I had the privilege of experiencing AIX for the very first time this week. Hopefully this can save someone else time.
Some packages that aren’t installed by default that you might want include openssl, openssh, unzip, zlib, and IPFilter.
I would probably start with openssl/openssh. In AIX 7.2, you can do it in the OS installer. To do it outside of the installer, keep the installation cd in and run the following commands:
mount -V cdrfs -o ro /dev/cd0 /mnt cd /mnt/usr/sys/inst.images/ installp -ac -Y -d . openssh.base openssl.base openssl.man.en_US openssh.man.en_US lssrc -s sshd umount /mnt
The default partitions aren’t big enough! Fortunately, it’s very easy to extend the partitions. You can do so with the following commands:
chfs -a size=+4G /opt chfs -a size=+4G /var chfs -a size=+4G /home chfs -a size=+4G /usr chfs -a size=+2G /tmp chfs -a size=+4G /admin
Installing 3rd party software:
You can download unzip from: https://public.dhe.ibm.com/aix/freeSoftware/aixtoolbox/RPMS/ppc/unzip/unzip-6.0-3.aix6.1.ppc.rpm. You can install it with “rpm -i” just like in Linux. Another open for unzipping files without unzip is using jar. You can run “jar -xvf” on a file and it can unzip it as well.
If you need the zlib library, you can get it from: https://public.dhe.ibm.com/aix/freeSoftware/aixtoolbox/RPMS/ppc/zlib/zlib-1.2.11-1.aix6.1.ppc.rpm.
You can install IPFilter from https://www-01.ibm.com/marketing/iwm/iwm/web/reg/pick.do?source=aixbp. It will require a login, but not a serial number. Just create a login and download. Installing IPFilter is a little different. It installs like an AIX package, with installp. Unzip the contents of the IPFilter_Fileset.zip and go into the IPFilter_Fileset directory and run the following commands:
inutoc . installp -ac -gXY -d. ipfl