Introduction to SMF

SMF provides an infrastructure that augments the traditional UNIX startup scripts, init run levels, and configuration files. SMF provides a mechanism to define the relationships between applications or services, so that dependent services can automatically be restarted when necessary. Information needed to manage each service is stored in the service repository, which provides a simplified way to manage each service.

SMF defines a set of actions that can be invoked on a service by an administrator. These actions, which can be manually manipulated by the svcadm command, include enable, disable, refresh, restart, and mark. Each service is managed by a service restarter, which carries out the administrative actions. In general, the restarters carry out actions by executing methods for a service. Methods for each service are defined in the service configuration repository. These methods allow the restarter to move the service from one state to another state.

The service configuration repository provides a per-service snapshot at the time that each service is successfully started so that fallback is possible. In addition, the repository provides a consistent and persistent way to enable or disable a service, as well as a consistent view of service states. This capability helps you debug service configuration problems.