OK; here's another one:

I've just upgraded my AIX server to 5200_08_CSP (thanks to Hajo and
all who replied to my cries for help!). Now I want to run a mksysb
after the upgrade. Simple enoughl I use the same command that serves me
well just this AM (and thanks to Frank and Hajo again for assistance
in troubleshooting THAT one!)

SO I run rhe command, and get some weird error messages about some
files in /usr/sbin havint too many levels of symbolic links:

# mksysb -m -e /dev/rmt0

Creating information file (/image.data) for rootvg..

Creating tape boot image..............
bosboot: Boot image is 27546 512 byte blocks.

***** ATTENTION *****
The boot image you just created might fail to boot because
the size exceeds the system limit. For information about
fixes or workarounds, see /usr/lpp/bos.sysmgt/README.
***** ATTENTION *****
....backup: 0511-449 An error occurred accessing ./usr/sbin/chiscsi/:
There are t
oo many levels of symbolic links to translate a path name.
backup: 0511-449 An error occurred accessing ./usr/sbin/lsiscsi/: There
are too
many levels of symbolic links to translate a path name.
backup: 0511-449 An error occurred accessing ./usr/sbin/mkiscsi/: There
are too
many levels of symbolic links to translate a path name.
backup: 0511-449 An error occurred accessing ./usr/sbin/rmiscsi/: There
are too
many levels of symbolic links to translate a path name.
..
0512-021 mksysb: Attempt to create a bootable tape failed:
mkinsttape /dev/rmt0.1 failed with return code 9.

Here are the files, and as you can see, they're just links to
themselves:

# ls -al |grep iscsi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 17 Sep 22 20:21 chiscsi ->
/usr/sbin/chiscsi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 17 Sep 22 20:21 lsiscsi ->
/usr/sbin/lsiscsi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 17 Sep 22 20:21 mkiscsi ->
/usr/sbin/mkiscsi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 17 Sep 22 20:21 rmiscsi ->
/usr/sbin/rmiscsi
#

I figure they're useless, just links to themselves, so I delete them;
can always recreate if they're needed, right?

# \rm *iscsi

# ls -al |grep iscsi
# ### They're no longer there


Re-run the command; same thing:

# mksysb -m -e /dev/rmt0

Creating information file (/image.data) for rootvg..

Creating tape boot image..............
bosboot: Boot image is 27546 512 byte blocks.

***** ATTENTION *****
The boot image you just created might fail to boot because
the size exceeds the system limit. For information about
fixes or workarounds, see /usr/lpp/bos.sysmgt/README.
***** ATTENTION *****
....backup: 0511-449 An error occurred accessing ./usr/sbin/chiscsi/:
There are t
oo many levels of symbolic links to translate a path name.
backup: 0511-449 An error occurred accessing ./usr/sbin/lsiscsi/: There
are too
many levels of symbolic links to translate a path name.
backup: 0511-449 An error occurred accessing ./usr/sbin/mkiscsi/: There
are too
many levels of symbolic links to translate a path name.
backup: 0511-449 An error occurred accessing ./usr/sbin/rmiscsi/: There
are too
many levels of symbolic links to translate a path name.
..
0512-021 mksysb: Attempt to create a bootable tape failed:
mkinsttape /dev/rmt0.1 failed with return code 9.

# date
Fri Sep 22 21:13:12 EDT 2006

# ls -al |grep iscsi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 17 Sep 22 21:11 chiscsi ->
/usr/sbin/ch
iscsi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 17 Sep 22 21:11 lsiscsi ->
/usr/sbin/ls
iscsi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 17 Sep 22 21:11 mkiscsi ->
/usr/sbin/mk
iscsi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 17 Sep 22 21:11 rmiscsi ->
/usr/sbin/rm
iscsi

The date and time stamp is the same as when I started the 2nd mksysb,
so it must be the mksysb that's creating these. What gives?

So I figure I'll just touch these files and see what happens:

# ls -al|grep iscsi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 0 Sep 22 21:22 chiscsi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 0 Sep 22 21:22 lsiscsi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 0 Sep 22 21:22 mkiscsi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 0 Sep 22 21:22 rmiscsi

rerun the mksysb, and the mksysb runs to completion. Any thoughts or
explanation?

Thanks;

Joe D.