So far in this book, we have set the groundwork for a stable foundation for your Enterprise Linux environment. We have discussed in detail how to ensure your Linux environment lends itself well to automation through standardization and how to leverage Ansible and AWX to support you on your automation journey. Before we get started on the really detailed technical work in this chapter, we must take a look at one final piece of detail—your deployment methodology.

We have already established a need for a small number of consistent Linux builds for your environment. There is now a decision-making process for you to go through—how to deploy these builds across your enterprise. Most enterprises have several choices available to them, ranging from the easiest—downloading publicly available template images—through building their own templates, to perhaps the most complex—building from scratch using a pre-boot environment. Alternatively, the best approach might be some hybrid of these approaches. In this chapter, we will explore these options and understand how to ensure you are selecting the best one for your enterprise that supports you in your automation journey and is efficient and easy to implement. In subsequent chapters, we will then go into greater technical depth on each approach. 

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

• Knowing your environment
• Keeping builds efficient
• Ensuring consistency across Linux images