How to replicate basic configuration tasks?

Question

(This might be off-topic and/or not answerable, but I want to ask anyway.)

Recently, I am managing a lot of VPS server with Linux for my personal and professional projects.

However, I am kind of tired by the repetitive tasks. Let's say I have to do the following after installation of a VPS

add some users, add them to sudoers
install the basic needed packages from apt-get
find out that the package X is not in the basic repository, so I add some repositories
do some basic configuration, both as a root and as a user, copy-pasting some stuff from the internet to some files and see what sticks
finally start coding

Is there any way to automate the whole process? Basically to "seal" the whole configuration, so I can then do all this in somehow more simplier way.

@Patrick Thanks for the tip! That's actually the same question I have. — Karel Bílek, Jul 11 '14 at 01:25

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 11 '14 at 01:20

2

This task is an example of "configuration management". As you might expect, many other people have also had the same questions as you. The general class of software that performs this function is called configuration management software. Some popular examples are:

answered Jul 11 '14 at 01:20

Greg Hewgill

7,053
2
32
34

I assumed I am not alone who does that :) Thanks for the tips. I will have a look at some of them. – Karel Bílek Jul 11 '14 at 01:25

How to replicate basic configuration tasks?

1 Answers1