This chapter provides a detailed exploration of the Standard Operating Environment (henceforth, SOE for short) concept in Linux. Although we will go into much greater detail later, in short, an SOE is an environment where everything is created and modified in a standard way. For example, this would mean that all Linux servers are built in the same way, using the same software versions. This is an important concept because it makes managing the environment much easier and reduces the workload for those looking after it. Although this chapter is quite theoretical in nature, it sets the groundwork for the rest of this book.

We will start by looking at the fundamental definition of such an environment, and then proceed to explore why it is desirable to want to create one. From there, we will look at some of the pitfalls of an SOE to give you a good perspective on how to maintain the right balance in such an environment, before finally discussing how an SOE should be integrated into day-to-day maintenance processes. The effective application of this concept enables efficient and effective management of Linux environments at very large scales.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Understanding the challenges of Linux environment scaling
• What is an SOE?
• Exploring SOE benefits
• Knowing when to deviate from standards
• Ongoing maintenance of SOEs