Hi Jan, Apologies for the delayed response . . .
>> I was looking at OpenSolaris bug 5451 (No way to permanently target >> specific disk in AI engine manifest) because it represents a major >> barrier to deploying AI as a service to install OpenSolaris in the labs. >> >> Does the AI team have any plans to address this anytime soon? > > This issue will not be solved for 2009.06 release > as appropriate research needs to happen, but I agree > with you it is problem which should be considered > to be addressed. Ok >> We have several hosts (hundreds) with SAN attached storage and I find >> the root disk is rarely the first disk encountered. I also, find the >> root disk controller number varies from system to system. Because of >> the varying logical disk names on systems, lab staff must first >> confirm the target root disk name and update the manifest (wastes >> time). I don't want to create separate manifests for each client as >> the solution doesn't scale well. > > So far two solutions were suggested and captured by following bugs: > > 7057 desire for being able to specify 'rootdisk' as installation target > in AI manifest > 7058 desire for being able to pick up disk as installation target by > specifying volume > name in AI manifest > > I am not sure if they might help you to address your case, so I have > question - > in your scenario (a lot of machines with SAN attached storage used as > target disks), > might you have any idea how the target disk could be described, so that > number of AI > manifests needed might be minimized (ideally only one will have to be > used) ? Given the current use of manifests, I would like to specify a 'rootdisk' keyword between the 'target_device_name' tags in the manifest. The AI engine should be able to find a root disk in a manner similar to how Jumpstart uses the 'rootdisk' keyword in a profile. The approach above would only be helpful with problems I currently face. I see AI is going through a re-design effort, so things will change again. Please look at giving us back the ability to script tasks in a manner similar to preinstall and postinstall Jumpstart scripts. Additionally, give us derived profiles back. Rob
