The Oracle Solaris Service Management Facility (SMF) augments the traditional UNIX startup scripts, init run levels, and configuration files. With SMF serving as an infrastructure to manage booting, the mechanism behind the boot process features the following:
Boot information is stored in the service's log file in /var/svc/log. To display boot messages onscreen, type the boot –v command syntax.
Services are typically restarted if they are terminated. If the service is defective, the service is placed in maintenance mode. Use the svcadm command to stop or start SMF processes.
Many of the scripts in /etc/init.d and /etc/rc*.d as well as entries in /etc/inittab have been removed. Their functionalities are managed by SMF. Scripts and inittab entries from ISVs or are locally developed will continue to run. However, in the boot process, these run after the SMF services.
You can specify SMF milestones when you boot a system. Milestones correspond to boot run levels and are useful for performing administrative tasks that pertain to booting. See About Run Level Booting