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It's pretty strage but while AIX have the concept of run levels it does not use it. The only run level defined is
run level 2. Runlevels 0-1 are reserved. AIX init man page was written by the guy with great sense of humor and
states that they reserve for "future use"). Levels 3-9 theoretically are reserved for user defined runlevel, but I did
not see a server on which they are used.
Again, it's important to understand to admins who case from Solaris or Linux that the only real runlevel is
all-encompassing run level 2:
root@nti2171:/etc # who -r
. run-level 2 Aug 19 09:49 2 0 S

To change run levels telinit level number

The only operation that you can do with it is to restart those daemons that have keyword respawn in the

init.

telinit q

On a typical system that will affect just a few processes:

# grep respawn /etc/inittab
srcmstr:23456789:respawn:/usr/sbin/srcmstr # System Resource Controller
cron:23456789:respawn:/usr/sbin/cron
cons:0123456789:respawn:/usr/sbin/getty /dev/console
uprintfd:23456789:respawn:/usr/sbin/uprintfd

Old News
Quick ReferenceSolaris to AIX

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There are three ways to boot the AIX operating system: normal, stand-alone, and network boot.
Normal boot
The typical AIX boot method is the normal boot option. The normal boot option boots AIX from local disks to
the server. When complete, the operating system will be in multi-user mode.
Stand-alone boot
The next type of boot on an AIX system is called the stand-alone boot, or maintenance mode option. The
stand-alone boot option is similar to the normal boot option, but instead of being brought up in multi-user mode,
the system is brought up in single-user maintenance mode. You can stand-alone boot an AIX system in several
ways, such as booting the server from removable media (tape or CD), clicking F5 (or F6, depending on the
hardware) after the keyboard has been initialized during the initial hardware peripheral checks, or a possible
issue has been found (corrupt file system) and the system must be repaired prior to entering normal boot. Some
systems may have a key that you can turn to maintenance mode, as well. Stand-along booting the server allows
you to install software, correct issues, run diagnostics, and configure hardware without the presence of other
users and reducing the risk of locked resources.
Network boot
The last type of boot is the network boot option. Again, similar to the normal boot option, the AIX system is
booted into a multi-user mode. However, with this option, AIX receives its boot information from another server
on the network.
The bootlist and how to manage it
Because you can boot AIX from several different types of media, you must have a way to manage the different
types. This is where the bootlist comes into play. The bootlist maintains a list of all boot devices available to the
system for each boot method.
To view a bootlist for a specific boot method, simply add the switch -o. In the following example, the normal
boot method is displayed. The order the server will try to boot from is the first local disk (hdisk0), then by CD
(cd0), and finally by tape (rmt0).
# bootlist -m normal -o
hdisk0
cd0
rmt0

To set the bootlist for a specific boot method, type the switch -m and the appropriate boot method followed by
the desired boot devices. In the following example, the bootlist for a normal boot is altered to attempt to boot the
server in the order of hdisk0, cd0, or cd1:
bootlist -m normal hdisk0 cd0 cd1

As you can see from the previous examples, the -m switch has been used each time to discern which boot
method to modify or display. This option allows modification to normal, service (single-user maintenance

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mode), both (normal and service), and prevboot (the previous bootlist).
The AIX boot sequence
Now that you've selected the boot method, it's time to move to the actual sequence of events that occurs after the
server is powered on.
Note: Throughout the rest of this article, you'll boot the server using normal boot mode.
POST
After you've turned on the power and the server is starting, the server's hardware is verified and checked for
possible issues. This step is called power-on self-test (POST). While the server is running through its process,
POST is checking the memory, keyboard, sound card, and network devices. During this time, if you wanted to
enter stand-alone mode (single-user maintenance), you would click F5 or F6 after the keyboard has been
initialized. However, in this article, no keystrokes are entered, and the server boots into its normal boot mode.
Bootstrap
After the POST process has finished, the bootstrap or a smaller program used to load a larger programis
loaded into memory. The bootstrap then loads the Boot Logical Volume (BLV) into memory. After the BLV is
loaded, the kernel takes over the boot process.
Boot Logical Volume and the bosboot command
The BLV is the location that contains AIX's bootable images. Typically, the BLV can be found on the local disk
of the server. The BLV contains the AIX kernel, the rc.boot file, commands required during the boot process,
and a trimmed-down version of the Object Data Manager (ODM).
To create bootable images, you use the bosboot command. Using bosboot, you create a boot file (that is, a
bootable image) from a RAM disk, a file system, and a kernel. The bootable image is created along with
interfaces with the server's boot Read-Only Storage (ROS) and Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
(EPROM).
The following example shows how to create a bootable image on the default BLV on the local fixed disk from
which the system boots:
bosboot -a

The AIX kernel

The AIX kernel stored in the BLV creates the / (root), /usr, and /var file systems in RAM. Keep in mind that
these file systems as well as the kernel are stored in RAM initially during the operating system boot process.
Because they are in RAM, they are not accessible to anything outside the BLV.
After the file systems have been loaded into RAM, the kernel executes the init process, which now takes over
the boot process.
The init process

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The AIX kernel loads the process init as process identifier (PID) 1. This process is the parent, or root, process to
all other processes running on AIX. After the init process has been loaded and is running the boot process, init
calls rc.boot.
The rc.boot file
The rc.boot file has three important cases of execution during the AIX boot-up process. The first section of
rc.boot initializes the system's hardware to prepare it for the operating system to boot. A limited amount of
devices needed to start the system are configured at this time with the Configuration Manager command cfgmgr.
During the second section of rc.boot, the file systems /, /usr, and /var as well as the paging space are mounted.
After these file systems have been mounted, init is replaced with init on the disk as PID 1, and the RAM is
cleared.
In the third and final section of rc.boot, the actual init process is executed from disk. When init is executed, the
/etc/inittab file is read, and each item is executed. During this time, the /tmp file system is now being mounted to
disk. Now that the system is in the last leg of the boot process, the cfgmgr command is run again on the
remaining devices that were not configured in the first section of rc.boot.
The /etc/inittab file
After the init process has been executed, the next step is for init to open /etc/inittab and read each entry. The
purpose of the /etc/inittab file is to deliver to the init process those processes that are started at boot-up and
during normal operations.
The format of the /etc/inittab file is very specific, and each field is colon delimited. The format of the /etc/inittab
is as follows:
<ID>:<Run Level>:<Action>:<Command>

The descriptions for the fields defined in the /etc/inittab file are:
ID: A unique string that identifies the object.
Run Level: Execute <Command> when the system has entered the init level. For example, if an entry in
/etc/inittab is set to have a run level of 2, when the operating system enters init level 2, the command will
be executed.
The init or run levels are different on AIX from other UNIX- or Linuxbased systems. The following run
levels are defined in AIX:
0-1: Reserved for future operating system expansion
2: Default run level
3 through 9: User-definable
a through c: Unique levels (When init is executed to a run level a, b, or c, processes are not killed.
Processes in these run levels that are not running will be executed, but processes from the previous
run level are not touched.)
Q, q: A quick way to tell init to rescan the /etc/inittab file
Action: The action field tells the init process how to treat the process in each respective entry in the
inittab file. The following are values to the action field that AIX uses:

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respawn: If the process doesn't exist, start the process. Do not wait for its termination, and continue
to scan the inittab file. If the process is terminated, restart it.
wait: Start the process, and wait for its termination.
once: Start the process, and do not wait for its termination. If the process is terminated, do not
restart it.
boot: Process the entry only during system boot.
bootwait: Process the entry the first time the server goes from single-user to multi-user mode.
powerfail: Only execute the command if init receives a power fail signal.
powerwait: Only execute the command if init receives a power fail signal, and wait until the
process terminates before continuing to scan the inittab file.
off: If the process is currently running, send the signal SIGTERM, then SIGKILL in 20 seconds.
ondemand: This value is the same as respawn but applies only to run levels a, b, and c.
initdefault: Only scan the entry when init is initially executed.
sysinit: Execute the entry before init accesses the console before login.
Command: The final entry's field in the /etc/inittab is the command field. This is the actual command to
execute if <action> deems it necessary when <run level> has been initiated. When the command is ready
to be executed, AIX will fork the process as sh -c exec <command>.
The following example shows running a shell script named /usr/bin/rc.atc_bin when run level 2 has been
initiated and respawn every other time run level 2 is called:
CORMANY_BIN:2:respawn:/usr/bin/rc.atc_bin

To disable the same script for run level 0, 1, 3, 6, and 9, use:

CORMANY_BIN:245780:respawn:/usr/bin/rc.atc_bin

Viewing and modifying the inittab

AIX has commands to make your life easier rather than manually changing the /etc/inittab file. The commands
follow the same naming convention as other AIX commands:
mkitab: Add records to the inittab file.
The following example adds the /usr/bin/rc.atc_bin script in the inittab with a run level 2.
mkitab CORMANY_BIN:2:respawn:/usr/bin/rc.atc_bin

chitab: Changes records in the inittab file. The syntax is identical to the actual record in the inittab file.
The following example changes the previous example's /usr/bin/rc.atc_bin script in the inittab file to run
level 3:
chitab "CORMANY_BIN:3:respawn:/usr/bin/rc.atc_bin"

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lsitab: List records in the inittab file. Using lsitab is a safe means of viewing the inittab records
individually or all together.
The following example views all records in the inittab file:
lsitab -a

This example views only the record identified as CORMANY_BIN:

lsitab CORMANY_BIN

rmitab: Remove records from the inittab file.

The following example removes the record identified by CORMANY_BIN from the inittab file:
rmitab CORMANY_BIN

Conclusion
Now that the inittab file has been read and all the proper processes have been executed, the system is at a login
waiting for you! You may now log in to and enjoy your AIX system.
It may not seem like a lot when you press the power button on a server and it magically starts up, but as you can
see, there's a lot to the AIX system when it is starting. Hopefully, by reading this article you have gained a new
appreciation of what AIX has to go through to provide the base of a solid operating system.
Old News
how to reload the inittab on AIX 5.2.0.0 - 05 without reboot (3rd Response) - Toolbox for IT Groups
From the man pages from init:
1. To request the init command to reexamine the /etc/inittab file, enter:
telinit q
If the init entry has respawn in it it will most likely restart the entry without having to do anything at all.

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Recommended Links
Speaking UNIX: Check out other parts in this series.

Wikipedia's AIX entry: Read Wikipedia's excellent entry on the AIX operating system for more
information about its background and development.

inittab file information: Learn more about the inittab file from the Combined IBM Systems Information
Center.

The AIX and UNIX developerWorks zone provides a wealth of information relating to all aspects of
IBM AIX systems administration and expanding your UNIX skills.

New to AIX and UNIX? Visit the New to AIX and UNIX page to learn more.

developerWorks technical events and webcasts: Stay current with developerWorks technical events and
webcasts.

AIX Wiki: Visit this collaborative environment for technical information related to AIX.

Podcasts: Tune in and catch up with IBM technical experts.

Reference
Sun Solaris to IBM AIX 5L migration
pSeries and AIX Information Center
Commands reference
This topic contains links to information about the AIX commands, including syntax statements, flag
descriptions, and usage examples. Commands are listed alphabetically and categorically.

Alphabetical list of commands

This topic contains links to information about the AIX commands, including syntax statements, flag
descriptions, and usage examples. Commands are listed alphabetically.
Categorical list of commands
This topic contains links to information about the AIX commands, including syntax statements, flag
descriptions, and usage examples. Commands are listed by category.

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