Although SystemImager upgrades are automated in most ways, you must perform some upgrade processes manually to prevent losing user customizations.
With each release of SystemImager, use the si_mkautoinstallscript command to update the autoinstall scripts stored in /var/lib/systemimager/scripts. Installations using older scripts may fail.
![]() | si_mkautoinstallscript overwrites the pre-existing script for an image. If you make any changes to your autoinstall scripts (also known as .master scripts), backup those scripts to forward port your changes to the new release. |
Prior to the release of SystemImager 3.0.0, your changes to /etc/systemimager/rsyncd.conf could be made within the file, but were susceptible to upgrade issues. With version 3.0.0, you can make these changes in a separate file that is maintained across upgrades. See the si_mkrsyncd_conf(8) man page for details.
Each time you upgrade Systemimager, you must also upgrade the boot media you use to boot the autoinstall system. Use si_mkautoinstallcd or si_mkautoinstalldisk to regenerate removable media.
The SystemImager 3.0.0 release deprecates the binary tarball releases and introduces the boot packages feature, which requires that various components of the SystemImager system have some sort of version control. Without relying on a package management system, version control requires significant effort, so SystemImager 3.0.0 does not support unpackaged bits.
However, with the build system based on make, you can run commands like make install_server_all, etc., which is now the preferred method for installing without using a package manager, although you need to track down all build dependencies and runtime dependencies by hand.