On 06/01/2021 14.47, Michael Ströder wrote:
Does this count as factory-reset? And in which situation do you need such a factory-reset (for whatever definition of factory-reset)?
Before I joined SUSE, I built video-player hardware appliances based on Debian and they had such a factory reset implemented with aufs to allow people to get a system back into a defined config state. Comes handy for all kind of hardware that is rented out.
If one needs automation one should implement real automation and not rely on admin changes in /etc being restored.
I have used chef and salt a lot over the last years and there is always one shortcoming: They are great at setting up things, but if you update your state descriptions to no more install + configure + run foo, it will just leave foo on the systems. Often it is not a big deal, but if you have automatic service discovery in a cluster, it might mean that those dropped services are still used. Starting from scratch is one way out, but can be rather slow. Also not so easy, if you have relevant data on the machine. Another way would be to have an explicit uninstall target, but most published salt formulas dont have that.