Reducing manual work.
WHAT TO AUTOMATE
Provisioning Configuration Monitoring registration Patching Backup verification Capacity reporting Decommissioning
WHY DECOMMISSIONING SPECIFICALLY
It is the step most often skipped, leaving powered equipment nobody can account for.
WHAT TO DEFINE FIRST
The process, written down.
WHY
Automating an undefined process produces an automated undefined process.
WHAT TO BUILD ON
A source of truth describing what should exist.
WHAT TO AUTOMATE CAUTIOUSLY
Anything destructive.
WHAT TO REQUIRE FOR THOSE
Confirmation, and a preview of what would happen.
WHAT TO LOG
Every automated action, with who initiated it.
WHAT TO MONITOR
That automation ran, and produced plausible results.
WHY
Automation that fails silently is worse than none, because it is trusted.
WHAT TO AVOID
Automation with broad credentials Automation nobody understands Scripts on one person's machine
WHAT TO KEEP
All of it in version control, reviewed.
WHAT TO TEST
Automation, somewhere other than production.
