Originally posted by: The_Doctor

Does anyone know of a USB hub that is supported (or known to work) on AIX 6.1 or AIX 5.3 ?

I need to replicate ~500 USB memory sticks on AIX so my thought is the more working USB ports I have access to, the better.

Originally posted by: GarlandJoseph

What machine models are you using? How many USB ports are on the models?  What have you tried? 

Originally posted by: The_Doctor

What machine models are you using? How many USB ports are on the models?

Well, at the moment, I have a few different m/c's at my disposal:

• 1 x p5-510 - 2 ports each
• 1 x p5-51a - 2 ports each
• 1 x JS12 blade - 2 ports
• 1 x p260 - 1 port
• maybe a p7-780 - 2 ports....  but mgmt would prefer I keep my USB burning exploits off one of our main m/c's

What have you tried?

USB 3.0 memory sticks work fine on all the ports I've tried..... p5-510, p5-51a, JS12, p260.  (FWIW, yes I've been a good employee & stayed off the 780 :) .... with only 2 ports it doesn't provide much advantage for what I'm trying to do anyways.  And I don't see me going out & buying a handful of 4 port USB adapters to go in this machine).

So multiple USB hubs seem to be the better answer.... if they work on AIX & Power 5/6/7..... AND if I can get enough ports to burn ~ 500 USB memory sticks in a reasonable elapsed time.    Tomorrow I hope to test some cheap 4 port hubs & at least see if they work, get some initial elapsed timings, etc.  If I get any decent results then maybe I'm off buying a few 13 port USB hubs to test..... or not.

Back to my initial question:

Does anyone know of a USB hub that is supported (or known to work) on AIX 6.1 or AIX 5.3 ?

Or am I plowing new ground ? :)

Originally posted by: GarlandJoseph

Here is the definitive answer from Mr. M.Sadhir (driver developer)...

We support connecting USB hub devices to the USB ports. Prior to Power8 systems AIX only supports Hub devices which operate at USB 2.0 speed.

From Power8 systems onwards we support USB 3.0 devices and hubs.  Only precaution customers have to take is only use one level of USB hub (Hub to Hub is not supported or tested).  Also the USB devices which are connected to the hub should be checked for their power requirements to ensure that they have sufficient power to operate. If they are self powered USB device then connecting external power source to power them will ensure their proper functioning.  Some of the USB Hubs we have tested are D-Link, Belkin, Transcend (4 Port Hubs). We ideally should support any make as long as the device is compliant with the USB specifications and from AIX perspective we really do not publish specific devices we support considering the varied and large number of hubs available in the market.

Originally posted by: The_Doctor

Awesome response.  I can live with that.

I did test a cheap 4 port Linksys USB 2.0 hub this morning on a p5-510, with USB 3.0 memory sticks.  Seems to work ok.  Thruput was as expected...... more or less proportional to the # of USB memory sticks being used at the time.

Using USB 3.0 memory sticks on USB 2.0 h/w wasn't an issue...... it worked as expected, at USB 2.0 speeds.