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Questions tagged [automation]

the field of converting any manual process into one that can be run mostly, or entirely, "hands-free"

Automation is a wide-ranging term, covering topics from cron to "push-button provisioning and deployment" or system and application stacks. The ultimate goal of some automation projects is the so-called "Zero-Latency Data Center", while for others it may just be sending alerts based on certain events. More information can be found here.

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How to automate slipstream?

Since years I use slipstreamed Windows installations. This works very well, but preparing them is tedious : 1 - install a Windows with the last slipstreamed version we have (automated install) 2 - check Windowsupdate to see what's new, and take…
Gregory MOUSSAT
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Start services.msc attached to remote computer

Is there a way to start services.msc already attached to a remote system (e.g. from command line)? I want to avoid clicking Action -> Connect to remote computer, because I have to do it so often...
jan bernlöhr
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What does /v/qn parameter do for windows silent installers?

This page says to do a silent install you pass in the parameters /s /v/qn. It mentions what /s does - silent install - but not what /v/qn does. So what does it do? Why the weird format? (on one installer I tried /v /qn (with a space) and it didn't…
Claudiu
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FreeBSD `freebsd-update` automation?

freebsd-update command prints updating entries after it downloaded. But it shows them with more. So I have to press some spaces to continue. Is there a way to avoid this behavior? I want to execute update fully automated manner.
Eonil
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Deploy our own software using Puppet?

(Apologies in advance for the stupidity in this question. I'm normally a programmer, not a sysadmin, but I've taken it upon myself to automate some things, and clean up some other things which are automated but not in the prettiest way. :-) I've…
Ken
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Limit SSH key to SCP only

Problem: I don't have root access to the server (i.e, I can't/don't want to change any system-wide server configuration), and I want to use scp with an alternative Identity File (e.g, .ssh/id_rsa_for_scp) to automate the download of some files from…
Michael Richard
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How to change assigned letter for Ephemeral drives automatically?

I have an AWS Windows box (Windows 2008 R2) with the following disks: C:\ 60 Gb (EBS) D:\ 200 Gb (EBS) Y:\ 40 Gb (Ephemeral SSD) Z:\ 40 Gb (Ephemeral SSD) Every time it boots I change ephemeral drives to D: and E: and EBS drive to Z:. Some times…
Oscar Foley
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Creating a script to install a Perl application and its dependencies automatically

I have a Perl application that needs a lot of dependencies that i need to deploy on numerous servers I would like to make a script that installs that Perl application automatically and quickly. To be faster, i want to install most of my dependencies…
Vincent Membré
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How to copy many Scheduled Tasks between Windows Server 2008 machines?

I have several standalone Win2008 (R1+R2) servers (no domain) and each of them has dozens of scheduled tasks. Each time we set up a new server, all these tasks have to be created on it. The tasks are not living in the 'root' of the 'Task Scheduler…
Peter Hahndorf
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Perl or Python, better suited for Unix system automation?

I have been using bash for most of my system administration tasks. I also know a bit of perl. Should I learn Python or Perl is better for system automation. So far from my experience learning perl has been easy.
nitins
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easiest way to automate all software installations for new users/computers?

Basically, for every new user we have about 30 different installers that all need to be run manually after an install of windows which is tedious/time consuming. We can't simply ghost/image the computers as they come because of the wide variety of…
sorrrydoctorforlove
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Secure method of changing a user's password via Python script/non-interactively

Questions Is there a more secure/better way for setting a user's password non-interactively via a Python script? My current solution uses chpasswd from a Fabric script. Another option would be to use Pexpect from within the Fabric script. Is my…
Matthew Rankin
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How do you optimize new user setup?

What's your top trick for getting a new employee set up quickly? Do you use images, scripts, something else?
Jon Galloway
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How to merge variables of type hash across different variable files in ansible?

I have two YAML variable files which are reused for many playbooks: # playbook/group_vars/all settings: a: 1 b: 2 # inventory/group_vars/main.yml settings: c: 3 I want settings to be equal { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3 } in my playbooks. Instead it…
Jason Holcomb
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Automating Administration Tasks on Windows

What tools do you use and recommend for automating administration tasks for Windows-based computers? Examples of such tasks include: Installing/upgrading software Standarizing application settings Remove blacklisted applications A standardized…
berberich
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