About AI Manifests

When you create an install service for the first time, a default manifest file is also automatically created. All services use this manifest as a default file for installing Oracle Solaris on all valid clients. Valid clients are those whose architecture matches that for which the service was created. The setup is displayed as follows:

$ installadm list
Service Name Status Arch Type Secure Alias Aliases Clients Profiles Manifests
------------ ------ ---- ---- ------ ----- ------- ------- -------- ---------
ai-x86       on     i386 pkg  no     no    1       0       0        1        
default-i386 on     i386 pkg  no     yes   0       0       0        1

With this minimum setup, you can already start an automated install on clients by simply booting the clients from the network.

However, in more complicated scenarios with different installation requirements, you would need multiple manifests with their own instructions. For more information about creating various manifests with customized configuration instructions, see Chapter 2, Working With AI Manifests in Customizing Automated Installations With Manifests and Profiles.