AIX-exporter

Native Prometheus Exporter for IBM AIX

AIX-exporter brings modern observability to your IBM Power Systems infrastructure. Written in C with libperfstat, it runs as a lightweight single binary with zero external dependencies.

22 Collectors

Comprehensive coverage of your AIX systems:

Core Metrics

• CPU – per-CPU utilization: user, system, idle, wait
• Memory – real/virtual memory, page faults, paging rates
• Disk – read/write ops, transfer rates, busy% per hdisk
• Network – bytes/packets in/out, errors per interface
• Partition – entitled capacity, virtual CPUs, weight, capped/uncapped

Storage

• Fibre Channel – frames, bytes, errors per fcs adapter
• Disk Adapter – adapter-level I/O statistics
• Disk Path – multipath I/O per path (MPIO)
• Volume Groups – free/total PPs, stale PVs
• Paging Space – usage per paging space (LV and NFS)

System

• Uptime – boot time, uptime seconds
• Processes – total count, threads, zombie detection
• Error Report – errpt entries grouped by class and type
• Load Average – 1/5/15 minute load averages
• LPAR Config – SMT, shared/dedicated mode, entitled capacity

Network

• Protocol – TCP/UDP/IP/ICMP counters
• Net Interface – detailed stats: collisions, queue lengths
• Net Buffer – network buffer pool utilization
• Net Adapter – adapter-level network statistics

File Systems & NFS

• File Systems – total/free/used per mount, inode usage
• NFS – NFSv3, NFSv4, RPC client/server statistics

Configuration & Runtime Options

AIX_exporter is designed for enterprise flexibility. Every aspect of the agent can be configured via command-line flags or a simple configuration file (/etc/aix-exporter/aix-exporter.conf).

Feature	Description
Configurable TCP port	Listen on any port with -p <port> (default: 9100)
Bind address	Restrict to a specific interface with -l <addr> (default: 0.0.0.0)
Sampling period	Adjust scrape interval with -s <seconds> (default: 30s)
Selective collectors	Enable only the collectors you need via config file – choose from 22 collectors or use all
Configuration file	All options in /etc/aix-exporter/aix-exporter.conf – no flags needed
Syslog integration	All events logged to syslog (facility local3) – startup, shutdown, timeouts, errors
SRC managed	Registered as an AIX SRC subsystem – start/stop with startsrc/stopsrc
Auto-start on boot	Inittab entry created automatically – survives reboots
Graceful shutdown	Clean signal handling (SIGTERM/SIGINT) with syslog notification
Collector timeout protection	Individual collector timeouts prevent one slow collector from blocking all metrics
Standard BFF package	Native AIX installp installation – no dependencies, no compilers needed

Complete Metrics Reference

Browse all 137 metrics exported by AIX_exporter, organized by category. Each metric generates multiple time series depending on the number of CPUs, disks, filesystems, and network interfaces on your LPAR.

Quick Start

Get AIX_exporter running in under 5 minutes:

# 1. Install the BFF package
installp -aXYgd /path/to/aix-exporter.1.0.0.2.bff all

# 2. (Optional) Edit configuration
vi /etc/aix-exporter/aix-exporter.conf

# 3. Start the exporter
startsrc -s aix-exporter

# 4. Verify metrics are available
curl http://localhost:9100/metrics

That’s it. Add the target to your prometheus.yml and import the included Grafana dashboard.

System Requirements

Operating System	IBM AIX 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3
Architecture	IBM Power Systems (POWER7 and later)
Disk Space	< 2 MB
Memory	< 5 MB RSS
CPU Overhead	< 1% (single-threaded, event-driven)
Dependencies	GCC runtime libraries (gcc-libs) – install via dnf install gcc-libs
Network	One TCP port (default 9100) for Prometheus scraping
Prometheus	2.x or 3.x (OpenMetrics compatible)
Grafana	8.x or later (dashboard JSON included)

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it work with Prometheus 3.x?

Yes. AIX_exporter fully supports both Prometheus 2.x and 3.x, including the OpenMetrics exposition format with proper Content-Type headers.

Can I select which collectors to enable?

Yes. Use the configuration file to enable only the collectors you need. For example, collectors = cpu, mem, disk, filesystems will only activate those four collectors.

What is the performance impact on my LPAR?

Minimal. AIX_exporter uses less than 1% CPU and under 5 MB of memory. It’s a single-threaded C binary that queries libperfstat – the same kernel interface used by topas and nmon.

How do I update to a new version?

Simply install the new BFF over the existing one: installp -aXYgd /path/to/new-version.bff all. Your configuration file is preserved. The agent restarts automatically.

Is a Grafana dashboard included?

Yes. A production-ready Grafana dashboard with 20+ panels is included – CPU, memory, disk, filesystem, network, FC adapters, load average, and more. Import the JSON file and you’re set.

What’s included in the free trial?

The trial includes CPU, memory, and partition collectors – enough to evaluate the agent on your infrastructure. The full version unlocks all 22 collectors and 600+ metrics. No time limit on the trial.

Can I deploy it with Ansible?

Yes. We provide a ready-to-use Ansible playbook for mass deployment across your AIX fleet. It handles pre-flight checks, version comparison, installation, configuration, and verification.

Enterprise-Grade Integration

• SRC subsystem – managed via startsrc/stopsrc
• BFF packaging – standard AIX installp install/uninstall
• Auto-start – inittab entry created at install
• Config file – /etc/aix-exporter/aix-exporter.conf with per-collector toggles
• Bind address – restrict to localhost or specific interface

Grafana Dashboard Included

A ready-to-import Grafana dashboard with 60+ panels is included. Visualize all 22 collectors out of the box – CPU heatmaps, memory trends, disk I/O, FC throughput, error reports, and more.

Compatibility

• AIX 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
• IBM Power Systems (POWER7 and above)
• Prometheus 2.x and 3.x
• Grafana 9.x, 10.x, 11.x, 12.x

Licensing

Perpetual license – pay once, use forever. First year of maintenance (updates + support) included. Per-LPAR pricing with volume discounts.