Solaris Templating on VMware

UNIX Solaris
1

Hi,

I have an interesting automation problem I'm working on, wondering if anyone has $0.02? I work in a locked down environment, and don't have access to AI Servers and such.
I need to create a VMware Template with Solaris 11 using Packer - on the face of it, straight forward. However;

  1. I cannot pass arguments to 'boot_command' on the ISO via the Packer provisioner,
  2. I cannot re-master the ISO with a Grub boot options, or include the AI manifest.

Naturally, this is a real pain, but here is my thought;

Create a floppy image copying /boot from the ISO, create custom Grub options, and include the AI Manifest on the floppy image.

Does that sound like a reasonable plan before I invest way too much time back?

Cheers all,

2

If you can get close enough to the hardware to put a floppy in it how about using a USB stick? If the hardware will boot from a USB stick then you could build one from the CD ISO?

Or have I got the wrong idea?

3

Take a look at this approach :
Creating Solaris 11 Vagrant boxes out of Unified Archives | @mzachh's Weblog

It is using unified archive (UAR) with packer.
I would like to point that that i haven't used packer.

Be sure to get back with results :slight_smile:

Regards
Peasant.

4

Thanks @hicksd8, but alas this is all virtualised.

How Packer works; in a nutshell, it will create a temporary VM, attach the connect extra media like a floppy or cd-drive (these are all virtual devices), and then boot from CD and install. Once its done, VMWare takes a snapshot, converts a template, and destroys the VM.

To be honest, whether or not its Virtual is probably academic because the problem is the same; I can't modify the ISO, so I need to boot from floppy, with a custom AI Manifest, then continue installing via the mounted ISO.

---------- Post updated at 12:29 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:26 PM ----------

Thanks @Peasant - I will take a look.
This could be a good starting point. I'll be sure to report back with how it gets done.

Thanks, :slight_smile:

5

I understand that but what I was meaning is that you could take the CD boot media and convert the whole distribution media to USB stick using Rufus after which you could edit the boot media file by file. That way you can configure Grub and create entire bespoke boot media. The only question is could you use that media to boot from?