Zone configuration has three basic levels to it, which can be automated at one or all levels.
In Solaris 10 zones, it was possible to preconfigure sys-unconfig type information, (hostname, name service, and so on) by prepopulating /etc/sysidcfg before first boot. In Solaris 11, there is a similar concept, but with a very different implementation. First of all, as the relevant file is now XML-based, you are best off using the sysconfig create-profile subcommand to generate it for you. Secondly, you are now expected to pass the location of the file as an argument to
zoneadm install. The following examples will hopefully make this clearer:
zoneadm -z newzone install -c /path/to/sysconfig.xmlzoneadm -z newzone clone -c /path/to/sysconfig.xml oldzone
The two crucial things here are that you must give the full path to the XML file, and that if you are cloning, you must give the old zone name last on the command line.