Does anyone know if there's an easy way to get an AIX system to experiment with? It's easy to learn Linux because it's readily available and can be installed just about anywhere, but it looks like AIX requires proprietary hardware.

My end goal is to test the behavior of packet filtering rules created by genfilt.

Thanks

http://www.polarhome.com/ was offering AIX shell account, you can try.

Not a bad idea, but I need root access to change packet filters.

Well, I doubt that someone will just grant you root access, especially on AIX machine. Ask friends / colleagues for possibilities, maybe some old AIX is still sitting somewhere in someone's basement.

You can pick up an older RS6000 on eBay for a couple hundred bucks, possibly less. If you search for "RS6000," or "IBM 43p," or "IBM 44p" you should be able to find something. (Make sure you pay attention to shipping charges, since some of these are HEAVY.) You might also want to make sure that the system includes a graphics card, unless you don't mind setting it up via a serial connection.

Regards,
Bruce