Re: Not new @Daggerchild
The process was under the control of the HMC (Hardware Management Console). It would create the file, execute it, and delete it, and if anything failed, the entire process failed.
I'm no stranger to doing exactly as you suggest (even using hex editors to hand-hack binaries) to move files in awkward locations to better ones, but in this case, there was no point where I could break into the process to alter the location it was trying to use.
I even had a jail-broken HMC, and worked through how the process worked. It was using a script on the read-only filesystem (so immutable, even by changing the file on the server serving it - there was some strangeness in the NFS implementation where changes on the server were not picked up on the client, something to do with it being read-only mount and having NFS caching enabled), so while I could reboot the server to pick up the changes, that negated being able to hot-swap the PCIe cards.
We did the work. I just wanted to have the process fixed, because I have what sometimes appears a perverse desire to see defects fixed, rather than working around them (especially as I had already worked through the issue, and could point to exactly where the defect was).
Must be something to do with me having worked in Level 2 AIX support for a number of years. I really don't like having to tell people who are supposed to be providing support to me how to do their job.
I'm a really awkward customer!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
