Creating the Manifest Files

In the automated installer application, three kinds of manifest files are provided in each service; AI manifest files, SC manifest files, and criteria manifest files. These manifest files are XML files that provide specifications for client installation.

• The AI manifest file is a blueprint that provides the configuration source and the service properties for an automated installation service. Some of the parameters defined by the AI manifest file are disk target, disk partitions, and IPS repository.

• The SC manifest file provides system configuration specifications for the installed image. Some of the configuration parameters supported are timezone, root password, and adding a username and password to the installed system.

• The criteria manifest file is the bridge that connects the AI manifest file and the SC manifest file with a client. The administrator uses the criteria manifest file to add an AI manifest to a service. The client sends its hardware characteristics to the install service and gets a manifest file that was assigned by the administrator.

Default manifest files are included when you create an OSInstall service by using the installadm create-service utility. You can create additional manifest files by copying, renaming, and customizing an existing manifest file.

Use the following procedure to customize your manifest files.

1. Create a custom AI manifest file.

2. Create a custom SC manifest file.

3. Create a custom criteria manifest file based on the client criteria. The location of the AI manifest file and the location of the SC manifest file are specified inside the criteria manifest file.

4. Associate the new criteria manifest file with an existing service by using the installadm add utility. Add the criteria manifest to the install service by executing the following command:

   installadm add -M manifest -n svcname

The following sections provide specific examples for each step in this process.

Creating AI Manifest Files

After you have created a service, you can edit the default AI manifest files associated with that service to customize the properties of an installed client. Include the parameters that you need and omit parameters that are not needed for your custom file. See the following examples.

Example 2-1 AI Manifest With All Fields Defined

<ai_manifest name="example_with_all_defined">
     <ai_target_device>
         <target_device_name>c0t0d0</target_device_name> 
         <target_device_type>SCSI</target_device_type> 
         <target_device_vendor>toshiba</target_device_vendor> 
         <target_device_size>20480</target_device_size>
         <target_device_use_solaris_partition>true</target_device_use_solaris_partition>
     </ai_target_device>
     <ai_device_partitioning>
         <partition_action>create</partition_action>
         <partition_number>1</partition_number>
         <partition_start_sector>200</partition_start_sector>
         <partition_size>20480</partition_size>
         <partition_type>191</partition_type>
     </ai_device_partitioning>
     <ai_device_vtoc_slices>
         <slice_action>create</slice_action>
         <slice_number>4</slice_number>
         <slice_size>20480</slice_size>
     </ai_device_vtoc_slices>
     <ai_pkg_repo_default_authority>
         <main url="http://pkg.opensolaris.org" authname="opensolaris.org"/>
     </ai_pkg_repo_default_authority>
     <ai_packages>
         <package_name>SUNWcsd</package_name>
     </ai_packages>
     <ai_packages>
         <package_name>SUNWcs</package_name>
     </ai_packages>
     <ai_packages>
         <package_name>slim_install</package_name>
     </ai_packages>
</ai_manifest>

In the example above, all available fields are defined. The following summary explains the field specifications that are used in this example.

Table 2-1 AI Manifest Parameter Specifications

Parameter	Description
ai_target_device	The ai_target_device parameter defines the disk where the installation is performed. You can define the target_device_name. Or, you can define one or more of the following fields: target_device_type target_device_vendor target_device_size If you define target_device_name and other fields, only target_device_name is taken in to consideration. The rest of the parameters are ignored. The target_device_use_solaris_partition parameter is used to indicate whether the installation should find a disk where the Solaris partition is defined or find a disk where the Solaris partition is not defined. These parameters alternatives enable the automated installer to find a disk based on parameters other than name.
ai_device_partitioning	The ai_device_partitioning parameters define the fdisk partition changes to be performed by the automated installer before installing the OpenSolaris OS. Note the following specifications: The permitted operations for the partition_action parameter are create and delete. The automated installer can create a Solaris partition and can delete any partition. The parameters, partition_start_sector and partition_size, should be described as sectors (1 sector = 512 Bytes).
ai_device_vtoc_slices	The ai_device_vtoc_slices parameter defines the Solaris VTOC slice operations to be performed by the automated installer before installing the OpenSolaris OS. Note the following specifications: The automated installer can create a Solaris slice, delete a slice, or preserve an existing slice. The permitted operations for the slice_action parameter are create, delete, and preserved. Note - The slice 2 defines the entire disk. You cannot create, delete, or preserve slice 2. The parameter, slice_size is, is expressed in sectors. The slice_number is expected to be 0-15.
ai_pkg_repo_ default_authority	The ai_pkg_repo_default_authority parameter specifies the IPS repository to be used for the installation. The two parameters needed to define the IPS repository are the URL and the authorization information. Note - If the IPS repository server is running on a port other than 80, such as 10000, the port information needs to be provided, in order for the client to reach the repository. For example, http://pkgserver:10000 provides the port information. The default URL is pkg.opensolaris.org and the default authority is opensolaris.org.
ai_packages	The ai_packages parameter contains the list of packages you want to install with the automated installer. In this example, the packages, SUNWcsd and SUNWcs, and the cluster, slim_install, are specified.

Example 2-2 AI Manifest With Target Disk Name and Repository Defined

<ai_manifest name="example1"> 
    <ai_target_device> 
        <target_device_name>c0t0d0</target_device_name> 
    </ai_target_device> 
    <ai_pkg_repo_default_authority> 
        <main url="http://pkg.opensolaris.org" authname="opensolaris.org"/> 
        </ai_pkg_repo_default_authority> 
    <ai_packages>
    </ai_packages>
</ai_manifest>

For many users a simple configuration, like the example above, is sufficient. Only the target disk name and the IPS repository with authority is defined. The automated installer chooses the disk, c0t0d0, and performs the installation using the default set of packages from the pkg.opensolaris.org repository.

If your diskname is different, edit this file, changing c0t0d0 to your disk name. The manifest file also accepts an MPXIO name such as c0t0000002037CD9F72d0.

You can also edit the repository information. If your IPS repository is pkg.mycompany.com and the authorization is mycompany.com, change pkg.opensolaris.org to pkg.mycompany.com and opensolaris.org to mycompany.com.

Example 2-3 AI Manifests Assigned to IP Addresses

<ai_criteria_manifest>
    <ai_criteria name="IPV4">
        <range>
            010006068000
            010006068255
        </range>
    </ai_criteria>
    <ai_manifest_file URI="./ai_manifest1.xml"/>
    <sc_manifest_file name="AI" URI="./sc_manifest1.xml"/>
</ai_criteria_manifest>

The example above assigns the manifest files, ai_manifest1 and sc_manifest1, to clients in the IP address range of 10.6.68.0 to 10.6.68.255.

Example 2-4 AI Manifest With a Target Disk Defined in Terms of Other Parameters

<ai_manifest name="example3"> 
    <ai_target_device> 
        <target_device_type>SCSI</target_device_type> 
        <target_device_size>20GB</target_device_type> 
        <target_device_vendor>EMC</target_device_type> 
    </ai_target_device> 
    <ai_pkg_repo_default_authority> 
        <main url="http://pkg.opensolaris.org" authname="opensolaris.org"/> 
        <mirror url=""/> 
    </ai_pkg_repo_default_authority> 
    <ai_packages>
      <package_name> 
            SUNWj6rt 
            SUNWmercurial
      </package_name> 
    </ai_packages> 
</ai_manifest>

The example above can be used by a client that has an EMC disk of type SCSI with a size of at least 20 Gbytes. Two specific packages from the opensolaris.org repository, SUNWj6rt and SUNWmercurial, will be added to the installed image.

Example 2-5 AI Manifest With Typical Fields Defined

<ai_manifest name="useful_example">
    <ai_target_device>
        <target_device_name>c0t0d0</target_device_name> 
    </ai_target_device>
    <ai_device_partitioning>
        <partition_action>delete</partition_action>
        <partition_number>2</partition_number>
        <partition_start_sector>16065000</partition_start_sector>
        <partition_size>41943040</partition_size>
        <partition_type>130</partition_type>
    </ai_device_partitioning>
    <ai_device_partitioning>
        <partition_action>create</partition_action>
        <partition_number>2</partition_number>
        <partition_start_sector>16065000</partition_start_sector>
        <partition_size>41943040</partition_size>
        <partition_type>191</partition_type>
    </ai_device_partitioning>
    <ai_device_vtoc_slices>
        <slice_action>preserve</slice_action>
        <slice_number>4</slice_number>
        <slice_size>20480</slice_size>
    </ai_device_vtoc_slices>
    <ai_device_vtoc_slices>
        <slice_action>create</slice_action>
        <slice_number>0</slice_number>
        <slice_size>12288</slice_size>
    </ai_device_vtoc_slices>
    <ai_pkg_repo_default_authority>
        <main url="http://pkg.opensolaris.org" authname="opensolaris.org"/>
        <mirror url=""/>
    </ai_pkg_repo_default_authority>
    <ai_packages>
        <package_name>SUNWdhcs</package_name>
    </ai_packages>
    <ai_packages>
        <package_name>SUNWdhcm</package_name>
    </ai_packages>
    <ai_packages>
        <package_name>SUNWapch22</package_name>
    </ai_packages>
    <ai_packages>
        <package_name>SUNWsqlite3</package_name>
    </ai_packages>
    <ai_packages>
        <package_name>SUNWpysqlite</package_name>
    </ai_packages>
    <ai_packages>
        <package_name>SUNWpython-lxml</package_name>
    </ai_packages>
    <ai_packages>
        <package_name>SUNWpython-cherrypy</package_name>
    </ai_packages>
    <ai_packages>
        <package_name>SUNWinstalladm-tools</package_name>
    </ai_packages>
</ai_manifest>

The example above defines a set of parameters that would often be needed for an automated installation. The following settings are specified.

• An installation that uses this manifest file uses c0t0d0 as the target disk.

• The installation deletes the partition 2, type 130 (SUNIXOS). And, the installation will create a partition of type 191 (SUNIXOS2) of the same size and same start sector.

• The installation creates a new VTOC slice at slice 0 and preserves an existing VTOC slice 4.

• The installation gets packages from the IPS repository at pkg.opensolaris.org.

• The specific packages listed in the ai_packages fields are installed.

For a complete summary of the AI manifest fields, see AI Manifest Parameters.

Creating SC Manifest Files

The SC manifest file provides system configuration specifications for the installed image. You can customize the configuration settings by editing the variable after value= for each of the properties.

In the following SC manifest example, you could change the user name from “jack” to “mike” in the username property.

<?xml version='1.0'?> 
<!DOCTYPE service_bundle SYSTEM '/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/service_bundle.dtd.1'> 
<service_bundle type='profile' name='name'> 

  <service name='ai_properties' version='1' type='service'> 
    <instance name='default' enabled='true'>
      <property_group name='ai' type='application'> 
        <propval name='username' type='astring' value='jack' />        
        <propval name='description' type='astring' value='default_user' /> 
        <propval name='userpass' type='astring' value='jack' />
        <propval name='rootpass' type='astring' value='opensolaris' /> 
        <propval name='timezone' type='astring' value='US/Pacific' /> 
      </property_group> 
    </instance> 
  </service> 
</service_bundle>

Creating Criteria Manifest Files

The criteria manifest file is the bridge that connects the AI manifest file and the SC manifest file with a client. The administrator uses the criteria manifest file to add an AI manifest to a service. The client sends its hardware characteristics to the install service and gets a manifest file that was assigned by the administrator. See the following examples of criteria manifest files.

Example 2-6 Criteria Based on the Client MAC Address

The following example assigns ai_manifest1 and sc_manifest1 to the client with MAC address 0:14:4f:20:53:94. Note that all MAC address pairs are two digits without colons. Remove the colons from 00:14:4F:20:53:94, and use 00144F205394.

<ai_criteria_manifest>
    <ai_criteria name="MAC">
        <range>
            00144F205394
            00144F205394
        </range>
    </ai_criteria>
    <ai_manifest_file URI="./ai_manifest1.xml"/>
    <sc_manifest_file name="AI" URI="./sc_manifest1.xml"/>
</ai_criteria_manifest>

Example 2-7 Criteria Based on the Client IP Address

The following example assigns ai_manifest1 and sc_manifest1 to the client with IP address, 10.6.68.127. For an IP address, each octet between the dots must be three digits. For the manifest file, take 010.006.068.127 and remove the dots to use 010006068127.

<ai_criteria_manifest>
    <ai_criteria name="IPV4">
        <range>
            010006068127
            010006068127
        </range>
    </ai_criteria>
    <ai_manifest_file URI="./ai_manifest1.xml"/>
    <sc_manifest_file name="AI" URI="./sc_manifest1.xml"/>
</ai_criteria_manifest>

Example 2-8 Criteria Based on the Client IP Address Range

The following example assigns ai_manifest1 and sc_manifest1 to clients in the IP address range, 10.6.68.0 to 10.6.68.255.

<ai_criteria_manifest>
    <ai_criteria name="IPV4">
        <range>
            010006068000
            010006068255
        </range>
    </ai_criteria>
    <ai_manifest_file URI="./ai_manifest1.xml"/>
    <sc_manifest_file name="AI" URI="./sc_manifest1.xml"/>
</ai_criteria_manifest>

Example 2-9 Criteria Based on the Client Memory Size

The following example assigns ai_manifest1 and sc_manifest1 to clients with memory of at least 2 Gbytes. The None keyword is used to express no bounding value.

<ai_criteria_manifest>
    <ai_criteria name="MEM">
        <range>
            2048
            None
        </range>
    </ai_criteria>
    <ai_manifest_file URI="./ai_manifest1.xml"/>
    <sc_manifest_file name="AI" URI="./sc_manifest1.xml"/>
</ai_criteria_manifest>

Example 2-10 Criteria Based on the Client Architecture

The following example assigns ai_manifest1 and sc_manifest1 to clients with an architecture of i86pc.

<ai_criteria_manifest>
    <ai_criteria name="ARCH">
        <value>i86pc</value>
    </ai_criteria>
    <ai_manifest_file URI="./ai_manifest1.xml"/>
    <sc_manifest_file name="AI" URI="./sc_manifest1.xml"/>
</ai_criteria_manifest>

Example 2-11 Criteria Manifest Using Default AI Manifest and Custom SC Manifest

In the following example, you have this AI manifest file, default.xml.

<ai_manifest name="default">
    <ai_target_device>
        <target_device_name>c0t0d0</target_device_name> 
    </ai_target_device>
    <ai_device_partitioning>
        <partition_action>create</partition_action>
        <partition_number>2</partition_number>
        <partition_start_sector>16065000</partition_start_sector>
        <partition_size>41943040</partition_size>
        <partition_type>191</partition_type>
    </ai_device_partitioning>
    <ai_device_vtoc_slices>
        <slice_action>create</slice_action>
        <slice_number>0</slice_number>
        <slice_size>12288</slice_size>
    </ai_device_vtoc_slices>
    <ai_pkg_repo_default_authority>
        <main url="http://pkg.opensolaris.org" authname="opensolaris.org"/>
        <mirror url=""/>
    </ai_pkg_repo_default_authority>
</ai_manifest>

Note that the AI manifest file must be named default, or default.xml, as above. Otherwise, you must add criteria to the manifest file. A nondefault AI manifest file requires criteria.

In this example, you also have a custom SC manifest file, sc_manifest1.xml.

<?xml version='1.0'?> 
<!DOCTYPE service_bundle SYSTEM '/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/service_bundle.dtd.1'> 
<service_bundle type='profile' name='name'> 

  <service name='ai_properties' version='1' type='service'> 
    <instance name='default' enabled='true'>
      <property_group name='ai' type='application'> 
        <propval name='username' type='astring' value='jack' />        
        <propval name='description' type='astring' value='default_user' /> 
        <propval name='userpass' type='astring' value='jack' />
        <propval name='rootpass' type='astring' value='opensolaris' /> 
        <propval name='timezone' type='astring' value='US/Pacific' /> 
      </property_group> 
    </instance> 
  </service> 
</service_bundle>

You can use the following criteria manifest file to specify the default.xml file and the custom sc_manifest1.xml file.

      <ai_criteria_manifest>
          <ai_manifest_file URI="./default.xml"/>
          <sc_manifest_file name="AI" URI="./sc_manifest1.xml"/>
      </ai_criteria_manifest>

Associating a Criteria Manifest File With an Existing Service

The client installations can be customized by assigning different manifests to different clients. The installadm add command enables you to assign a specific manifest to a client.

Add the criteria manifest to the install service by executing the command as follows:

installadm add -m manifest -n svcname

• -m manifest – Required: Specifies the path name to a file that contains pointers to AI manifest and to SC manifest.

• -n svcname – Required: Specifies the name of the service that this manifest is to be associated with.

See the following example.

Example 2-12 Assign Manifest to a Client

1. Create a criteria manifest file, criteria_mac.xml, that connects a new AI manifest file, ai_manifest1.xml, to a client. See examples in previous sections.

2. Check which services are running on the system by using the following command:

   # installadm list

   In this example, service_102508 is running on the system.

3. Add the manifest files and the criteria defined by criteria_mac.xml to the install service, service_102508, by using the following command:

   # installadm add -m criteria_mac.xml -n service_102508

   ---

   Note - Only the AI manifest name from the XML ai_manifest tag is registered with the AI database. The SC manifest will be part of the AI manifest. The criteria manifest's name is not stored in the AI database.

   ---

4. Run the following command to see that the AI manifest file, ai_manifest1.xml, has been added to the service.

   # installadm list -n service_102508

   The following results display:

   Manifest
   --------
   ai_manifest1.xml

If you want to remove this AI manifest file from the service, use the following command.

# installadm remove -m ai_manifest1 -n service_102508