How to Deploy a System From a Unified Archive by Using Bootable Media

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The create-media subcommand creates a bootable media from a root-only Unified Archive. The resulting media image can then be used to boot and install a system from the archive content.

By default, the archiveadm create-media command uses USB file type when it creates a bootable media. If the image is larger than 4GB, the USB type is forced.

Tip - As best practice, use the –o option when you create bootable media to specify a path that has available space for the resulting media file. Without this option, the media would be written to a default output location. If the output location has insufficient space, media creation fails.

Before You Begin

You must be an administrator with the correct rights profiles to perform this task. See Using Rights Profiles with Unified Archives.

Create a media image.
Create a media image from an existing archive.
```
$ archiveadm create-media archive-name -o path-to-final-image
```
Ensure that the Unified Archive contains only root data. The step fails if the archive contains non-root data. Include the absolute or relative path to the archive when specifying archive-name.
Create bootable media.
- If you downloaded the ISO image, ensure that it is on an accessible location.
- If you downloaded the USB image, copy the image to a USB media.
  If the system does not have any Oracle Solaris installed, use the dd command. For example:
```
# dd bs=16k conv=sync if=image-path of=/dev/rdsk/disk
```
  If the system with the downloaded image has an existing Oracle Solaris installation, you can use the usbcopy command instead of ddu, provided that the pkg:/install/distribution-constructor package has also been installed.
Boot from the media.
```
ok boot media - install
```
A "hands-free" installation is launched. After the installation completes and the system is rebooted, the operation prompts you for additional information to configure the system.

Example 20 Creating an ISO Media Image

To create an ISO image, you must include the –f option as shown below.

$ archiveadm create-media -f iso archive.uar -o path/image-name.iso

Example 21 Creating a Media Image Including a Specific Global Zone

By default the create-media subcommand creates media that includes all of the global zones that are included in the archive. To select a specific global zone, create the archive with the –g global-zone option. This command creates media from a specified zone. The resulting media image includes bootable media that contains the archive.

This example creates an archive from the global global zone.

$ archiveadm create-media -g global archive.uar -o path/image-name.usb