AIX-exporter Documentation — Prometheus AIX Exporter for IBM

AIX-exporter — Prometheus AIX Exporter Documentation

AIX-exporter is the only native Prometheus exporter for AIX on IBM Power Systems. It exposes 600+ system metrics on a standard /metrics endpoint for scraping by Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, Grafana Cloud, or any OpenMetrics-compatible backend. Installs via BFF/installp — no Python, no Java, no Node.js required.

AIXWatch — prometheus exporter AIX Grafana Fiber Channel and disk path dashboard for AIX

Requirements for the Prometheus Exporter for AIX

  • AIX 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3 on IBM Power Systems
  • Root access (for installation and libperfstat)
  • Network access from Prometheus to the exporter port (default: 9100)

Installation

AIX-exporter is distributed as a standard AIX BFF package.

Install

⚠️ Important: This release includes two BFF variants — one for AIX 7.2/7.3 and one for AIX 7.1. Both filesets share the same internal name (aix-exporter.rte). Do not place both BFF files in the same installation directory — this causes a .toc conflict during installp. Copy only the appropriate BFF for your AIX version to the installation directory.

# AIX 7.2 / 7.3
installp -aXd aix-exporter.1.0.0.2.bff aix-exporter

# AIX 7.1
installp -aXd aix-exporter.1.0.0.2-aix71.bff aix-exporter

# Verify installation
lslpp -l aix-exporter.rte

The installer automatically:

  • Copies the binary to /usr/local/bin/aix-exporter
  • Creates the config directory /etc/aix-exporter/
  • Installs a default config file /etc/aix-exporter/aix-exporter.conf
  • Registers an SRC subsystem (startsrc -s aix-exporter)
  • Adds an inittab entry for auto-start at boot
  • Installs EULA, README, and CHANGELOG to /usr/local/share/aix-exporter/

Uninstall

# Stop the service first
stopsrc -s aix-exporter

# Remove the package
installp -u aix-exporter.rte

Configuration

Edit /etc/aix-exporter/aix-exporter.conf:

# Listening port (default: 9100)
port = 9100

# Bind address (default: 0.0.0.0 — all interfaces)
bind = 0.0.0.0

# Scrape interval in seconds (default: 60)
scrape_interval = 60

# Collectors: 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled
# --- Core ---
collector_cpu = 1
collector_memory = 1
collector_disk = 1
collector_network = 1
collector_partition = 1

# --- Storage ---
collector_disk_adapter = 1
collector_disk_path = 1
collector_fc = 1
collector_volumegroup = 1
collector_pagingspace = 1

# --- System ---
collector_uptime = 1
collector_process = 1
collector_errpt = 1
collector_loadavg = 1
collector_lpar_config = 1

# --- Network ---
collector_netinterface = 1
collector_netbuffer = 1
collector_netadapter = 1
collector_protocol = 1

# --- File Systems ---
collector_filesystem = 1
collector_filesystems = 1

# --- NFS ---
collector_nfs = 1

Collectors

AIX-exporter includes 22 collectors organized by category:

Core (5)

CollectorMetricsSource
cpuCPU utilization, user/sys/idle/wait per CPUperfstat_cpu
memoryReal/virtual memory, page faults, paging ratesperfstat_memory
diskRead/write ops, transfer rates, busy% per diskperfstat_disk
networkBytes/packets in/out, errors per interfaceperfstat_netinterface
partitionEntitled capacity, used, logical CPUs, weightperfstat_partition

Storage (5)

CollectorMetricsSource
disk_adapterAdapter-level I/O statsperfstat_diskadapter
disk_pathMultipath I/O per pathperfstat_diskpath
fcFibre Channel frames, bytes, errorsperfstat_fcstat
volumegroupVG free/total PPs, stale PVslsvg
pagingspacePaging space used/total per spaceperfstat_pagingspace

System (5)

CollectorMetricsSource
uptimeBoot time, uptime secondsperfstat_cpu
processProcess count, threads, zombiesperfstat_process + getprocs64
errptError report entries by class and typepopen(errpt)
loadavgLoad average 1/5/15 minutesperfstat_cpu
lpar_configLPAR configuration: SMT, shared/dedicated, memoryperfstat_partition_config

Network (4)

CollectorMetricsSource
netinterfaceDetailed interface stats (collisions, queue)perfstat_netinterface_total
netbufferNetwork buffer pool statsperfstat_netbuffer
netadapterAdapter-level network statsperfstat_netadapter
protocolTCP/UDP/IP/ICMP countersperfstat_protocol

File Systems (2)

CollectorMetricsSource
filesystemTotal/free/used per mount pointstatvfs
filesystemsInode usage per mount pointstatvfs

NFS (1)

CollectorMetricsSource
nfsNFS generic, NFSv3, NFSv4, RPC client/serverperfstat_protocol

Running

Start / Stop

# Start via SRC
startsrc -s aix-exporter

# Stop
stopsrc -s aix-exporter

# Check status
lssrc -s aix-exporter

Command-Line Options

aix-exporter [-p port] [-s interval] [-k config] [-l bind_addr] [-v] [-h]

  -p port       Listening port (default: 9100)
  -s interval   Scrape interval in seconds (default: 60)
  -k config     Config file path (default: /etc/aix-exporter/aix-exporter.conf)
  -l bind_addr  Bind address (default: 0.0.0.0)
  -v            Print version and exit
  -h            Print help and exit

Prometheus Configuration

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'aix'
    static_configs:
      - targets:
        - 'aix-server1:9100'
        - 'aix-server2:9100'
    scrape_interval: 60s

Grafana Dashboard

A ready-to-use Grafana dashboard is included with 60+ panels covering all collectors. Import the JSON file from /usr/local/share/aix-exporter/AIX_Server_Overview.json or download it from the product page.

Endpoints

EndpointDescription
/metricsPrometheus metrics (text/plain; version=0.0.4)
/Redirect to /metrics

Troubleshooting

Port already in use

netstat -an | grep 9100

Permission denied

The exporter requires root to access libperfstat. Ensure it is started as root via SRC.

Verify metrics

# From the AIX server itself
curl http://localhost:9100/metrics

Download Checksums (v1.0.0.2)

Verify your download integrity with SHA-256:

# AIX 7.2 / 7.3
sha256: 60a0029c51301af820f22abf16d81b4d0533a091245271978b258adc12c0b919  aix-exporter.1.0.0.2.bff
md5:    422690c53606e72d3093385dd3822523  aix-exporter.1.0.0.2.bff

sha256: c5ec7613f14cdd84c6421f2c2dbca7def89b6e9f081476808618cfc4b866e29e  aix-exporter-trial.1.0.0.2.bff
md5:    3810243b9fd88c694bc2538a66e969b6  aix-exporter-trial.1.0.0.2.bff

# AIX 7.1
sha256: e40d3c8d4b5aa97b455ab2e1e5aa8f3a10c6d7ac8dafb42d0aed0aa4b083fa94  aix-exporter.1.0.0.2-aix71.bff
md5:    f857b6382ecab3d03df8a10ce8408784  aix-exporter.1.0.0.2-aix71.bff

sha256: 2b329eed4a0afda0f3e8370f42a711fd2e2ec41d82663b42a8f35827223c6c47  aix-exporter.1.0.0.2-aix71-trial.bff
md5:    52407f66e147b11e38eadb68decb1f49  aix-exporter.1.0.0.2-aix71-trial.bff

On AIX, verify with: sha256sum aix-exporter.1.0.0.2.bff or md5sum aix-exporter.1.0.0.2.bff

Questions? Contact support