Creating Derived Profiles With a Begin Script

A derived profile is a profile that is dynamically created by a begin script during a custom JumpStart installation. Derived profiles are needed when you cannot set up the rules file to match specific systems to a profile (when you need more flexibility than the rules file can provide). For example, you might need to use derived profiles for identical system models that have different hardware components (for example, systems that contain different frame buffers).

To set up a rule to use a derived profile, you must:

• Set the profile field to an equal sign (=) instead of a profile.

• Set the begin field to a begin script that creates a derived profile depending on the system on which you intend to install Solaris.

When a system matches a rule with the profile field equal to an equal sign (=), the begin script creates the derived profile that is used to install the Solaris software on the system.

An example of a begin script that creates the same derived profile every time is shown below. However, you can write a begin script to create different derived profiles depending on the evaluation of rules.

#!/bin/sh
echo "install_type        initial_install"    > ${SI_PROFILE}
echo "system_type         standalone"        >> ${SI_PROFILE}
echo "partitioning        default"           >> ${SI_PROFILE}
echo "cluster             SUNWCprog"         >> ${SI_PROFILE}
echo "package       SUNWman     delete"      >> ${SI_PROFILE}
echo "package       SUNWolman   delete"      >> ${SI_PROFILE}
echo "package       SUNWxwman   delete"      >> ${SI_PROFILE}

As shown above, the begin script must use the SI_PROFILE environment variable for the name of the derived profile, which is set to /tmp/install.input by default.

If a begin script is used to create a derived profile, make sure there are no errors in it. A derived profile is not verified by the check script because it is not created until the execution of the begin script.