These are facilitated relatively little by autoinstall - though its still a large step beyond installing off CD. The larger payoffs do not come until you begin upgrading autoinstalled machines using autoinstall. To autoinstall a machine that isn't currently autoinstalled: Do a full backup of the machine's system filesystems (commonly a subset of /, /usr, /var, /opt) Generate a list of changes on the machine, relative to what was loaded "right off the CD", using one of the following methods: Inspect the things that commonly change: System initialization scripts: /etc/rc.local (on old systems) /etc/rc?.d (on modern systems including Solaris 2.x and Irix 5.x, but not OSF/1) /sbin/rc?.d (on OSF/1) /etc/inetd.conf, for inetd-spawned daemons /etc/services, for service names of things added to inetd.conf /etc/fstab (/etc/vfstab on Solaris 2.x), for locally mounted filesystems, and statically NFS-mounted filesystems /etc/passwd, for local accounts (or NIS accounts, if this is an NIS master - also sometimes in /NIS/passwd, even on non-autoinstalled machines) crontab -l (esp. as root) or /var/spool/cron/crontabs/*, for periodically executed jobs /var/spool/cron/atjobs /usr/local/* /etc/printcap. Check for CAP-served printers (indicated by ucipsif or input-filter) Ask the owner/maintainer of the machine, what uses the machine is put to. This information may imply other things that should be examined. Using find on all local filesystems (if no local disk beyond the system disk) : find / -fstype nfs -prune -o -mtime -100 -print lists all files changed in the last 100 days find / -fstype nfs -prune -o -newer /etc/protocols -print lists all files changed more recently than /etc/protocols Using find on individual filesystems (if there are local disks beyond the system disk) : find /usr -xdev -mtime -100 -print lists, only in /usr filesystem, all files changed in the last 100 days find /usr -xdev -newer /bin/login -print lists, only in /usr filesystem, all files changed more recently than /bin/login For each change you find that should be replicated, make an entry somewhere in each. Check for "slack" filesystems, like /export/home, which often exist on a system disk (and hence could be wiped out by an install), but aren't part of the "system directories" per se. df is often helpful in locating these; check the SCSI targets. If such a filesystem exists, back it up. Check the Before you install a machinedocument. There's some information in there that could save you a lot of trouble. Proceed to one of the platform-specific installation procedures from there - there are links to them in the aforementioned document. Inspect the system. Try to avoid making changes right after the machine is done being installed, so stamp will only record those changes made by autoinstall. You can tell "stamp" is running, with top - the buffer cache will be a mess until it's done, too :). http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/dcs/automation/upgrading-old.html