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. -- Paul Heinlein heinlein at madboa.com 45°38' N, 122°6' W