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Terraform for AIX on IBM Power Systems Virtual Server

Provision AIX on IBM Power Systems Virtual Server with Terraform: PowerVS instances, NIM-style image management, SAN volumes, and hybrid VPN.

LLuca Berton1 min read

AIX is IBM's enterprise Unix on Power. Modern deployments often live in IBM Cloud PowerVS with Terraform ibm_pi_instance resources that look just like the IBM i pattern, but with AIX 7.3 images.

Quick Pattern (TL;DR)

# 
data "ibm_pi_image" "aix_73" {
  pi_image_name        = "7300-02-02"
  pi_cloud_instance_id = data.ibm_pi_workspace.ws.id
}
 
resource "ibm_pi_instance" "aix" {
  pi_cloud_instance_id = data.ibm_pi_workspace.ws.id
  pi_instance_name     = "aix-app-1"
  pi_image_id          = data.ibm_pi_image.aix_73.id
  pi_processors        = 2
  pi_memory            = 16
  pi_proc_type         = "dedicated"
  pi_sys_type          = "e980"
 
  pi_network {
    network_id = ibm_pi_network.private.network_id
  }
}

SAN Volume

# 
resource "ibm_pi_volume" "oracle" {
  pi_cloud_instance_id = data.ibm_pi_workspace.ws.id
  pi_volume_name       = "aix-oracle-data"
  pi_volume_size       = 1000
  pi_volume_type       = "tier1"
}
 
resource "ibm_pi_volume_attach" "oracle" {
  pi_cloud_instance_id = data.ibm_pi_workspace.ws.id
  pi_volume_id         = ibm_pi_volume.oracle.volume_id
  pi_instance_id       = ibm_pi_instance.aix.instance_id
}

Hybrid VPN to On-Prem AIX

# 
resource "ibm_is_vpn_gateway" "corp" {
  name   = "corp-vpn"
  subnet = ibm_is_subnet.private.id
}

Best Practices

#
  • Pin the AIX TL/SP (7300-02-02) — image revisions matter for compatibility.
  • Dedicated processor mode for SAP HANA / Oracle workloads.
  • Use NIM (network install manager) outside Terraform for fleet OS lifecycle — Terraform owns the VM, NIM owns AIX.
  • Use HMC change windows when adjusting CPU/memory on production LPARs.
#
#Terraform#AIX#PowerVS#IBM Cloud#Unix

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