On Tue, 26 Apr 2016, Tim Dunphy wrote:
So what I'd like to know is it better in your opinion to install from repos than to install by source as a best practice?
"Better" all depends on your workflow and your customers' concerns.
If you are always available to update all your customers' installations, esp. when there's a security update, then installing from source may allow you to roll out new features more quickly than stock CentOS.
OTOH, if you go on vacation, or get injured, or whatever -- then your clients may be left exposed when a new exploit is released. Someone at Red Hat (and from there CentOS) will be dealing with it, and your customers get the benefit of that work with a simple "yum update".
At the very least, I'd inform the clients of the benefits and risks of both approaches and see what best matches their concerns.
Is it always better to use puppet, chef, ansible etc even if the environment is small? I'm sure this is a matter preference, but I would like to know what your preferences are.
Personally, I've found the break-even point to be three to four systems. That is, once I'm managing four systems, I'll spend less time over the life-cycle of those hosts spinning up puppet or cfengine than I will managing those systems by hand. Other admins may have a different opinion, but that's what I've discovered.