Currently we are using Apache Solr 4.10.3 OR Heliosearch Distribution for Solr [HDS]
In Solr 5, creation of cores is supported by the bin/solr script provided in the distribution. Try
bin/solr create -help
for a quick introduction.
From the above help doc, you may find:
bin/solr create [-c name] [-d confdir] [-n configName] [-shards #] [-replicationFactor #] [-p port]