Provisioning the Client System

When you create an AI install service, you get a default AI manifest that specifies how to provision the clients. The AI manifest is an XML file that specifies where to install the operating system and what software packages to install. You can also specify disk configuration such as striping, mirroring, and partitioning. See the ai_manifest(4) man page and the install_service_image_path/auto_install/manifest/ai_manifest.xml sample AI manifest for information about the XML elements in an AI manifest.

This chapter explains how you can create custom AI manifests for particular clients.

• Create a custom XML AI manifest file. This method is best suited to an environment where few systems require custom provisioning. Most systems to be installed have identical or similar hardware and will be provisioned identically.

• Write a script that dynamically creates an AI manifest for each client at installation time. Use this method to create a custom installation for each client, based on client characteristics discovered at installation time.

Any particular install service can include both XML manifest files and scripts for generating manifest files. Any particular client uses only one AI manifest, either static or generated by a script. Which manifest or script a particular client uses depends on the criteria specified when the manifest or script is added to the install service. If the client does not match any criteria to use a custom manifest or script, the default manifest is used. Any manifest or script in a service can be designated to be the default for that service.