Chapter 11 touched on the idea of creating multiple server instances from a single source (“Prebuilding Servers”), and recommended using cleanly built server images (“Creating a Clean Server Image”). If you wondered what’s the best way to follow that advice, this chapter aims to help.
As with most things in your system, you should use code to build and update server images in a repeatable way. Whenever you make a change to an image, such as installing the latest operating system patches, you can be sure you are building it
consistently.
By using an automated, code-driven process to build, test, deliver, and update server images, you can more easily keep your servers up-to-date, and ensure their compliance and quality.
The basic server image life cycle involves building a custom image from an origin source (see Figure 13-1).
Figure 13-1. Server image life cycle
Building a Server Image
Most infrastructure management platforms have a format for server images to use for creating server instances. Amazon has AMIs, Azure has managed images, and VMware has VM templates. Hosted platforms provide prepackaged stock images with common operating systems and distributions so that you can create servers without needing to build images yourself.
Why Build a Server Image?
Most teams eventually build custom images rather than using the stock images from the ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month, and much more.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
