Book excerpt: This IBM Redbooks publication is designed as a study guide for professionals wanting to prepare for the certification exam to achieve IBM Certified Systems Expert - eServer p5 and pSeries Enterprise Technical Support AIX 5L V5.3. This technical support certification validates a broad scope of configuration, installation, and planning skills. In addition, it covers administrative and diagnostic activities needed to support logical partitions and virtual resources. This publication helps IBM eServer p5 and pSeries professionals seeking a comprehensive and task-oriented guide for developing the knowledge and skills required for the certification. It is designed to provide a combination of theory and practical experience needed for a general understanding of the subject matter. This publication does not replace the practical experience you should have, but is an effective tool that, when combined with education activities and experience, should prove to be a very useful preparation guide for the exam. Due to the close association with the certification content, this publication might reflect older software and firmware levels of the IBM eServer p5 systems and available features. If you are planning to take the eServer p5 and pSeries Enterprise Technical Support AIX 5L V5.3 certification exam, this book is for you.