On a fresh AIX 5.3ML1 (the corresponding output of oslevel -r is
5300-01), a bug was encountered when trying to change the NIS password
of a remote user with yppasswd(1): the command systematically dumped
core.
Opening a soft call at the IBM support center leads to patch the system
with the APAR IY66747 (memory fault in chpass_netgroup). The fix
package contains 19 filesets for a total package size of 54,464,512
bytes. After downloading it from IBM Fix Central (which can be found at
http://www-912.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/), all the .bff were
stored in a temporary location /files/tmpcdinst/IY66747 which was NFS
mounted in order to reduce needed space on each concerned host.
The System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) recognizes
/usr/sys/inst.images as the default directory for fixes downloaded
onto hard disk. This was not the case here!
Here are the steps to install the fix package:
# cd /files/tmpcdinst/IY66747
# inutoc
# TERM=vt220 smitty update_all
/*
* INPUT device / directory for software [.]
* SOFTWARE to update _update_all
* PREVIEW only? (update operation will NOT occur) no
* COMMIT software updates? no
* SAVE replaced files? yes
* AUTOMATICALLY install requisite software? yes
* EXTEND file systems if space needed? yes
* VERIFY install and check file sizes? no
* DETAILED output? no
* Process multiple volumes? yes
* ACCEPT new license agreements? yes
* PREVIEW new LICENSE agreements? no
*/
Verify that the fix package applied correctly:
# instfix -ik IY66747
All filesets for IY66747 were found.
Then, here is the correct behavior of the freshly patched system:
# yppasswd jpeg
Old NIS password:
jpeg's New password:
Re-enter jpeg's new password:
NIS passwd changed on neptune
All seems ok!
Side note: Since smitty update_all need to issue the bosboot
command at the end of the update, a reboot is mostly recommended!