How Zones Are Installed

The solaris brand installer supports installing the zone by using the following methods:

The default repository, the solaris publisher.
An image of an installed system running the Oracle Solaris release or a solaris non-global zone.

The system image can be a ZFS send stream. Other supported images include a cpio(1) archive or a pax(1) xustar archive. The cpio archive can be compressed with the gzip or bzip2 utilities. The image can also be a path to the top level of a system's root tree, or a pre-existing zone path.

To install the zone from a system or non-global zone image, either the -a or -d option is required. A package update is performed if necessary. If neither the -a or -d option is used, the zone is installed from the software repository.
A zone BE, using zoneadm install -z zbe. A package update is performed if necessary.

The installer options are shown in the following table. See How to Install a Configured Zone for example command lines.

Option	Description
`-m` `manifest`	The AI manifest is an XML file that defines how to install a zone. The file argument must be specified with an absolute path.
`-c` `profile\|dir`	Provides a profile or a directory of profiles to apply during configuration. The file argument must be specified with an absolute path. If a profile is applied, the configuration step occurs non-interactively. If no profile is provided, the interactive system configuration tool is used for the configuration of the system. All profiles must have an `.xml` file extension. If you supply a directory option to `-c`, all profiles in that directory must be valid, correctly formed configuration profiles.
`-a` `archive`	The path to an archive used to install a non-global zone. Archives can be compressed using `gzip` or `bzip`. The `-d` and the `-a` options are incompatible. When using the `-a` `archive` option, a package update is performed if necessary. The `zoneadm` `attach` subcommand can be used to reattach the zone to its original host if wanted.
`-d` `path`	The path to the root directory of an installed system or a non-global zone. A package update is performed if necessary. If `path` is a hyphen (`-`), the `zonepath` is assumed to be already be populated with the system image. The `-d` and the `-a` options are incompatible.
`-p`	Preserve system identity after installing the zone. The `-p` and the `-u` options are incompatible.
`-s`	Install silently. The `-s` and the `-v` options are incompatible.
`-u`	Unconfigure the zone after installing it, and prompt for a new configuration on zone boot. The `-p` and the `-u` options are incompatible.
`-U`	Update all packages to the latest versions if necessary to be compatible with the packages installed in the global zone.
`-v`	Verbose output from the install process. The `-s` and the `-v` options are incompatible.
`-x`	Use `force-zpool-import` with the `-x` option to forcibly import any zpools that appear to be in use. If a storage object contains any preexisting partitions, zpools, or UFS file systems, the `install` fails and an error message is displayed. The `-x` option to `zoneadm` `install` is used to continue the installation and overwrite any preexisting data. This option is similar to the `zpool` `create` `-f` command. Use `force-zpool-create-all` with the `-x` option to forcibly create all zpool resources. Use `force-zpool-create=zpoolname` to limit the option to a specific zpool or set of zpools. See the `zoneadm`(1M) man page for usage.

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	Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Oracle Solaris Zones, Oracle Solaris 10 Zones, and Resource Management Oracle Solaris 11.1 Information Library