How To
Summary
IBM Fix Central provides fixes and updates for your system's software, hardware, and operating system.
Here is a simple way to download files even when there are network problems.
Objective
Many customers would prefer a lightweight method to download to AIX or Linux in their data centre, rather than using Download Director which requires Java and is most commonly used on MS-Windows desktops. This page shows a method for using the wget utility to make downloading easy.
Sometimes, there can be network problems; there can be congestion at the IBM end, the customer end and anywhere in between. The wget utility allows retries and continuation if a download fails.
Recently, a colleague tried many times using ftp, and each time, it failed. The wget method completed the download first time.
Environment
- An AIX or Linux shell
- Specific login and password for a particular download from FixCentral
- The GNU wget command (version 1.18 or above)
wget is available for MS-Windows as well, but on windows, many people will use Download Director which supports retries etc.
Information about wget is available at the GNU website. There is a version for AIX available in the repository maintained by Dr Michael Perzl.
Steps
Firstly, visit FixCentral in your favourite browser and navigate your way through to the point where you have the download details for the updates you require:
You can see the name of the secure FTP server, the username and password to use for this download, in the red box.
In case you have not selected downloading using secure FTP, you can change your download options - see the green box.
You can make a note of the download credentials but they will be valid for a limited period.
The FixCentral page gives directions for how to download the files using ftp on AIX. This script will make your life easier:
############################################################### # # # A simple script to ease downloading updateS from FixCentral # # # # Written by Gareth Coates gaz@uk.ibm.com in November 2019 # # # # Copyright (c) IBM 2019 # # # ############################################################### default_url=ftps://delivery04.dhe.ibm.com echo echo "What is the URL? (Default is ${default_url}) \c" read new_url url=${new_url:=$default_url} echo echo "What is the ftp user id? \c" read ftp_user echo echo "What is the ftp password? \c" read ftp_password echo " I am about to run: wget -r --no-check-certificate --reject index.html \\ -c --show-progress -N -nd --secure-protocol=auto --no-proxy \\ --ftp-user=$ftp_user \\ --ftp-password=$ftp_password \\ $url in $PWD Hit <CR> to continue " read dummy wget -r --no-check-certificate --reject "index.html" \ -c --show-progress -N -nd --secure-protocol=auto --no-proxy \ --ftp-user=$ftp_user \ --ftp-password=$ftp_password \ $url When the script is run, it prompts for the URL, the user name and password.
- These are the ones from the FixCentral Page for your particular download.
- The script defaults to the usual URL.
- It is easy to cut and paste from the FixCentral page
It then confirms what it is about to do, and if you hit <CR> it will download the files to the current working directory.
Additional Information
You can contact me:
- mailto:gaz@uk.ibm.com
- Twitter @power_gaz
Document Location
Worldwide
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Document Information
Modified date:
03 May 2021
UID
ibm11114911