AIX Systems Director Console

If you install or upgrade to AIX 6.1 or 7.1. the system director console service is now installed by default. This opens two web ports:

http://<hostname>:5335/ibm/console
https://<hostname>:5336/ibm.console (Optional SSL)



and creates the "pconsole" user.

The service is started from the "/etc/inittab" as follows:

pconsole:2:once:/usr/bin/startsrc -s pconsole  > /dev/null 2>&1

You can also see it is active from the SRC:

# lssrc -s pconsole
Subsystem         Group            PID          Status
 pconsole         pconsole         7143642      active

If it has not been installed, or was previously removed, you can install the following packages from your AIX DVD or NIM Server:


lwi.runtime
sysmgt.pconsole.rte
sysmgt.pconsole.apps.pda
sysmgt.pconsole.apps.wsmit
sysmgt.pconsole.apps.wdcem
sysmgt.pconsole.apps.wrbac
sysmgt.pconsole.apps.websm

The SDMC is a very useful tool but also opens a potential backdoor as it can enable users to login directly as root, and also later enable their own users. I would recommend disabling it in the "inittab" and only starting it manually when you require it and ensure that you control the "pconsole" user password.