To test a profile for a particular Solaris release successfully and accurately, you must test a profile within the Solaris environment of the same release. For example, if you want to test a Solaris 8 initial installation profile, you have to run the pfinstall command on a system running Solaris 8.
However, if you want to test a Solaris 8 upgrade profile on a system running a previous version of Solaris, or if you don't have a Solaris 8 system installed yet to test Solaris 8 initial installation profiles, you need to create a temporary installation environment by:
Booting a system from a Solaris 8 Software 1 of 2 SPARC Platform Edition or Solaris 8 Software 1 of 2 Intel Platform Edition CD image
Responding to system identification questions
Selecting the Solaris 8 Interactive Installation Program as the program to install Solaris 8
Exiting out of the first screen that's displayed.
Executing the pfinstall command from the shell.