I insist that every team member identify work we can automate to make our lives easier. I also want automation to break down the knowledge silos that develop over time. These 20 areas of a Linux and AWS environment are candidates for that work.

  1. Server provisioning: Automate Linux server setup, including operating system configuration, software packages and user accounts.
  2. Configuration management: Use Ansible, Chef or Puppet to manage system files, network settings and software installation across servers.
  3. Security hardening: Use tools such as OpenSCAP or Lynis and guidance such as CIS benchmarks to support hardening work in Linux and AWS. That work includes firewall configuration, security patches and disabling unnecessary services.
  4. Backup and recovery: Automate backups and recovery with tools such as Bacula, Amanda or Duplicity to protect data and support business continuity.
  5. Monitoring and alerting: Use Nagios, Zabbix or Icinga to automate monitoring in Linux and AWS so the team can detect and resolve issues sooner.
  6. Deployment: Use Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD or AWS CodeDeploy in your application delivery process to automate building, testing and production deployment.
  7. Log management: Use Elasticsearch, Logstash or Kibana in your log collection and analysis process to troubleshoot issues and detect security threats.
  8. Patch management: Automate security patching across Linux servers. Examples in the original article include Spacewalk, Yum-cron and Ansible.
  9. User management: Automate account and access management across Linux servers using LDAP, FreeIPA or Microsoft Active Directory.
  10. DNS management: Automate DNS record management across Linux servers running Bind, PowerDNS or NSD.
  11. Firewall management: Automate firewall rules across Linux servers using FirewallD, UFW or IPtables.
  12. Container management: Automate the management of containerized applications with Docker, Kubernetes or AWS ECS.
  13. Database management: Automate database management tasks using tools and services such as MySQL Workbench, PgAdmin or AWS RDS.
  14. Network automation: Use Ansible, Netmiko or Nornir to automate network device configuration and management.
  15. Cloud orchestration: Deploy and manage AWS resources with AWS CloudFormation, Terraform or Ansible.
  16. Web server management: Automate management tasks for web servers such as Apache, Nginx or Lighttpd.
  17. Email server management: Automate management tasks for mail systems such as Postfix, Dovecot or Zimbra.
  18. Load balancing: Automate load balancer management with HAProxy, Nginx or AWS ELB.
  19. Continuous integration and delivery: Automate code builds, tests and deployment with Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD or AWS CodePipeline.
  20. Identity and access management: Automate user identity management and access to AWS resources with AWS IAM, Okta or OneLogin.

Automating this work can help the team work more efficiently, make fewer errors and improve system reliability and security.

Original publication on GoDaddy