How to Customize an XML AI Manifest File

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Become an administrator.
For more information, see Using Your Assigned Administrative Rights in Securing Users and Processes in Oracle Solaris 11.3.
Copy an existing AI manifest.
When you create an AI install service, that install service has a default AI manifest. See Setting Up an AI Server for information about creating an install service.
1. List existing manifests.
  Use the installadm list command to see what AI manifests you already have associated with a particular install service.
```
$ installadm list -m -n solaris11_3-i386
Service Name           Manifest Name Type    Status  Criteria
------------           ------------- ------- ------  --------
solaris11_3-i386       orig_default  derived default none
```
2. Retrieve a copy of a specific manifest.
  Use the installadm export command to extract the contents of this default manifest or any other AI manifest that has been added to this service.
```
# installadm export -n solaris11_3-i386 -m orig_default -o mem1
```
  A copy of orig_default is now in the file mem1.
Modify the manifest copy.
Modify mem1, adding tags and values according to the information in the ai_manifest(4) man page.
Add the new manifest to the install service.
Add the new AI manifest to the appropriate AI install service, specifying criteria that define which AI clients should use these installation instructions.
```
# installadm create-manifest -n solaris11_3-i386 -f ./mem1 -m mem1 \
-c mem="2048-unbounded"
```
You can specify multiple –c options. Alternately use –C to use a file that includes many client criteria. See Assigning Customizations to AI Clients and the set-criteria subcommand for information about specifying client criteria.

After this command has been run the list subcommand shows:
```
# installadm list -m -n solaris11_3-i386
Service Name                     Manifest Name      Type    Status    Criteria
------------                     -------------      ----    ------    --------
solaris11_3-i386                 mem1               derived active    mem  = 2048 MB - unbounded
                                 orig_default       derived default   none
```
- Make the new manifest the default.
  You can designate any manifest file or derived manifest script to be the default manifest or script for a service. To change the default among manifests and scripts that you have already added to the service, use the –M option with the set-service subcommand.
```
# installadm set-service -M mem1 -n solaris11_3-i386
# installadm list -m -n solaris11_3-i386
Service Name                     Manifest Name      Type    Status             Criteria
------------                     -------------      ----    ------             --------
solaris11_3-i386                 mem1               derived default / active   mem  = 2048 MB - unbounded
                                 orig_default       derived inactive           none
```
  In this example, the original default is now inactive because it has no criteria to specify which AI clients should use it. Only the default manifest or script can have no client selection criteria and still be active.
- Add the new manifest as the default.
  If you want to add a new default manifest or script for this service, use the –d option with create-manifest. Any criteria specified are stored and ignored until another manifest is made the default.
```
# installadm create-manifest -n solaris11_3-i386 -d \
-f ./region1.xml -m region1
# installadm list -m -n solaris11_3-i386
Service Name                     Manifest Name      Type    Status   Criteria
------------                     -------------      ----    ------   --------
solaris11_3-i386                 mem1               derived active   mem  = 2048 MB - unbounded
                                 region1            xml     default  none
                                 orig_default       derived inactive none
```
- Customize an existing manifest.
  Use the installadm update-manifest command to change the content of an existing manifest or script without adding a new manifest or script. Criteria, default status, and the manifest name or the script name are not changed as a result of the update.
```
# installadm update-manifest -n solaris11_3-i386
    -f ./newregion1.xml -m region1
```
Validate the customized manifest.
The create-manifest and update-manifest subcommands syntactically validate the XML manifest files before adding them to the install service. AI semantically validates the AI manifests at installation time.

Note - If an invalid manifest is provided to an AI client, the automated installation aborts. To investigate the cause of the validation failure, see the /system/volatile/install_log on the AI client.

See also Working With Install Services for more information about the installadm list, export, create-manifest, set-criteria, update-manifest, and set-service subcommands.