Retrieve AIX System Information

IBM AIX tracks the operating system version through technology levels (TL) and service packs (SP), reported by the oslevel command. Because AIX software is installed as individually-versioned filesets, different components can sit at different levels — oslevel reconciles this by reporting the level of a subset of core filesets (Base Operating System, base devices, base printers, X11). Querying it is a standard early step in AIX reconnaissance after gaining a foothold.

Core queries

oslevel      # Report the base system level (e.g. 7.2.0.0)
oslevel -r   # Highest technology level reached for the current AIX version
oslevel -rq  # List all known technology levels on the system
oslevel -s   # Highest service pack reached for the current technology level
oslevel -sq  # List all known service packs on the system
oslevel -f   # Force a rebuild of the oslevel cache

If no flags are given, the output asserts that the base system software is entirely at or above the reported level.

Finding out-of-date filesets

The -l (less) and -g (greater) flags compare installed filesets against a given level, which is useful for spotting partially-applied updates — a system whose TL/SP looks current may still have individual filesets lagging behind:

oslevel -r -l 5300-01          # filesets below AIX 5.3 technology level 1
oslevel -r -g 5300-01          # filesets newer than AIX 5.3 technology level 1
oslevel -s -l 6100-00-01-0748  # filesets below the given service pack

The levels printed by oslevel -rq / oslevel -sq are the valid inputs for these comparisons. Once you know the system level, per-fileset detail (version, install history, owning files) comes from lslpp — see aix-fileset-information.

Sources

• IBM AIX 7.2 Documentation — oslevel Command

Related: aix-fileset-information, linux-reconnaissance-commands, whoami