The Service Management Facility (SMF) includes SMF Stencils, which enable developers and administrators to easily map configuration properties stored in the SMF repository to an application-specific configuration file (stored in /etc, for example). A new command, svcio(1), takes a stencil file as input and uses that file and the service properties to create the application configuration file. From there, SMF takes control and regenerates configuration for all stencil-aware services before running the start or refresh SMF methods. For more information, see Using a Stencil to Create a Configuration File in Managing System Services in Oracle Solaris 11.2 .
Administrators can easily view SMF logs directly by using the svcs(1) command. Use the –L option to display the name of the log file, the –xL option to view the last several lines of the log file, and the –Lv option to view the complete log file. See Viewing Service Log Files in Managing System Services in Oracle Solaris 11.2 .
SMF supports synchronous operations by providing a common and simple interface to improve waiting for the necessary service state transitions to complete. This interface avoids the necessity for service developers and administrators to manually poll when a service has come online.