System Installation

All system administrators have their favorite way to install systems, and if you get ten system administrators together in a room, there is a good chance that they will disagree on some aspect of what the best setup is. This can be called the "Rule of Ten Systems Administrators." For manageability, it is important that all of the systems of the same type and function be installed in the same reproducible method. Additionally, the less human intervention that is necessary, the better: as the "Rule of Ten Systems Administrators" says, many options are possible, and everyone has their own ideas as to what is "right."

Automation is the key to manageability. It makes installation faster in the long run and less time consuming for administrators. So, all in all, the more automation, the better for managing the configuration.

To make it simpler and even manageable, it is important to be organize the configurations by function and system type. That is, all of the like systems with the same functions will be installed with the same installation process. This has several advantages. First, you know what is on the system so changes for tuning, etc. and be handled easily. and if the system has to be reproduced quickly, just reinstall it. It is important to manage the configurations of each type of system in the enterprise.