How to create a LaMa repository that provides SPAM/SAINT updates for Linux AND AIX?

[marie_renneke]

Dear community,

I'm afraid I know the answer, but I thought asking wouldn't hurt 😉

The thing is, SPAM/SAINT updates themselves are not platform-dependent. But according to the official Landscape Management documentation: "If your repository is on Linux (NFS), the global host of the system and all other SAP instances must be on Linux."
So our fileserver is Linux. For SPAM/SAINT updates directly in AIX-based SAP systems this works absolutely fine. Only LaMa won't let us use the "SPAM/SAINT update" function for AIX systems, hence the OS type linked to the LaMa repository is Linux. This attribute is automatically recognised by LaMa and I couldn't find any place to change it.
Same thing with other repos - e.g. ST-PI + ST-A/PI ... at least one exception is ACEXT. Here the OS seems to be tied to the file instead of the server's file system.

Does anyone of you have an idea, a trick, a hint or something how LaMa would accept files in a Linux repository as source for AIX SAP systems? Or do we seriously have to set up an additional AIX fileserver just for these patches? 

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences!
Best regards, Marie

[abe_letkeman · Accepted solution]

Hi Marie.

You shouldn't have to create a second share, but you will need to specify a second repository with the details of how to mount the share on AIX. Proceed as follows..

With the Linux-hosted NFS share mounted on your AIX host, create a second repository for SPAM/SAINT for the AIX mount details. This time, on step 1 (Basic properties) select an AIX host with the NFS share mounted. LaMa will present the NFS shares mounted on the AIX host in step 2 (Mount data). Select the appropriate mount point, and click next, then save. Discover and create the configuration the same way as before.

Best regards,

Abe

[marie_renneke · Accepted solution]

Dear Abe, thanks for the response. Well, that still means I would need a central AIX host for the mountpoint, right? No other way of making LaMa accept a Linux fileserver for AIX systems? Thanks & regards, Marie

[abe_letkeman · Accepted solution]

Sorry for the delayed response, Marie. You only need the AIX NFS client to get the NFS mount details. This mount information is used to mount the share on the NFS client if it is not already mounted. So, the NFS share served by Linux will be mounted on AIX if it is not already mounted at the time of the provisioning activity.

[marie_renneke · Accepted solution]

Hi Abe, I'm sorry I somehow missed the notification about your answer. That's the thing, we would still need some kind of central AIX system which provides the mount. We are a data center service provider. So we can't just use any of our AIX (customer) systems to provide a central mount point. That means we would actually have to set up an AIX host that would then simply mount the same Linux file systems that are already attached to LaMa, just so that LaMa recognizes them as AIX. It's not a hugely complex process, of course, but it just seems incredibly unnecessary to me, since it's technically not necessary at all and this dependency is simply created artificially by LaMa. But if there's no other way, then unfortunately, that's the way it is. Thank you for your time and input! I hope you have a great day. Best, Marie