Troubleshooting
Problem
AIX automatically boots into Diagnostics Mode
Cause
This is mainly caused by a firmware setting which can be viewed by checking the keylock setting in sys0. Since it is a firmware setting it cannot be set directly from the LPAR it can be set through the HMC which connects directly to the hypervisor and changes it in the firmware or it can be set through ASMI.
Diagnosing The Problem
When the system is powered on or restarted the system automatically goes into Diagnostics Operation Mode as displayed in the screen shot below 
When you exit from Diagnostics mode you then continue booting.
From the boot debug at towards the beginning you will find the following
M4 1572916 Value received from getatt: 0x0800004c
M4 1572916 Getting keylock state
M4 1572916 setattrval(sys0,keylock,service) <== the value set should be normal not service
You can also view this setting by running the below command when the LPAR boots
# lsattr -El sys0 | grep -i keylock
Resolving The Problem
In order to resolve this issue you will need to log in through HMC
From the System Management --> Servers --> Server Name choose the LPAR and click on the double arrow button that appears as shown in the image below
Select Properties from the context menu then choose settings as shown below
In the Keylock position this will be set to Manual Choose Normal click on Okay and reboot the server
Ismail Habib
Related Information
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Document Information
Modified date:
17 June 2018
UID
isg3T1023765