CHAPTER 2Applying Practical Automation

You need to know several key things before you automate a new procedure or task. (Well, first you need to know where your soda and potato chips are. Find them? Okay, moving on.) This chapter presents the prerequisite information in an easy-to-digest format. We'll demonstrate these same key points in later chapters when configuring our example systems. You might want to review this chapter after reading the entire book, especially when embarking on a new automation project.

This chapter assumes familiarity with Bourne Shell scripting. Experienced SAs shy away from scripting specifically for the Bash shell (Bourne-Again SHell) except when absolutely necessary. Even if your site has Bash installed everywhere ...

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