Solaris 11 Automated Installer quick setup guide in a zone

Setting up an Automated Install server with Solaris 11 is now very easy. See my recent Solaris SIG talk about it but here is a quick guide.

• Setup zone:

# zonecfg -z aiserver 'create; set zonepath=/zones/aiserver'

• Create system profile to speed install process up:
• This allows you to setup hostname, server IP address, initial user, etc

# sysconfig create-profile -o sysconfig.xml

• Install Zone with default manifest and using the system configuration create above:

# zoneadm -z aiserver install -c /var/tmp/sysconfig.xml
A ZFS file system has been created for this zone.
Progress being logged to /var/log/zones/zoneadm.20120221T133021Z.aiserver.install
       Image: Preparing at /zones/aiserver/root.

Install Log: /system/volatile/install.17908/install_log
AI Manifest: /tmp/manifest.xml.yhaq9I
SC Profile: /var/tmp/sysconfig.xml
    Zonename: aiserver
Installation: Starting ...

              Creating IPS image
              Installing packages from:
                  solaris
                      origin:  http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/support/
DOWNLOAD                                  PKGS       FILES    XFER (MB)
Completed                              167/167 32064/32064  175.8/175.8

PHASE                                        ACTIONS
Install Phase                            44313/44313

PHASE                                          ITEMS
Package State Update Phase                   167/167
Image State Update Phase                         2/2
Installation: Succeeded

        Note: Man pages can be obtained by installing pkg:/system/manual done.
        Done: Installation completed in 127.429 seconds
  Next Steps: Boot the zone, then log into the zone console (zlogin -C) to complete the configuration process.

Log saved in non-global zone as /zones/aiserver/root/var/log/zones/zoneadm.20120221T133021Z.aiserver.install

# zoneadm -z aiserver boot
# zlogin -C -e\@ aiserver

• Install auto-installer software in the zone

# svcadm enable /network/dns/multicast
# pkg list install/installadm
pkg list: no packages matching 'install/installadm' installed
# pkg install install/installadm
# pkg list install/installadm
NAME (PUBLISHER)                          &nbsVERSION                    IFO
install/installadm                         0.5.11-0.175.0.0.0.2.1482  i--

• Create the boot service.
• No need to specify an ISO since the software will download an image.

# installadm create-service -n solarisx86
Creating service from: pkg:/install-image/solaris-auto-install
OK to use default image path: /export/auto_install/solarisx86? [y/N]: y
Download: install-image/solaris-auto-install ...  Done
Install Phase ...  Done
Package State Update Phase ...  Done
Image State Update Phase ...  Done
Reading Existing Index ...  Done
Indexing Packages ...  Done

Creating service: solarisx86

Image path: /export/auto_install/solarisx86

Refreshing install services

Creating default-i386 alias.

No local DHCP configuration found. This service is the default
alias for all PXE clients. If not already in place, the following should
be added to the DHCP configuration:
        Boot server IP       : 193.xx.xx.xx
        Boot file            : default-i386/boot/grub/pxegrub

Refreshing install services

# ls -l /etc/netboot
total 6
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 28 Feb 21 15:42 default-i386
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 28 Feb 21 15:42 solarisx86

• You are ready to boot PXE client towards this server