Using DB2 ESE v9.5 FP 2a, when trying to create the DB2 instance db2inst1, I get the following:

=> /opt/IBM/db2/V9.5/instance/db2icrt -u db2fenc1 db2inst1
DBI1088E Invalid access permission detected for directory
/db/db2inst1.

Explanation:

There may be several reasons for this error. It is likely that one of
the following situations has occurred:
* Either the given name is not a directory, or it does not have read
and execute permission.
* The given directory can be created but cannot be accessed.
* The permissions on any of its parent directories in its path have
been set incorrectly.

User response:

Check permissions for the given directory and restart the install
process. Suggested directory permissions are u=rwx,go=rx.



DBI1079I Output is saved in the log file /tmp/db2icrt.log.1052762.

Explanation:

All processed and failed operations have been saved into this log file.

User response:

Do not modify this file in any way. This file is for IBM Technical
Support reference.


Here are some info about the instance owner and fenced ID:
=> lsuser db2inst1
db2inst1 id=102008615 pgrp=db2iadm1 groups=db2iadm1,staff home=/db/db2inst1 shell=/bin/ksh gecos=Norberto Gasparotto login=true su=true rlogin=true daemon=true admin=false sugroups=ALL admgroups= tpath=nosak ttys=ALL expires=0 auth1=SYSTEM auth2=NONE umask=77 registry=files SYSTEM=compat logintimes= loginretries=5 pwdwarntime=14 account_locked=false minage=1 maxage=13 maxexpired=-1 minalpha=1 minother=1 mindiff=1 maxrepeats=2 minlen=8 histexpire=0 histsize=8 pwdchecks= dictionlist= fsize=2097151 cpu=-1 data=262144 stack=65536 core=2048 rss=65536 nofiles=32767

=> lsuser db2fenc1
db2fenc1 id=102008616 pgrp=db2fadm1 groups=db2fadm1,staff home=/home/db2fenc1 shell=/bin/ksh gecos=Norberto Gasparotto login=true su=true rlogin=true daemon=true admin=false sugroups=ALL admgroups= tpath=nosak ttys=ALL expires=0 auth1=SYSTEM auth2=NONE umask=77 registry=files SYSTEM=compat logintimes= loginretries=5 pwdwarntime=14 account_locked=false minage=1 maxage=13 maxexpired=-1 minalpha=1 minother=1 mindiff=1 maxrepeats=2 minlen=8 histexpire=0 histsize=8 pwdchecks= dictionlist= fsize=2097151 cpu=-1 data=262144 stack=65536 core=2048 rss=65536 nofiles=32767

I even tried setting 777 permissions on the instance home dir as well as the parent dirs as follows:
=> ls -l / | grep db
drwxrwxrwx 4 db2inst1 db2iadm1 512 Nov 10 19:41 db

=> ls -l /db
total 40
drwxrwxrwx 8 db2inst1 db2iadm1 4096 Nov 10 17:49 db2inst1
-rw------- 1 db2inst1 db2iadm1 216 Nov 10 13:46 db2inst1-file.txt
-rw------- 1 db2inst1 db2iadm1 10240 Nov 10 13:56 db2inst1.tar
drwxr-xr-x 3 db2inst1 db2iadm1 256 Nov 6 20:07 dbwork

=> ls -l /db/db2inst1
total 16
-rwxr----- 1 db2inst1 db2iadm1 401 Nov 10 13:08 .profile
-rw------- 1 db2inst1 db2iadm1 402 Nov 10 21:51 .sh_history
drwxr-xr-x 3 db2inst1 db2iadm1 256 Nov 6 20:06 actlog_XMETANLS
drwxr-xr-x 3 db2inst1 db2iadm1 256 Nov 6 20:06 actlog_iadbnls
drwxr-xr-x 3 db2inst1 db2iadm1 256 Nov 6 20:05 db2backup
drwxr-xr-x 4 db2inst1 db2iadm1 256 Nov 9 06:50 db2data
drwxr-xr-x 3 db2inst1 db2iadm1 256 Nov 6 20:05 db2diag
drwxr-xr-x 2 db2inst1 db2iadm1 256 Nov 6 19:58 lost+found


Also, I set permissions for the / dir as advised on a website I found:
chmod a+rx /

I don't know what more to do from now.

It should be very simple to create this instance, but it's being painful.
Does someone know what more could I try?

Thanks and regards,

Forgot to mention, the instance home /db/db2inst1 is a filesystem as follows:

=> df -m /db/db2inst1
Filesystem MB blocks Free %Used Iused %Iused Mounted on
/dev/lv08 1024.00 1023.48 1% 19 1% /db/db2inst1

=> df -m /db
Filesystem MB blocks Free %Used Iused %Iused Mounted on
/dev/hd4 352.00 262.38 26% 5343 3% /

This may sound obvious, but do you run db2icrt as root?

Hi Nick, yes I ran it as root:

=> whoami
root

=> /opt/IBM/db2/V9.5/instance/db2icrt -u db2fenc1 db2inst1
DBI1088E Invalid access permission detected for directory
/db/db2inst1.

Explanation:
(...)

Most often, this error is due to an incorrect ownership/permission of the mount point for the instance home directory. There used to be a technote regarding this error, but I can't seem to find it on the web. I'll paste it here:

db2icrt Fails with "DBI1088E Invalid access permissions detected for
directory <directory>" in DB2 LUW

In DB2 LUW V8, V9, or V95, are you creating an instance and receiving
DBI1088E even though the directory shows "drwxr-xr-x"?

Cause
Before creating all the subdirectories in the instance home directory,
DB2 will check the directory's mount point to see if "r" and "x"
permissions
are set. If the permissions are restricted you will see the DBI1088E
error.

Answer
Two things you can try:

1) Issue "/usr/bin/su <instance_owner> -c /bin/pwd". If this command
fails you should check the directory mount point of the filesystem
to make sure access permission is not restricted. You can also try
giving the ownership/permissions of the mount point to the
instance owner.

2) If for some reason you cannot perform number one (maybe su is not an
option) you can do the following:

-remove the directory <instance_home_dir>
-delete the user (if possible)
-unmount /home
-remount /home with at least 755
-create the user
-as root run ./db2icrt

Thank you Bella,

It was related to the filesystem mount... The AIX contact who created that said he just unmounted it, gave the right permissions, and then, mounted it again. So it worked for me.

So I understood that all is due to the permissions the directory had before it became a filesystem.

Hope this post helps people facing this issue in the future.

Thanks again,