Customizing an XML AI Manifest File

To create and apply a custom XML AI manifest file, follow these steps:

1. Copy an existing AI manifest. When you create an AI install service, you get a default AI manifest. See Chapter 8, Setting Up an Install Server for information about creating an install service.

   Use the list subcommand to see what AI manifests you already have associated with a particular install service.

   $ installadm list -m -n s11-x86
   
   Manifest          Status   Criteria
   -----------       -------  --------
   orig_default      Default  None

   Use the installadm export command to copy this default manifest or any other AI manifest that has been added to this service.

   # installadm export -n s11-x86 -m orig_default -o mem1.xml

   A copy of orig_default is now in the file mem1.xml.

2. Modify mem1.xml, adding tags and values according to the information in the ai_manifest(4) man page.

3. Add the new AI manifest to the appropriate AI install service, specifying criteria that define which clients should use these installation instructions.

   # installadm create-manifest -n s11-x86 -f ./mem1.xml -m mem1 \
   -c mem="2048-unbounded"

   You can specify multiple -c options or one -C file. See Chapter 9, Customizing Installations and the set-criteria subcommand for information about specifying client criteria.

   $ installadm list -n s11-x86 -m
   
   Manifest          Status   Criteria
   -----------       -------  --------
   orig_default      Default  None
   mem1                       mem  = 2048 MB - unbounded

You can designate any manifest file or derived manifests script to be the default manifest or script for a service. To change the default among manifests and scripts that you have already added to the service, use the -o option with the set-service subcommand.

# installadm set-service -o default-manifest=mem1 s11-x86
# installadm list -n s11-x86 -m

Manifest          Status    Criteria
-----------       -------   --------
orig_default      Inactive  None
mem1              Default   (Ignored: mem  = 2048 MB - unbounded)

In this example, the original default is now inactive because it has no criteria to specify which clients should use it. Only the default manifest or script can have no client selection criteria and still be active.

If you want to add a new default manifest or script for this service, use the -d option with create-manifest and do not specify any client criteria.

# installadm create-manifest -n s11-x86 -d \
-f ./region1.xml -m region1
# installadm list -n s11-x86 -m

Manifest          Status    Criteria
-----------       -------   --------
orig_default      Inactive  None
mem1                        mem  = 2048 MB - unbounded
region1           Default   None

If you want to change the content of a manifest or script that has already been added to an install service, use the installadm update-manifest command. Criteria, default status, and manifest_or_script_name are not changed as a result of the update.

# installadm update-manifest -n s11-x86
    -f ./newregion1.xml -m region1

The create-manifest and update-manifest subcommands validate XML manifest files before adding them to the install service. AI syntactically validates the AI manifests at client installation time.

See Maintain an Install Server for more information about the list, export, create-manifest, set-criteria, update-manifest, and set-service subcommands.