[CentOS] Apache/PHP Installation - opinions

Tue Apr 26 23:32:44 UTC 2016
Gordon Messmer <gordon.messmer at gmail.com>

On 04/26/2016 03:27 PM, 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?

Your tools should save you time.

Building packages should involve three steps: download the source, 
update the version number in your spec file, mock build / sign / publish 
(the last set should be a small shell script).  Building in mock means 
that the package is predictable.  Every time it builds, it'll detect the 
same available libraries during ./configure, so your build is consistent.

> Is it always
> better to use puppet, chef, ansible etc even if the environment is
> small?

Again, your tools should save you time.

If your configuration manager takes more effort than configuring a 
system by hand, you should probably look for a better tool. Personally, 
I like bcfg2.  And yes, I use it for everything.  I use templates 
extensively so that anything that varies from site to site or host to 
host is easy to adjust, and I can apply a configuration far more quickly 
and reliably than I can configure a system manually.