes, 90 tape blocks
x python3.9-test-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 33159212 bytes, 64765 tape blocks
x python3.9-tkinter-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1162787 bytes, 2272 tape blocks
x rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 9496 bytes, 19 tape blocks
x rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 98982 bytes, 194 tape blocks
x rpm.rte, 43051008 bytes, 84084 tape blocks
x yum-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 8634 bytes, 17 tape blocks
x zchunk-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 554294 bytes, 1083 tape blocks
x zchunk-devel-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 19256 bytes, 38 tape blocks
x zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 534032 bytes, 1044 tape blocks

Installing rpm.rte at the latest version ...
This may take several minutes depending on the number of rpms installed...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                    Pre-installation Verification...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Verifying selections...done
Verifying requisites...done
Results...

SUCCESSES
---------
  Filesets listed in this section passed pre-installation verification
  and will be installed.

  Selected Filesets
  -----------------
  rpm.rte 4.15.1.1011                         # RPM Package Manager

  << End of Success Section >>

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                   BUILDDATE Verification ...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Verifying build dates...done
FILESET STATISTICS
------------------
    1  Selected to be installed, of which:
        1  Passed pre-installation verification
  ----
    1  Total to be installed

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                         Installing Software...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

installp: APPLYING software for:
        rpm.rte 4.15.1.1011

Checking if rpm package is already owning
  some of the libraries and binaries..

. . . . . << Copyright notice for rpm.rte >> . . . . . . .
 Licensed Materials - Property of IBM

 5765H4000
   Copyright International Business Machines Corp. 2014, 2020-2023.
   Copyright "Cowboy" Ben Alman, 2010.
   Copyright Steven Benner (http://stevenbenner.com/), 2013.
   Copyright The Regents of the University of California, 1990, 1993, 1994.
   Copyright Ralf Corsepius <corsepiu@fedoraproject.org>, 2007.
   Copyright Vasil Dinkov, Vadikom Web Ltd., 2016.
   Copyright The Dojo Foundation, 2011.
   Copyright Ulrich Drepper <drepper@gnu.ai.mit.edu>, 1995-1997, 2000-2006.
   Copyright Tom Dyas <tdyas@eden.rutgers.edu>, 1998.
   Copyright W. L. Estes <wlestes@uncg.edu>, 1998.
   Copyright Free Software Foundation, Inc., 1989, 1991-2018.
   Copyright Dave Furfero, 2011-2014.
   Copyright Neal Gompa <ngompa13@gmail.com>, 2015.
   Copyright Dimitri van Heesch, 1997-2017.
   Copyright The Internet Society (1998).
   Copyright Per Oeyvind Karlsen <proyvind@moondrake.org>, 2010.
   Copyright Dmitry V. Levin <ldv@altlinux.org>, 2019.
   Copyright Dan Nicholson <dbn.lists@gmail.com>, 2012-2015.
   Copyright Red Hat, Inc., 1998-2003, 2005, 2007, 2009-2011, 2016-2017.
   Copyright Red Hat Software, 1995-2002.
   Copyright Scott James Remnant <scott@netsplit.com>, 2004.
   Copyright John Resig, 2011.
   Copyright Enrico Scholz <enrico.scholz@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de>, 2004.
   Copyright System Design and Research, 2003.
   Copyright Julian Seward et al., 2002-2015.
   Copyright Mark J. Wielaard <mark@klomp.org>, 2016, 2019.
   Copyright X Consortium, 1994.

 All rights reserved.
 US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure
 restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
. . . . . << End of copyright notice for rpm.rte >>. . . .

##################################################################
  This version of rpm installs files under the path /usr/opt/rpm.
  More detailed information on new changes can be found in
  /usr/opt/rpm/README file.
##################################################################

Please wait...
Successfully updated the Kernel Authorization Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Role Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Command Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Device Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Object Domain Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel  Domains Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel RBAC log level.
Successfully updated the Kernel Authorization Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Role Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Command Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Device Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Object Domain Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel  Domains Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel RBAC log level.
Finished processing all filesets.  (Total time:  34 secs).

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                Summaries:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Installation Summary
--------------------
Name                        Level           Part        Event       Result
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rpm.rte                     4.15.1.1011     USR         APPLY       SUCCESS
rpm.rte                     4.15.1.1011     ROOT        APPLY       SUCCESS

Checking whether any of the rpms from dnf_bundle are already installed...
Takes couple of minutes to process.

ca-certificates-2021.2.52-3.ppc will be updated to ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0
dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2 will be installed
librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
libsmartcols-2.34-32_1 will be installed
libsolv-0.7.9-32_3 will be installed
libzstd-1.4.4-32_1 will be installed
Skipping p11-kit-0.23.22-0 as higher version p11-kit-0.23.22-1.ppc is installed.
Skipping p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-0 as higher version p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-1.ppc is installed.
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc will be updated to python3-3.9.16-0
python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2 will be installed
python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch will be updated to python3-six-1.13.0-2
python3.9-3.9.16-0 will be installed
python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-six-1.13.0-2 will be installed
rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2 will be installed
rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2 will be installed
yum-3.4.3-8.noarch will be updated to yum-4.2.17-32_4
zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2 will be installed

Installing the packages...

Verifying...                          ################################# [100%]
Preparing...                          ################################# [100%]
Updating / installing...
   1:python3.9-3.9.16-0               ################################# [  2%]
   2:python3-3.9.16-0                 ################################# [  5%]
   3:libzstd-1.4.4-32_1               ################################# [  7%]
   4:libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2           ################################# [ 10%]
   5:libsolv-0.7.9-32_3               ################################# [ 12%]
   6:rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2        ################################# [ 15%]
   7:libsmartcols-2.34-32_1           ################################# [ 17%]
   8:zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2           ################################# [ 20%]
   9:librepo-1.11.0-32_2              ################################# [ 22%]
  10:libdnf-0.39.1-32_3               ################################# [ 24%]
  11:python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3     ################################# [ 27%]
  12:python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3     ################################# [ 29%]
  13:python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2       ################################# [ 32%]
  14:python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3        ################################# [ 34%]
  15:dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4             ################################# [ 37%]
  16:python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2    ################################# [ 39%]
  17:python3.9-six-1.13.0-2           ################################# [ 41%]
  18:libcomps-0.1.15-32_1             ################################# [ 44%]
  19:python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1   ################################# [ 46%]
  20:python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4        ################################# [ 49%]
  21:python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16################################# [ 51%]
  22:python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.################################# [ 54%]
  23:python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4          ################################# [ 56%]
  24:dnf-4.2.17-32_4                  ################################# [ 59%]
  25:dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4        ################################# [ 61%]

This version of yum4 is a soft link to dnf and all the yum commands are dnf commands.
Repositories present in yum.conf is being used for dnf.

Trying to create pkg_yumdb database required for migrate plugin
Successfully created pkg_yumdb database
  26:yum-4.2.17-32_4                  ################################# [ 63%]
  27:python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16################################# [ 66%]
  28:python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-3################################# [ 68%]
  29:python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1     ################################# [ 71%]
  30:python3-six-1.13.0-2             ################################# [ 73%]
  31:python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2      ################################# [ 76%]
  32:python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3          ################################# [ 78%]
  33:python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2         ################################# [ 80%]
  34:python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3       ################################# [ 83%]
  35:python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3       ################################# [ 85%]
  36:rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2          ################################# [ 88%]
  37:ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0      ################################# [ 90%]
Cleaning up / removing...
  38:python3-six-1.13.0-1             ################################# [ 93%]
  39:python3-3.7.12-1                 ################################# [ 95%]
  40:yum-3.4.3-8                      warning: /opt/freeware/etc/yum/yum.conf saved as /opt/freeware/e                                      tc/yum/yum.conf.rpmsave
################################# [ 98%]
  41:ca-certificates-2021.2.52-3      ################################# [100%]

dnf installed successfully.
Please run 'dnf update' to update packages to the latest level.

Please note, RPM packages are downloaded in dnf cache /var/cache/dnf.
RPM packages install files go under the path /opt.
Hence it is recommended to always keep at least 512MB of free space in /var & /opt
to avoid any download and installation/update failures.

Trying to run 'dnf migrate' to migrate yum database to dnf.
AIX generic repository                                                8.1 MB/s |  19 MB     00:02
AIX noarch repository                                                 4.4 MB/s | 2.8 MB     00:00
AIX 7.2 specific repository                                           3.0 MB/s | 1.3 MB     00:00
Adiscon CentOS-7.2.5.103 - nightly packages for AIX                   1.4 MB/s | 5.8 MB     00:04
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:01 ago on Wed Aug 30 14:50:55 2023.
Migrating history data...
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # dnf list ansible
ksh: dnf:  not found.
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # yum list ansible
ksh: yum:  not found.
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #

With yum , now you won't be able to install the new ansible. 
Please check this thread --> https://community.ibm.com/community/user/power/discussion/important-aix-toolbox-users-please-use-dnf-instead-of-yum?ReturnUrl=%2fcommunity%2fuser%2fpower%2fcommunities%2fcommunity-home%2fdigestviewer%3fcommunitykey%3d10c1d831-47ee-4d92-a138-b03f7896f7c9

We tried to install ansible.noarch but we have the errors below...

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansible
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) / # yum install ansible.noarch
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:7.2.0-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: ansible-core >= 2.14.2 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9 >= 3.9.16 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: /opt/freeware/bin/python3.9 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cryptography >= 3.4.7 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-jinja2 >= 3.0.3 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-packaging >= 19.2 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyyaml >= 5.4.1.1 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-resolvelib >= 0.5.4 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9.ppc 0:3.9.17-1 will be installed
AIX_Toolbox/filelists_db                                                                                                        | 4.6 MB  00:00:00
AIX_Toolbox_noarch/filelists_db                                                                                                 | 2.0 MB  00:00:00
--> Processing Dependency: expat >= 2.5.0 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: sqlite >= 3.39.3 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: zlib >= 1.2.13 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.4.6-1 will be updated
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.5.0-1 will be an update
---> Package python3.9-cryptography.ppc 0:3.4.7-4 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cffi >= 1.13.2 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-six >= 1.13.0 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
---> Package python3.9-jinja2.noarch 0:3.0.3-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-markupsafe >= 2.1.2 for package: python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-packaging.noarch 0:19.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyparsing >= 2.4.4 for package: python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pyyaml.ppc 0:5.4.1.1-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-resolvelib.noarch 0:0.5.4-1 will be installed
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.37.2-1 will be updated
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.41.2-1 will be an update
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.12-1 will be updated
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.13-1 will be an update
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-cffi.ppc 0:1.13.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pycparser >= 2.19-1 for package: python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc
---> Package python3.9-markupsafe.ppc 0:2.1.2-1 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-pyparsing.noarch 0:2.4.4-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-six.noarch 0:1.13.0-2 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pycparser.noarch 0:2.19-2 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch (AIX_Toolbox_noarch)
           Requires: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
ataai018(root) / #

Hi Christophe,

you see indeed two versions of Ansible:

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansibleAvailable Packagesansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolboxansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch

Many years ago IBM decided to provide Ansible as .noarch package but didn't delete the old RPM package. Now we have both of them. Usually if you issue yum install ansible, the latest version (ansible.noarch) should be installed. If it is not the case in your environment, add noarch to the command:

yum install ansible.noarch

Then it should install the correct version.

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

But this syntax works. Thanks to my colleague Nicolas !

taai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin # ./dnf list ansible
Last metadata expiration check: 0:37:25 ago on Wed Aug 30 14:50:55 CEST 2023.
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                     2.6.2-1                                                   AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                                  7.2.0-1                                                   AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin #

So now DNF is installed on our AIX test lpar. Installation is successfull.    

Question N°1:

I can see the fileset rpm.rte is upgraded.  We will have to downgrade this fileset before migrating to AIX 7.3 for example ? 

It happened a few years ago when installing YUM. We had to downgrade rpm.rte to the initial level before the next AIX os migration...

Question N°2:

The "dnf list ansible" command does not work...    Nor "yum list ansible" command ...

ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # lslpp -l rpm.rte
  Fileset                      Level  State      Description
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Path: /usr/lib/objrepos
  rpm.rte                   4.15.1.3  COMMITTED  RPM Package Manager

Path: /etc/objrepos
  rpm.rte                   4.15.1.3  COMMITTED  RPM Package Manager
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #

ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # ./dnf_aixtoolbox.sh -y
Attempting download of dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar ...
Saving to 'dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar'...
208 MB received in 21 seconds (9.92 MB/sec)

Extracting dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar ...
x ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 991206 bytes, 1936 tape blocks
x dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 11135 bytes, 22 tape blocks
x dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 12450 bytes, 25 tape blocks
x dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 23693 bytes, 47 tape blocks
x extra_list, 384 bytes, 1 tape blocks
x install_dnf.sh, 13552 bytes, 27 tape blocks
x libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1273688 bytes, 2488 tape blocks
x libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 15816971 bytes, 30893 tape blocks
x libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3433754 bytes, 6707 tape blocks
x librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3653390 bytes, 7136 tape blocks
x libsmartcols-2.34-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 183412 bytes, 359 tape blocks
x libsolv-0.7.9-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1533540 bytes, 2996 tape blocks
x libzstd-1.4.4-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 469194 bytes, 917 tape blocks
x p11-kit-0.23.22-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2148539 bytes, 4197 tape blocks
x p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 274086 bytes, 536 tape blocks
x python3-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 8920 bytes, 18 tape blocks
x python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6128 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3-devel-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7699 bytes, 16 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 7598 bytes, 15 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6568 bytes, 13 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6776 bytes, 14 tape blocks
x python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7040 bytes, 14 tape blocks
x python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 23264 bytes, 46 tape blocks
x python3-idle-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7283 bytes, 15 tape blocks
x python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 13360 bytes, 27 tape blocks
x python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 23264 bytes, 46 tape blocks
x python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 12860 bytes, 26 tape blocks
x python3-six-1.13.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 5820 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3-test-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 6228 bytes, 13 tape blocks
x python3-tkinter-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 6120 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3.9-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 56782290 bytes, 110903 tape blocks
x python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 310485 bytes, 607 tape blocks
x python3.9-devel-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 19947643 bytes, 38961 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 196779 bytes, 385 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 8242 bytes, 17 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 33639 bytes, 66 tape blocks
x python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1192531 bytes, 2330 tape blocks
x python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3116653 bytes, 6088 tape blocks
x python3.9-idle-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2328852 bytes, 4549 tape blocks
x python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1049812 bytes, 2051 tape blocks
x python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 22550948 bytes, 44045 tape blocks
x python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2293000 bytes, 4479 tape blocks
x python3.9-six-1.13.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 45630 bytes, 90 tape blocks
x python3.9-test-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 33159212 bytes, 64765 tape blocks
x python3.9-tkinter-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1162787 bytes, 2272 tape blocks
x rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 9496 bytes, 19 tape blocks
x rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 98982 bytes, 194 tape blocks
x rpm.rte, 43051008 bytes, 84084 tape blocks
x yum-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 8634 bytes, 17 tape blocks
x zchunk-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 554294 bytes, 1083 tape blocks
x zchunk-devel-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 19256 bytes, 38 tape blocks
x zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 534032 bytes, 1044 tape blocks

Installing rpm.rte at the latest version ...
This may take several minutes depending on the number of rpms installed...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                    Pre-installation Verification...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Verifying selections...done
Verifying requisites...done
Results...

SUCCESSES
---------
  Filesets listed in this section passed pre-installation verification
  and will be installed.

  Selected Filesets
  -----------------
  rpm.rte 4.15.1.1011                         # RPM Package Manager

  << End of Success Section >>

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                   BUILDDATE Verification ...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Verifying build dates...done
FILESET STATISTICS
------------------
    1  Selected to be installed, of which:
        1  Passed pre-installation verification
  ----
    1  Total to be installed

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                         Installing Software...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

installp: APPLYING software for:
        rpm.rte 4.15.1.1011

Checking if rpm package is already owning
  some of the libraries and binaries..

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. . . . . << End of copyright notice for rpm.rte >>. . . .

##################################################################
  This version of rpm installs files under the path /usr/opt/rpm.
  More detailed information on new changes can be found in
  /usr/opt/rpm/README file.
##################################################################

Please wait...
Successfully updated the Kernel Authorization Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Role Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Command Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Device Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Object Domain Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel  Domains Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel RBAC log level.
Successfully updated the Kernel Authorization Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Role Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Command Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Device Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Object Domain Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel  Domains Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel RBAC log level.
Finished processing all filesets.  (Total time:  34 secs).

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                Summaries:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Installation Summary
--------------------
Name                        Level           Part        Event       Result
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rpm.rte                     4.15.1.1011     USR         APPLY       SUCCESS
rpm.rte                     4.15.1.1011     ROOT        APPLY       SUCCESS

Checking whether any of the rpms from dnf_bundle are already installed...
Takes couple of minutes to process.

ca-certificates-2021.2.52-3.ppc will be updated to ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0
dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2 will be installed
librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
libsmartcols-2.34-32_1 will be installed
libsolv-0.7.9-32_3 will be installed
libzstd-1.4.4-32_1 will be installed
Skipping p11-kit-0.23.22-0 as higher version p11-kit-0.23.22-1.ppc is installed.
Skipping p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-0 as higher version p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-1.ppc is installed.
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc will be updated to python3-3.9.16-0
python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2 will be installed
python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch will be updated to python3-six-1.13.0-2
python3.9-3.9.16-0 will be installed
python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-six-1.13.0-2 will be installed
rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2 will be installed
rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2 will be installed
yum-3.4.3-8.noarch will be updated to yum-4.2.17-32_4
zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2 will be installed

Installing the packages...

Verifying...                          ################################# [100%]
Preparing...                          ################################# [100%]
Updating / installing...
   1:python3.9-3.9.16-0               ################################# [  2%]
   2:python3-3.9.16-0                 ################################# [  5%]
   3:libzstd-1.4.4-32_1               ################################# [  7%]
   4:libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2           ################################# [ 10%]
   5:libsolv-0.7.9-32_3               ################################# [ 12%]
   6:rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2        ################################# [ 15%]
   7:libsmartcols-2.34-32_1           ################################# [ 17%]
   8:zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2           ################################# [ 20%]
   9:librepo-1.11.0-32_2              ################################# [ 22%]
  10:libdnf-0.39.1-32_3               ################################# [ 24%]
  11:python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3     ################################# [ 27%]
  12:python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3     ################################# [ 29%]
  13:python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2       ################################# [ 32%]
  14:python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3        ################################# [ 34%]
  15:dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4             ################################# [ 37%]
  16:python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2    ################################# [ 39%]
  17:python3.9-six-1.13.0-2           ################################# [ 41%]
  18:libcomps-0.1.15-32_1             ################################# [ 44%]
  19:python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1   ################################# [ 46%]
  20:python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4        ################################# [ 49%]
  21:python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16################################# [ 51%]
  22:python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.################################# [ 54%]
  23:python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4          ################################# [ 56%]
  24:dnf-4.2.17-32_4                  ################################# [ 59%]
  25:dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4        ################################# [ 61%]

This version of yum4 is a soft link to dnf and all the yum commands are dnf commands.
Repositories present in yum.conf is being used for dnf.

Trying to create pkg_yumdb database required for migrate plugin
Successfully created pkg_yumdb database
  26:yum-4.2.17-32_4                  ################################# [ 63%]
  27:python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16################################# [ 66%]
  28:python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-3################################# [ 68%]
  29:python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1     ################################# [ 71%]
  30:python3-six-1.13.0-2             ################################# [ 73%]
  31:python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2      ################################# [ 76%]
  32:python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3          ################################# [ 78%]
  33:python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2         ################################# [ 80%]
  34:python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3       ################################# [ 83%]
  35:python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3       ################################# [ 85%]
  36:rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2          ################################# [ 88%]
  37:ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0      ################################# [ 90%]
Cleaning up / removing...
  38:python3-six-1.13.0-1             ################################# [ 93%]
  39:python3-3.7.12-1                 ################################# [ 95%]
  40:yum-3.4.3-8                      warning: /opt/freeware/etc/yum/yum.conf saved as /opt/freeware/e                                      tc/yum/yum.conf.rpmsave
################################# [ 98%]
  41:ca-certificates-2021.2.52-3      ################################# [100%]

dnf installed successfully.
Please run 'dnf update' to update packages to the latest level.

Please note, RPM packages are downloaded in dnf cache /var/cache/dnf.
RPM packages install files go under the path /opt.
Hence it is recommended to always keep at least 512MB of free space in /var & /opt
to avoid any download and installation/update failures.

Trying to run 'dnf migrate' to migrate yum database to dnf.
AIX generic repository                                                8.1 MB/s |  19 MB     00:02
AIX noarch repository                                                 4.4 MB/s | 2.8 MB     00:00
AIX 7.2 specific repository                                           3.0 MB/s | 1.3 MB     00:00
Adiscon CentOS-7.2.5.103 - nightly packages for AIX                   1.4 MB/s | 5.8 MB     00:04
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:01 ago on Wed Aug 30 14:50:55 2023.
Migrating history data...
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # dnf list ansible
ksh: dnf:  not found.
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # yum list ansible
ksh: yum:  not found.
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #

With yum , now you won't be able to install the new ansible. 
Please check this thread --> https://community.ibm.com/community/user/power/discussion/important-aix-toolbox-users-please-use-dnf-instead-of-yum?ReturnUrl=%2fcommunity%2fuser%2fpower%2fcommunities%2fcommunity-home%2fdigestviewer%3fcommunitykey%3d10c1d831-47ee-4d92-a138-b03f7896f7c9

We tried to install ansible.noarch but we have the errors below...

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansible
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) / # yum install ansible.noarch
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:7.2.0-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: ansible-core >= 2.14.2 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9 >= 3.9.16 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: /opt/freeware/bin/python3.9 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cryptography >= 3.4.7 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-jinja2 >= 3.0.3 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-packaging >= 19.2 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyyaml >= 5.4.1.1 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-resolvelib >= 0.5.4 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9.ppc 0:3.9.17-1 will be installed
AIX_Toolbox/filelists_db                                                                                                        | 4.6 MB  00:00:00
AIX_Toolbox_noarch/filelists_db                                                                                                 | 2.0 MB  00:00:00
--> Processing Dependency: expat >= 2.5.0 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: sqlite >= 3.39.3 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: zlib >= 1.2.13 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.4.6-1 will be updated
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.5.0-1 will be an update
---> Package python3.9-cryptography.ppc 0:3.4.7-4 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cffi >= 1.13.2 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-six >= 1.13.0 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
---> Package python3.9-jinja2.noarch 0:3.0.3-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-markupsafe >= 2.1.2 for package: python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-packaging.noarch 0:19.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyparsing >= 2.4.4 for package: python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pyyaml.ppc 0:5.4.1.1-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-resolvelib.noarch 0:0.5.4-1 will be installed
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.37.2-1 will be updated
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.41.2-1 will be an update
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.12-1 will be updated
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.13-1 will be an update
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-cffi.ppc 0:1.13.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pycparser >= 2.19-1 for package: python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc
---> Package python3.9-markupsafe.ppc 0:2.1.2-1 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-pyparsing.noarch 0:2.4.4-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-six.noarch 0:1.13.0-2 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pycparser.noarch 0:2.19-2 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch (AIX_Toolbox_noarch)
           Requires: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
ataai018(root) / #

Hi Christophe,

you see indeed two versions of Ansible:

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansibleAvailable Packagesansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolboxansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch

Many years ago IBM decided to provide Ansible as .noarch package but didn't delete the old RPM package. Now we have both of them. Usually if you issue yum install ansible, the latest version (ansible.noarch) should be installed. If it is not the case in your environment, add noarch to the command:

yum install ansible.noarch

Then it should install the correct version.

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

Now Ansible is installed. But the "ansible --version" command fails...

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin # ./dnf install ansible
Last metadata expiration check: 0:40:38 ago on Wed Aug 30 14:50:55 CEST 2023.
Dependencies resolved.
============================================================================================================================================
 Package                                  Architecture             Version                       Repository                            Size
============================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 ansible                                  noarch                   7.2.0-1                       AIX_Toolbox_noarch                    47 M
Installing dependencies:
 python3.9-cffi                           ppc                      1.13.2-2                      AIX_Toolbox                          445 k
 python3.9-cryptography                   ppc                      3.4.7-4                       AIX_Toolbox                          938 k
 python3.9-markupsafe                     ppc                      2.1.2-1                       AIX_Toolbox                           32 k
 python3.9-pyyaml                         ppc                      5.4.1.1-2                     AIX_Toolbox                          507 k
 ansible-core                             noarch                   2.14.2-1                      AIX_Toolbox_noarch                   3.5 M
 python3.9-jinja2                         noarch                   3.0.3-1                       AIX_Toolbox_noarch                   314 k
 python3.9-packaging                      noarch                   19.2-2                        AIX_Toolbox_noarch                    58 k
 python3.9-pycparser                      noarch                   2.19-2                        AIX_Toolbox_noarch                   241 k
 python3.9-pyparsing                      noarch                   2.4.4-2                       AIX_Toolbox_noarch                   196 k
 python3.9-resolvelib                     noarch                   0.5.4-1                       AIX_Toolbox_noarch                    30 k

Transaction Summary
============================================================================================================================================
Install  11 Packages

Total download size: 54 M
Installed size: 317 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/11): python3.9-markupsafe-2.1.2-1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm                                                         153 kB/s |  32 kB     00:00
(2/11): python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm                                                              1.3 MB/s | 445 kB     00:00
(3/11): python3.9-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm                                                           3.7 MB/s | 507 kB     00:00
(4/11): python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.aix7.1.ppc.rpm                                                       2.3 MB/s | 938 kB     00:00
(5/11): python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                          4.7 MB/s | 314 kB     00:00
(6/11): python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                        1.3 MB/s |  58 kB     00:00
(7/11): python3.9-pycparser-2.19-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                        5.2 MB/s | 241 kB     00:00
(8/11): python3.9-pyparsing-2.4.4-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                       4.2 MB/s | 196 kB     00:00
(9/11): python3.9-resolvelib-0.5.4-1.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                      1.3 MB/s |  30 kB     00:00
(10/11): ansible-core-2.14.2-1.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                            9.4 MB/s | 3.5 MB     00:00
(11/11): ansible-7.2.0-1.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                                  9.3 MB/s |  47 MB     00:05
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                       9.9 MB/s |  54 MB     00:05
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                                                    1/1
  Installing       : python3.9-resolvelib-0.5.4-1.noarch                                                                               1/11
  Installing       : python3.9-pyparsing-2.4.4-2.noarch                                                                                2/11
  Installing       : python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch                                                                                 3/11
  Installing       : python3.9-pycparser-2.19-2.noarch                                                                                 4/11
  Installing       : python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc                                                                                       5/11
  Installing       : python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc                                                                                6/11
  Installing       : python3.9-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-2.ppc                                                                                    7/11
  Installing       : python3.9-markupsafe-2.1.2-1.ppc                                                                                  8/11
  Installing       : python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch                                                                                   9/11
  Installing       : ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch                                                                                           10/11
  Installing       : ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch                                                                                     11/11
  Running scriptlet: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch                                                                                     11/11

 Ansible (2.14.0 onwards) requires the locale encoding to be UTF-8.
 For more information, please refer https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.14/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.14.rst#id22

  Verifying        : python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc                                                                                       1/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc                                                                                2/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-markupsafe-2.1.2-1.ppc                                                                                  3/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-2.ppc                                                                                    4/11
  Verifying        : ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch                                                                                            5/11
  Verifying        : ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch                                                                                      6/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch                                                                                   7/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch                                                                                 8/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-pycparser-2.19-2.noarch                                                                                 9/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-pyparsing-2.4.4-2.noarch                                                                               10/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-resolvelib-0.5.4-1.noarch                                                                              11/11

Installed:
  ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch                        python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc                    python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
  python3.9-markupsafe-2.1.2-1.ppc              python3.9-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-2.ppc                 ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
  python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch               python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch              python3.9-pycparser-2.19-2.noarch
  python3.9-pyparsing-2.4.4-2.noarch            python3.9-resolvelib-0.5.4-1.noarch

Complete!
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin # ansible --version
ksh: ansible: 0403-006 Execute permission denied.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin # 

But this syntax works. Thanks to my colleague Nicolas !

taai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin # ./dnf list ansible
Last metadata expiration check: 0:37:25 ago on Wed Aug 30 14:50:55 CEST 2023.
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                     2.6.2-1                                                   AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                                  7.2.0-1                                                   AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin #

So now DNF is installed on our AIX test lpar. Installation is successfull.    

Question N°1:

I can see the fileset rpm.rte is upgraded.  We will have to downgrade this fileset before migrating to AIX 7.3 for example ? 

It happened a few years ago when installing YUM. We had to downgrade rpm.rte to the initial level before the next AIX os migration...

Question N°2:

The "dnf list ansible" command does not work...    Nor "yum list ansible" command ...

ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # lslpp -l rpm.rte
  Fileset                      Level  State      Description
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Path: /usr/lib/objrepos
  rpm.rte                   4.15.1.3  COMMITTED  RPM Package Manager

Path: /etc/objrepos
  rpm.rte                   4.15.1.3  COMMITTED  RPM Package Manager
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #

ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # ./dnf_aixtoolbox.sh -y
Attempting download of dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar ...
Saving to 'dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar'...
208 MB received in 21 seconds (9.92 MB/sec)

Extracting dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar ...
x ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 991206 bytes, 1936 tape blocks
x dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 11135 bytes, 22 tape blocks
x dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 12450 bytes, 25 tape blocks
x dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 23693 bytes, 47 tape blocks
x extra_list, 384 bytes, 1 tape blocks
x install_dnf.sh, 13552 bytes, 27 tape blocks
x libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1273688 bytes, 2488 tape blocks
x libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 15816971 bytes, 30893 tape blocks
x libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3433754 bytes, 6707 tape blocks
x librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3653390 bytes, 7136 tape blocks
x libsmartcols-2.34-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 183412 bytes, 359 tape blocks
x libsolv-0.7.9-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1533540 bytes, 2996 tape blocks
x libzstd-1.4.4-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 469194 bytes, 917 tape blocks
x p11-kit-0.23.22-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2148539 bytes, 4197 tape blocks
x p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 274086 bytes, 536 tape blocks
x python3-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 8920 bytes, 18 tape blocks
x python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6128 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3-devel-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7699 bytes, 16 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 7598 bytes, 15 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6568 bytes, 13 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6776 bytes, 14 tape blocks
x python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7040 bytes, 14 tape blocks
x python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 23264 bytes, 46 tape blocks
x python3-idle-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7283 bytes, 15 tape blocks
x python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 13360 bytes, 27 tape blocks
x python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 23264 bytes, 46 tape blocks
x python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 12860 bytes, 26 tape blocks
x python3-six-1.13.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 5820 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3-test-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 6228 bytes, 13 tape blocks
x python3-tkinter-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 6120 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3.9-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 56782290 bytes, 110903 tape blocks
x python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 310485 bytes, 607 tape blocks
x python3.9-devel-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 19947643 bytes, 38961 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 196779 bytes, 385 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 8242 bytes, 17 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 33639 bytes, 66 tape blocks
x python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1192531 bytes, 2330 tape blocks
x python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3116653 bytes, 6088 tape blocks
x python3.9-idle-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2328852 bytes, 4549 tape blocks
x python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1049812 bytes, 2051 tape blocks
x python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 22550948 bytes, 44045 tape blocks
x python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2293000 bytes, 4479 tape blocks
x python3.9-six-1.13.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 45630 bytes, 90 tape blocks
x python3.9-test-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 33159212 bytes, 64765 tape blocks
x python3.9-tkinter-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1162787 bytes, 2272 tape blocks
x rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 9496 bytes, 19 tape blocks
x rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 98982 bytes, 194 tape blocks
x rpm.rte, 43051008 bytes, 84084 tape blocks
x yum-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 8634 bytes, 17 tape blocks
x zchunk-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 554294 bytes, 1083 tape blocks
x zchunk-devel-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 19256 bytes, 38 tape blocks
x zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 534032 bytes, 1044 tape blocks

Installing rpm.rte at the latest version ...
This may take several minutes depending on the number of rpms installed...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                    Pre-installation Verification...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Verifying selections...done
Verifying requisites...done
Results...

SUCCESSES
---------
  Filesets listed in this section passed pre-installation verification
  and will be installed.

  Selected Filesets
  -----------------
  rpm.rte 4.15.1.1011                         # RPM Package Manager

  << End of Success Section >>

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                   BUILDDATE Verification ...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Verifying build dates...done
FILESET STATISTICS
------------------
    1  Selected to be installed, of which:
        1  Passed pre-installation verification
  ----
    1  Total to be installed

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                         Installing Software...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

installp: APPLYING software for:
        rpm.rte 4.15.1.1011

Checking if rpm package is already owning
  some of the libraries and binaries..

. . . . . << Copyright notice for rpm.rte >> . . . . . . .
 Licensed Materials - Property of IBM

 5765H4000
   Copyright International Business Machines Corp. 2014, 2020-2023.
   Copyright "Cowboy" Ben Alman, 2010.
   Copyright Steven Benner (http://stevenbenner.com/), 2013.
   Copyright The Regents of the University of California, 1990, 1993, 1994.
   Copyright Ralf Corsepius <corsepiu@fedoraproject.org>, 2007.
   Copyright Vasil Dinkov, Vadikom Web Ltd., 2016.
   Copyright The Dojo Foundation, 2011.
   Copyright Ulrich Drepper <drepper@gnu.ai.mit.edu>, 1995-1997, 2000-2006.
   Copyright Tom Dyas <tdyas@eden.rutgers.edu>, 1998.
   Copyright W. L. Estes <wlestes@uncg.edu>, 1998.
   Copyright Free Software Foundation, Inc., 1989, 1991-2018.
   Copyright Dave Furfero, 2011-2014.
   Copyright Neal Gompa <ngompa13@gmail.com>, 2015.
   Copyright Dimitri van Heesch, 1997-2017.
   Copyright The Internet Society (1998).
   Copyright Per Oeyvind Karlsen <proyvind@moondrake.org>, 2010.
   Copyright Dmitry V. Levin <ldv@altlinux.org>, 2019.
   Copyright Dan Nicholson <dbn.lists@gmail.com>, 2012-2015.
   Copyright Red Hat, Inc., 1998-2003, 2005, 2007, 2009-2011, 2016-2017.
   Copyright Red Hat Software, 1995-2002.
   Copyright Scott James Remnant <scott@netsplit.com>, 2004.
   Copyright John Resig, 2011.
   Copyright Enrico Scholz <enrico.scholz@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de>, 2004.
   Copyright System Design and Research, 2003.
   Copyright Julian Seward et al., 2002-2015.
   Copyright Mark J. Wielaard <mark@klomp.org>, 2016, 2019.
   Copyright X Consortium, 1994.

 All rights reserved.
 US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure
 restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
. . . . . << End of copyright notice for rpm.rte >>. . . .

##################################################################
  This version of rpm installs files under the path /usr/opt/rpm.
  More detailed information on new changes can be found in
  /usr/opt/rpm/README file.
##################################################################

Please wait...
Successfully updated the Kernel Authorization Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Role Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Command Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Device Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Object Domain Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel  Domains Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel RBAC log level.
Successfully updated the Kernel Authorization Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Role Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Command Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Device Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Object Domain Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel  Domains Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel RBAC log level.
Finished processing all filesets.  (Total time:  34 secs).

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                Summaries:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Installation Summary
--------------------
Name                        Level           Part        Event       Result
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rpm.rte                     4.15.1.1011     USR         APPLY       SUCCESS
rpm.rte                     4.15.1.1011     ROOT        APPLY       SUCCESS

Checking whether any of the rpms from dnf_bundle are already installed...
Takes couple of minutes to process.

ca-certificates-2021.2.52-3.ppc will be updated to ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0
dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2 will be installed
librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
libsmartcols-2.34-32_1 will be installed
libsolv-0.7.9-32_3 will be installed
libzstd-1.4.4-32_1 will be installed
Skipping p11-kit-0.23.22-0 as higher version p11-kit-0.23.22-1.ppc is installed.
Skipping p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-0 as higher version p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-1.ppc is installed.
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc will be updated to python3-3.9.16-0
python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2 will be installed
python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch will be updated to python3-six-1.13.0-2
python3.9-3.9.16-0 will be installed
python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-six-1.13.0-2 will be installed
rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2 will be installed
rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2 will be installed
yum-3.4.3-8.noarch will be updated to yum-4.2.17-32_4
zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2 will be installed

Installing the packages...

Verifying...                          ################################# [100%]
Preparing...                          ################################# [100%]
Updating / installing...
   1:python3.9-3.9.16-0               ################################# [  2%]
   2:python3-3.9.16-0                 ################################# [  5%]
   3:libzstd-1.4.4-32_1               ################################# [  7%]
   4:libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2           ################################# [ 10%]
   5:libsolv-0.7.9-32_3               ################################# [ 12%]
   6:rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2        ################################# [ 15%]
   7:libsmartcols-2.34-32_1           ################################# [ 17%]
   8:zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2           ################################# [ 20%]
   9:librepo-1.11.0-32_2              ################################# [ 22%]
  10:libdnf-0.39.1-32_3               ################################# [ 24%]
  11:python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3     ################################# [ 27%]
  12:python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3     ################################# [ 29%]
  13:python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2       ################################# [ 32%]
  14:python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3        ################################# [ 34%]
  15:dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4             ################################# [ 37%]
  16:python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2    ################################# [ 39%]
  17:python3.9-six-1.13.0-2           ################################# [ 41%]
  18:libcomps-0.1.15-32_1             ################################# [ 44%]
  19:python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1   ################################# [ 46%]
  20:python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4        ################################# [ 49%]
  21:python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16################################# [ 51%]
  22:python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.################################# [ 54%]
  23:python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4          ################################# [ 56%]
  24:dnf-4.2.17-32_4                  ################################# [ 59%]
  25:dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4        ################################# [ 61%]

This version of yum4 is a soft link to dnf and all the yum commands are dnf commands.
Repositories present in yum.conf is being used for dnf.

Trying to create pkg_yumdb database required for migrate plugin
Successfully created pkg_yumdb database
  26:yum-4.2.17-32_4                  ################################# [ 63%]
  27:python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16################################# [ 66%]
  28:python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-3################################# [ 68%]
  29:python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1     ################################# [ 71%]
  30:python3-six-1.13.0-2             ################################# [ 73%]
  31:python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2      ################################# [ 76%]
  32:python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3          ################################# [ 78%]
  33:python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2         ################################# [ 80%]
  34:python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3       ################################# [ 83%]
  35:python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3       ################################# [ 85%]
  36:rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2          ################################# [ 88%]
  37:ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0      ################################# [ 90%]
Cleaning up / removing...
  38:python3-six-1.13.0-1             ################################# [ 93%]
  39:python3-3.7.12-1                 ################################# [ 95%]
  40:yum-3.4.3-8                      warning: /opt/freeware/etc/yum/yum.conf saved as /opt/freeware/e                                      tc/yum/yum.conf.rpmsave
################################# [ 98%]
  41:ca-certificates-2021.2.52-3      ################################# [100%]

dnf installed successfully.
Please run 'dnf update' to update packages to the latest level.

Please note, RPM packages are downloaded in dnf cache /var/cache/dnf.
RPM packages install files go under the path /opt.
Hence it is recommended to always keep at least 512MB of free space in /var & /opt
to avoid any download and installation/update failures.

Trying to run 'dnf migrate' to migrate yum database to dnf.
AIX generic repository                                                8.1 MB/s |  19 MB     00:02
AIX noarch repository                                                 4.4 MB/s | 2.8 MB     00:00
AIX 7.2 specific repository                                           3.0 MB/s | 1.3 MB     00:00
Adiscon CentOS-7.2.5.103 - nightly packages for AIX                   1.4 MB/s | 5.8 MB     00:04
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:01 ago on Wed Aug 30 14:50:55 2023.
Migrating history data...
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # dnf list ansible
ksh: dnf:  not found.
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # yum list ansible
ksh: yum:  not found.
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #

With yum , now you won't be able to install the new ansible. 
Please check this thread --> https://community.ibm.com/community/user/power/discussion/important-aix-toolbox-users-please-use-dnf-instead-of-yum?ReturnUrl=%2fcommunity%2fuser%2fpower%2fcommunities%2fcommunity-home%2fdigestviewer%3fcommunitykey%3d10c1d831-47ee-4d92-a138-b03f7896f7c9

We tried to install ansible.noarch but we have the errors below...

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansible
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) / # yum install ansible.noarch
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:7.2.0-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: ansible-core >= 2.14.2 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9 >= 3.9.16 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: /opt/freeware/bin/python3.9 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cryptography >= 3.4.7 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-jinja2 >= 3.0.3 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-packaging >= 19.2 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyyaml >= 5.4.1.1 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-resolvelib >= 0.5.4 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9.ppc 0:3.9.17-1 will be installed
AIX_Toolbox/filelists_db                                                                                                        | 4.6 MB  00:00:00
AIX_Toolbox_noarch/filelists_db                                                                                                 | 2.0 MB  00:00:00
--> Processing Dependency: expat >= 2.5.0 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: sqlite >= 3.39.3 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: zlib >= 1.2.13 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.4.6-1 will be updated
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.5.0-1 will be an update
---> Package python3.9-cryptography.ppc 0:3.4.7-4 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cffi >= 1.13.2 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-six >= 1.13.0 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
---> Package python3.9-jinja2.noarch 0:3.0.3-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-markupsafe >= 2.1.2 for package: python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-packaging.noarch 0:19.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyparsing >= 2.4.4 for package: python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pyyaml.ppc 0:5.4.1.1-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-resolvelib.noarch 0:0.5.4-1 will be installed
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.37.2-1 will be updated
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.41.2-1 will be an update
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.12-1 will be updated
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.13-1 will be an update
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-cffi.ppc 0:1.13.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pycparser >= 2.19-1 for package: python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc
---> Package python3.9-markupsafe.ppc 0:2.1.2-1 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-pyparsing.noarch 0:2.4.4-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-six.noarch 0:1.13.0-2 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pycparser.noarch 0:2.19-2 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch (AIX_Toolbox_noarch)
           Requires: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
ataai018(root) / #

Hi Christophe,

you see indeed two versions of Ansible:

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansibleAvailable Packagesansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolboxansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch

Many years ago IBM decided to provide Ansible as .noarch package but didn't delete the old RPM package. Now we have both of them. Usually if you issue yum install ansible, the latest version (ansible.noarch) should be installed. If it is not the case in your environment, add noarch to the command:

yum install ansible.noarch

Then it should install the correct version.

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

great that you were able to install Ansible! I think since two years IBM don't do anymore symlinks in /usr/bin. This is the reason for your problem calling yum/dnf. Update your PATH variable and add /opt/freeware/bin to the end of it or use full qualified names like /opt/freeware/bin/dnf.

The same should apply to ansible command. Please check with the full name - /opt/freeware/bin/ansible --version - if it works.

Now Ansible is installed. But the "ansible --version" command fails...

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin # ./dnf install ansible
Last metadata expiration check: 0:40:38 ago on Wed Aug 30 14:50:55 CEST 2023.
Dependencies resolved.
============================================================================================================================================
 Package                                  Architecture             Version                       Repository                            Size
============================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 ansible                                  noarch                   7.2.0-1                       AIX_Toolbox_noarch                    47 M
Installing dependencies:
 python3.9-cffi                           ppc                      1.13.2-2                      AIX_Toolbox                          445 k
 python3.9-cryptography                   ppc                      3.4.7-4                       AIX_Toolbox                          938 k
 python3.9-markupsafe                     ppc                      2.1.2-1                       AIX_Toolbox                           32 k
 python3.9-pyyaml                         ppc                      5.4.1.1-2                     AIX_Toolbox                          507 k
 ansible-core                             noarch                   2.14.2-1                      AIX_Toolbox_noarch                   3.5 M
 python3.9-jinja2                         noarch                   3.0.3-1                       AIX_Toolbox_noarch                   314 k
 python3.9-packaging                      noarch                   19.2-2                        AIX_Toolbox_noarch                    58 k
 python3.9-pycparser                      noarch                   2.19-2                        AIX_Toolbox_noarch                   241 k
 python3.9-pyparsing                      noarch                   2.4.4-2                       AIX_Toolbox_noarch                   196 k
 python3.9-resolvelib                     noarch                   0.5.4-1                       AIX_Toolbox_noarch                    30 k

Transaction Summary
============================================================================================================================================
Install  11 Packages

Total download size: 54 M
Installed size: 317 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/11): python3.9-markupsafe-2.1.2-1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm                                                         153 kB/s |  32 kB     00:00
(2/11): python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm                                                              1.3 MB/s | 445 kB     00:00
(3/11): python3.9-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm                                                           3.7 MB/s | 507 kB     00:00
(4/11): python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.aix7.1.ppc.rpm                                                       2.3 MB/s | 938 kB     00:00
(5/11): python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                          4.7 MB/s | 314 kB     00:00
(6/11): python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                        1.3 MB/s |  58 kB     00:00
(7/11): python3.9-pycparser-2.19-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                        5.2 MB/s | 241 kB     00:00
(8/11): python3.9-pyparsing-2.4.4-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                       4.2 MB/s | 196 kB     00:00
(9/11): python3.9-resolvelib-0.5.4-1.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                      1.3 MB/s |  30 kB     00:00
(10/11): ansible-core-2.14.2-1.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                            9.4 MB/s | 3.5 MB     00:00
(11/11): ansible-7.2.0-1.aix7.1.noarch.rpm                                                                  9.3 MB/s |  47 MB     00:05
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                       9.9 MB/s |  54 MB     00:05
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                                                    1/1
  Installing       : python3.9-resolvelib-0.5.4-1.noarch                                                                               1/11
  Installing       : python3.9-pyparsing-2.4.4-2.noarch                                                                                2/11
  Installing       : python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch                                                                                 3/11
  Installing       : python3.9-pycparser-2.19-2.noarch                                                                                 4/11
  Installing       : python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc                                                                                       5/11
  Installing       : python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc                                                                                6/11
  Installing       : python3.9-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-2.ppc                                                                                    7/11
  Installing       : python3.9-markupsafe-2.1.2-1.ppc                                                                                  8/11
  Installing       : python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch                                                                                   9/11
  Installing       : ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch                                                                                           10/11
  Installing       : ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch                                                                                     11/11
  Running scriptlet: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch                                                                                     11/11

 Ansible (2.14.0 onwards) requires the locale encoding to be UTF-8.
 For more information, please refer https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.14/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.14.rst#id22

  Verifying        : python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc                                                                                       1/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc                                                                                2/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-markupsafe-2.1.2-1.ppc                                                                                  3/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-2.ppc                                                                                    4/11
  Verifying        : ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch                                                                                            5/11
  Verifying        : ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch                                                                                      6/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch                                                                                   7/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch                                                                                 8/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-pycparser-2.19-2.noarch                                                                                 9/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-pyparsing-2.4.4-2.noarch                                                                               10/11
  Verifying        : python3.9-resolvelib-0.5.4-1.noarch                                                                              11/11

Installed:
  ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch                        python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc                    python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
  python3.9-markupsafe-2.1.2-1.ppc              python3.9-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-2.ppc                 ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
  python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch               python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch              python3.9-pycparser-2.19-2.noarch
  python3.9-pyparsing-2.4.4-2.noarch            python3.9-resolvelib-0.5.4-1.noarch

Complete!
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin # ansible --version
ksh: ansible: 0403-006 Execute permission denied.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin # 

But this syntax works. Thanks to my colleague Nicolas !

taai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin # ./dnf list ansible
Last metadata expiration check: 0:37:25 ago on Wed Aug 30 14:50:55 CEST 2023.
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                     2.6.2-1                                                   AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                                  7.2.0-1                                                   AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/bin #

So now DNF is installed on our AIX test lpar. Installation is successfull.    

Question N°1:

I can see the fileset rpm.rte is upgraded.  We will have to downgrade this fileset before migrating to AIX 7.3 for example ? 

It happened a few years ago when installing YUM. We had to downgrade rpm.rte to the initial level before the next AIX os migration...

Question N°2:

The "dnf list ansible" command does not work...    Nor "yum list ansible" command ...

ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # lslpp -l rpm.rte
  Fileset                      Level  State      Description
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Path: /usr/lib/objrepos
  rpm.rte                   4.15.1.3  COMMITTED  RPM Package Manager

Path: /etc/objrepos
  rpm.rte                   4.15.1.3  COMMITTED  RPM Package Manager
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #

ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # ./dnf_aixtoolbox.sh -y
Attempting download of dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar ...
Saving to 'dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar'...
208 MB received in 21 seconds (9.92 MB/sec)

Extracting dnf_bundle_aix_71_72.tar ...
x ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 991206 bytes, 1936 tape blocks
x dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 11135 bytes, 22 tape blocks
x dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 12450 bytes, 25 tape blocks
x dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 23693 bytes, 47 tape blocks
x extra_list, 384 bytes, 1 tape blocks
x install_dnf.sh, 13552 bytes, 27 tape blocks
x libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1273688 bytes, 2488 tape blocks
x libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 15816971 bytes, 30893 tape blocks
x libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3433754 bytes, 6707 tape blocks
x librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3653390 bytes, 7136 tape blocks
x libsmartcols-2.34-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 183412 bytes, 359 tape blocks
x libsolv-0.7.9-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1533540 bytes, 2996 tape blocks
x libzstd-1.4.4-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 469194 bytes, 917 tape blocks
x p11-kit-0.23.22-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2148539 bytes, 4197 tape blocks
x p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 274086 bytes, 536 tape blocks
x python3-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 8920 bytes, 18 tape blocks
x python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6128 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3-devel-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7699 bytes, 16 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 7598 bytes, 15 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6568 bytes, 13 tape blocks
x python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 6776 bytes, 14 tape blocks
x python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7040 bytes, 14 tape blocks
x python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 23264 bytes, 46 tape blocks
x python3-idle-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 7283 bytes, 15 tape blocks
x python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 13360 bytes, 27 tape blocks
x python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 23264 bytes, 46 tape blocks
x python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 12860 bytes, 26 tape blocks
x python3-six-1.13.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 5820 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3-test-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 6228 bytes, 13 tape blocks
x python3-tkinter-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 6120 bytes, 12 tape blocks
x python3.9-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 56782290 bytes, 110903 tape blocks
x python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 310485 bytes, 607 tape blocks
x python3.9-devel-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 19947643 bytes, 38961 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 196779 bytes, 385 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 8242 bytes, 17 tape blocks
x python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 33639 bytes, 66 tape blocks
x python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1192531 bytes, 2330 tape blocks
x python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 3116653 bytes, 6088 tape blocks
x python3.9-idle-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2328852 bytes, 4549 tape blocks
x python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1049812 bytes, 2051 tape blocks
x python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 22550948 bytes, 44045 tape blocks
x python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 2293000 bytes, 4479 tape blocks
x python3.9-six-1.13.0-2.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 45630 bytes, 90 tape blocks
x python3.9-test-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 33159212 bytes, 64765 tape blocks
x python3.9-tkinter-3.9.16-0.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 1162787 bytes, 2272 tape blocks
x rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 9496 bytes, 19 tape blocks
x rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 98982 bytes, 194 tape blocks
x rpm.rte, 43051008 bytes, 84084 tape blocks
x yum-4.2.17-32_4.aix7.1.noarch.rpm, 8634 bytes, 17 tape blocks
x zchunk-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 554294 bytes, 1083 tape blocks
x zchunk-devel-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 19256 bytes, 38 tape blocks
x zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2.aix7.1.ppc.rpm, 534032 bytes, 1044 tape blocks

Installing rpm.rte at the latest version ...
This may take several minutes depending on the number of rpms installed...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                    Pre-installation Verification...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Verifying selections...done
Verifying requisites...done
Results...

SUCCESSES
---------
  Filesets listed in this section passed pre-installation verification
  and will be installed.

  Selected Filesets
  -----------------
  rpm.rte 4.15.1.1011                         # RPM Package Manager

  << End of Success Section >>

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                   BUILDDATE Verification ...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Verifying build dates...done
FILESET STATISTICS
------------------
    1  Selected to be installed, of which:
        1  Passed pre-installation verification
  ----
    1  Total to be installed

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                         Installing Software...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

installp: APPLYING software for:
        rpm.rte 4.15.1.1011

Checking if rpm package is already owning
  some of the libraries and binaries..

. . . . . << Copyright notice for rpm.rte >> . . . . . . .
 Licensed Materials - Property of IBM

 5765H4000
   Copyright International Business Machines Corp. 2014, 2020-2023.
   Copyright "Cowboy" Ben Alman, 2010.
   Copyright Steven Benner (http://stevenbenner.com/), 2013.
   Copyright The Regents of the University of California, 1990, 1993, 1994.
   Copyright Ralf Corsepius <corsepiu@fedoraproject.org>, 2007.
   Copyright Vasil Dinkov, Vadikom Web Ltd., 2016.
   Copyright The Dojo Foundation, 2011.
   Copyright Ulrich Drepper <drepper@gnu.ai.mit.edu>, 1995-1997, 2000-2006.
   Copyright Tom Dyas <tdyas@eden.rutgers.edu>, 1998.
   Copyright W. L. Estes <wlestes@uncg.edu>, 1998.
   Copyright Free Software Foundation, Inc., 1989, 1991-2018.
   Copyright Dave Furfero, 2011-2014.
   Copyright Neal Gompa <ngompa13@gmail.com>, 2015.
   Copyright Dimitri van Heesch, 1997-2017.
   Copyright The Internet Society (1998).
   Copyright Per Oeyvind Karlsen <proyvind@moondrake.org>, 2010.
   Copyright Dmitry V. Levin <ldv@altlinux.org>, 2019.
   Copyright Dan Nicholson <dbn.lists@gmail.com>, 2012-2015.
   Copyright Red Hat, Inc., 1998-2003, 2005, 2007, 2009-2011, 2016-2017.
   Copyright Red Hat Software, 1995-2002.
   Copyright Scott James Remnant <scott@netsplit.com>, 2004.
   Copyright John Resig, 2011.
   Copyright Enrico Scholz <enrico.scholz@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de>, 2004.
   Copyright System Design and Research, 2003.
   Copyright Julian Seward et al., 2002-2015.
   Copyright Mark J. Wielaard <mark@klomp.org>, 2016, 2019.
   Copyright X Consortium, 1994.

 All rights reserved.
 US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure
 restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
. . . . . << End of copyright notice for rpm.rte >>. . . .

##################################################################
  This version of rpm installs files under the path /usr/opt/rpm.
  More detailed information on new changes can be found in
  /usr/opt/rpm/README file.
##################################################################

Please wait...
Successfully updated the Kernel Authorization Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Role Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Command Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Device Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Object Domain Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel  Domains Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel RBAC log level.
Successfully updated the Kernel Authorization Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Role Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Command Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Device Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel Object Domain Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel  Domains Table.
Successfully updated the Kernel RBAC log level.
Finished processing all filesets.  (Total time:  34 secs).

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                Summaries:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Installation Summary
--------------------
Name                        Level           Part        Event       Result
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rpm.rte                     4.15.1.1011     USR         APPLY       SUCCESS
rpm.rte                     4.15.1.1011     ROOT        APPLY       SUCCESS

Checking whether any of the rpms from dnf_bundle are already installed...
Takes couple of minutes to process.

ca-certificates-2021.2.52-3.ppc will be updated to ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0
dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2 will be installed
librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
libsmartcols-2.34-32_1 will be installed
libsolv-0.7.9-32_3 will be installed
libzstd-1.4.4-32_1 will be installed
Skipping p11-kit-0.23.22-0 as higher version p11-kit-0.23.22-1.ppc is installed.
Skipping p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-0 as higher version p11-kit-tools-0.23.22-1.ppc is installed.
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc will be updated to python3-3.9.16-0
python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2 will be installed
python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch will be updated to python3-six-1.13.0-2
python3.9-3.9.16-0 will be installed
python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1 will be installed
python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3 will be installed
python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2 will be installed
python3.9-six-1.13.0-2 will be installed
rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2 will be installed
rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2 will be installed
yum-3.4.3-8.noarch will be updated to yum-4.2.17-32_4
zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2 will be installed

Installing the packages...

Verifying...                          ################################# [100%]
Preparing...                          ################################# [100%]
Updating / installing...
   1:python3.9-3.9.16-0               ################################# [  2%]
   2:python3-3.9.16-0                 ################################# [  5%]
   3:libzstd-1.4.4-32_1               ################################# [  7%]
   4:libmodulemd-1.5.2-32_2           ################################# [ 10%]
   5:libsolv-0.7.9-32_3               ################################# [ 12%]
   6:rpm-python3.9-4.15.1-32_2        ################################# [ 15%]
   7:libsmartcols-2.34-32_1           ################################# [ 17%]
   8:zchunk-libs-1.1.4-32_2           ################################# [ 20%]
   9:librepo-1.11.0-32_2              ################################# [ 22%]
  10:libdnf-0.39.1-32_3               ################################# [ 24%]
  11:python3.9-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3     ################################# [ 27%]
  12:python3.9-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3     ################################# [ 29%]
  13:python3.9-dateutil-2.8.0-2       ################################# [ 32%]
  14:python3.9-gpg-1.13.1-32_3        ################################# [ 34%]
  15:dnf-data-4.2.17-32_4             ################################# [ 37%]
  16:python3.9-librepo-1.11.0-32_2    ################################# [ 39%]
  17:python3.9-six-1.13.0-2           ################################# [ 41%]
  18:libcomps-0.1.15-32_1             ################################# [ 44%]
  19:python3.9-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1   ################################# [ 46%]
  20:python3.9-dnf-4.2.17-32_4        ################################# [ 49%]
  21:python3.9-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16################################# [ 51%]
  22:python3.9-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.################################# [ 54%]
  23:python3-dnf-4.2.17-32_4          ################################# [ 56%]
  24:dnf-4.2.17-32_4                  ################################# [ 59%]
  25:dnf-automatic-4.2.17-32_4        ################################# [ 61%]

This version of yum4 is a soft link to dnf and all the yum commands are dnf commands.
Repositories present in yum.conf is being used for dnf.

Trying to create pkg_yumdb database required for migrate plugin
Successfully created pkg_yumdb database
  26:yum-4.2.17-32_4                  ################################# [ 63%]
  27:python3-dnf-plugin-migrate-4.0.16################################# [ 66%]
  28:python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.16-3################################# [ 68%]
  29:python3-libcomps-0.1.15-32_1     ################################# [ 71%]
  30:python3-six-1.13.0-2             ################################# [ 73%]
  31:python3-librepo-1.11.0-32_2      ################################# [ 76%]
  32:python3-gpg-1.13.1-32_3          ################################# [ 78%]
  33:python3-dateutil-2.8.0-2         ################################# [ 80%]
  34:python3-hawkey-0.39.1-32_3       ################################# [ 83%]
  35:python3-libdnf-0.39.1-32_3       ################################# [ 85%]
  36:rpm-python3-4.15.1-32_2          ################################# [ 88%]
  37:ca-certificates-2023.2.60-0      ################################# [ 90%]
Cleaning up / removing...
  38:python3-six-1.13.0-1             ################################# [ 93%]
  39:python3-3.7.12-1                 ################################# [ 95%]
  40:yum-3.4.3-8                      warning: /opt/freeware/etc/yum/yum.conf saved as /opt/freeware/e                                      tc/yum/yum.conf.rpmsave
################################# [ 98%]
  41:ca-certificates-2021.2.52-3      ################################# [100%]

dnf installed successfully.
Please run 'dnf update' to update packages to the latest level.

Please note, RPM packages are downloaded in dnf cache /var/cache/dnf.
RPM packages install files go under the path /opt.
Hence it is recommended to always keep at least 512MB of free space in /var & /opt
to avoid any download and installation/update failures.

Trying to run 'dnf migrate' to migrate yum database to dnf.
AIX generic repository                                                8.1 MB/s |  19 MB     00:02
AIX noarch repository                                                 4.4 MB/s | 2.8 MB     00:00
AIX 7.2 specific repository                                           3.0 MB/s | 1.3 MB     00:00
Adiscon CentOS-7.2.5.103 - nightly packages for AIX                   1.4 MB/s | 5.8 MB     00:04
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:01 ago on Wed Aug 30 14:50:55 2023.
Migrating history data...
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # dnf list ansible
ksh: dnf:  not found.
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet # yum list ansible
ksh: yum:  not found.
ataai018(root) /tmp/derouet #

With yum , now you won't be able to install the new ansible. 
Please check this thread --> https://community.ibm.com/community/user/power/discussion/important-aix-toolbox-users-please-use-dnf-instead-of-yum?ReturnUrl=%2fcommunity%2fuser%2fpower%2fcommunities%2fcommunity-home%2fdigestviewer%3fcommunitykey%3d10c1d831-47ee-4d92-a138-b03f7896f7c9

We tried to install ansible.noarch but we have the errors below...

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansible
Available Packages
ansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolbox
ansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch
ataai018(root) / # yum install ansible.noarch
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:7.2.0-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: ansible-core >= 2.14.2 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9 >= 3.9.16 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: /opt/freeware/bin/python3.9 for package: ansible-7.2.0-1.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cryptography >= 3.4.7 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-jinja2 >= 3.0.3 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-packaging >= 19.2 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyyaml >= 5.4.1.1 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-resolvelib >= 0.5.4 for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9.ppc 0:3.9.17-1 will be installed
AIX_Toolbox/filelists_db                                                                                                        | 4.6 MB  00:00:00
AIX_Toolbox_noarch/filelists_db                                                                                                 | 2.0 MB  00:00:00
--> Processing Dependency: expat >= 2.5.0 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: sqlite >= 3.39.3 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: zlib >= 1.2.13 for package: python3.9-3.9.17-1.ppc
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.4.6-1 will be updated
---> Package expat.ppc 0:2.5.0-1 will be an update
---> Package python3.9-cryptography.ppc 0:3.4.7-4 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-cffi >= 1.13.2 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-six >= 1.13.0 for package: python3.9-cryptography-3.4.7-4.ppc
---> Package python3.9-jinja2.noarch 0:3.0.3-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-markupsafe >= 2.1.2 for package: python3.9-jinja2-3.0.3-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-packaging.noarch 0:19.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pyparsing >= 2.4.4 for package: python3.9-packaging-19.2-2.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pyyaml.ppc 0:5.4.1.1-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-resolvelib.noarch 0:0.5.4-1 will be installed
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.37.2-1 will be updated
---> Package sqlite.ppc 0:3.41.2-1 will be an update
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.12-1 will be updated
---> Package zlib.ppc 0:1.2.13-1 will be an update
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-cffi.ppc 0:1.13.2-2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python3.9-pycparser >= 2.19-1 for package: python3.9-cffi-1.13.2-2.ppc
---> Package python3.9-markupsafe.ppc 0:2.1.2-1 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-pyparsing.noarch 0:2.4.4-2 will be installed
---> Package python3.9-six.noarch 0:1.13.0-2 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible-core.noarch 0:2.14.2-1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25) for package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch
---> Package python3.9-pycparser.noarch 0:2.19-2 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: ansible-core-2.14.2-1.noarch (AIX_Toolbox_noarch)
           Requires: (ansible >= 7.2.0 if ansible <= 2.9.25)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
ataai018(root) / #

Hi Christophe,

you see indeed two versions of Ansible:

ataai018(root) / # yum list ansibleAvailable Packagesansible.ppc                                                  2.6.2-1                                                AIX_Toolboxansible.noarch                                               7.2.0-1                                                AIX_Toolbox_noarch

Many years ago IBM decided to provide Ansible as .noarch package but didn't delete the old RPM package. Now we have both of them. Usually if you issue yum install ansible, the latest version (ansible.noarch) should be installed. If it is not the case in your environment, add noarch to the command:

yum install ansible.noarch

Then it should install the correct version.

Hello Andrey,

If we have a look to the AIX TOOLBOX we can see that the ansible 7.2.0 is available.

Yes, please use Ansible 7.2.0 from AIX Toolbox, not Ansible 2.7.0.

So Ansible is now installed on one of our test AIX lpar running on oslevel 7200-05-04-2220.

Ansible installation is successfull.

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/freeware/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.18 (default, May 31 2021, 11:28:01) [GCC 8.3.0]
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # ansible-galaxy collection install ibm.power_aix
- downloading role 'collection', owned by
 [WARNING]: - collection was NOT installed successfully: Content has no field named 'owner'

ERROR! - you can use --ignore-errors to skip failed roles and finish processing the list.
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # rpm -qa|grep -i python
python-iniparse-0.4-1.noarch
python-2.7.18-3.ppc
python-tools-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-3.7.12-1.ppc
python3-jmespath-0.9.4-1.noarch
python3-markupsafe-1.1.1-1.ppc
python3-six-1.13.0-1.noarch
python-setuptools-0.9.8-2.noarch
python-six-1.10.0-1.noarch
python-PyYAML-3.11-1.ppc
python-pycrypto-2.6.1-1.ppc
python-babel-0.9.6-1.noarch
python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.noarch
python-urlgrabber-3.10.1-1.noarch
python-pycurl-7.43.0-1.ppc
python-devel-2.7.18-3.ppc
python3-jinja2-2.10.3-1.noarch
python3-pyyaml-5.4.1.1-1.ppc
python-markupsafe-1.0-1.ppc
python-pyasn1-0.2.3-1.noarch
python-keyczar-0.716-1.noarch
python-paramiko-1.7.6-1.ppc
python-jinja2-2.10.1-1.noarch
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python
Installed Packages
python.ppc                                                            2.7.18-3                                                             @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum # yum list python3
Installed Packages
python3.ppc                                                            3.7.12-1                                                            @AIX_Toolbox
ataai018(root) /opt/freeware/etc/yum #

We have heard this information " Installing collections with ansible-galaxy is only supported in ansible 2.9+"

It seems we are in late...

We will try to install    Ansible 7.2.0 from the AIX TOOLBOX...

Hi Christophe,

Ansible doesn't need any agent on AIX side. But yes, for most of the functions you need Python on AIX. Starting with AIX 7.3 it is not a problem anymore. Python is part of AIX standard distribution. On AIX 7.2 you should install Python RPM package from AIX Toolbox. I wouldn't recommend to use Python 2.7, anything else is suitable for Ansible. Python 3.9 works without any problems.

Hello Andrey,

I thank you very much for your reply. It is nice to hear a redbook is coming soon ! It will be very helpfull.

I know we do need to install Ansible agent on AIX client partitions. But are there prerequisites on Ansible client AIX partitions ? I mean minimum level of Python ? Or other rpm packages ?

We thank you very much for your help,

Christophe

Hi Christophe,

it is great that you want to try Ansible! It definitely can help you and your team to minimize repetitive tasks and be more agile. The answers to your questions you will hopefully find in the new Redbook "Using Ansible for automation in IBM Power environments". I hope the first draft will be published middle of September.

Till that time I can post here my opinion.

If you are an AIX administrator and just starting with Ansible, install Ansible on AIX. It is easy, especially if you configured DNF. You don't need any separate LPARs, you can install it on NIM. NIM is always the first choice for me. If your NIM server has SSH access to your client LPARs, you don't need anything else. If it hasn't, then you may think about other LPARs. Ansible requires SSH access to every and each LPAR to manage, REST API access to HMC and PowerVC if you want to manage them too.

Regarding AIX 7.3 - yes. If your NIM server is already on AIX 7.3, feel free to install Ansible there. All my test systems with Ansible have already AIX 7.3. There are no any disadvantages or problems using Ansible on AIX 7.3 comparing to AIX 7.2.

Now the most difficult question - the difference between AIX and Linux using Ansible. Ansible is developed under Linux. It means you will always have fresher version of Ansible on Linux. As for now we have Ansible Core 2.14 on AIX. On Linux you can install Ansible Core 2.15. But frankly speaking I don't see why someone should want to use the latest version of Ansible. Red Hat uses Ansible Core 2.14 too in their Ansible Automation Platform. On most of the tasks especially in the very beginning you will not notice any difference.

Start easy - dnf install ansible - and you have it on your AIX box, try some basic examples and feel free to ask questions in the forum. There are a lot of experts here who can help you.

Hello,

We are AIX system administrators.

We would like to use ANSIBLE as it seems to be very interesting.

We know we have to install ANSIBLE on an AIX LPAR or LINUX LPAR, does that make a difference ?

Would you recommend to install ansible on our NIM master LPAR ? Or on separate AIX LPAR ?

As AIX system administrators we have full access to AIX LPARs, not LINUX LPARS...

Would you recommend to work with ansible installed on an AIX 7.3 LPAR ?

We thank you very much for help and recommendations.

Have a nice day,

Christophe