When you have an iso file, it's really convenient to be able to just mount it. Before the integration of PSARC/2008/366 VSW_CANLOFI in Solaris Nevada (build 93) it was a two-step process: # lofiadm -a /my/iso # creates /dev/lofi/1 # mount -F hsfs /dev/lofi/1 /mnt # access /my/iso via /mnt With this wadlet, you can now omit the lofiadm step and just say: # mount -F hsfs /my/iso /mnt Similarly with unmount -- you don't have to remember to lofiadm -d. With ZFS, you can do # zpool import -d /net/zday/some/path/to/zpool/images/