Features and Benefits of Autoconfiguration

The benefits of autoconfiguration are as follows:

• Main memory is used more efficiently because modules are loaded when needed.

• There is no need to reconfigure the kernel when new devices are added to the system.

• Drivers can be loaded and tested without having to rebuild the kernel and reboot the system.

Autoconfiguration is used when you add a new device (and driver) to the system. In previous Solaris releases, it was necessary to perform a reconfiguration boot if you added a device to a system that is shutdown. Starting in the Solaris Express 10/06 release, device configuration enhancements make a reconfiguration boot unnecessary when a device is added to a system that is shutdown.

You can add, remove, or replace devices in the Solaris OS while the system is still running, if the system components support hot-plugging. For information about hot-plugging devices, see Chapter 6, Dynamically Configuring Devices (Tasks).