> And how much of that is cloning[#] a prepared virtual machine? Shouldn't this or using deployment scripts be "almost always?" > much easier to share a passw

> And how much of that is cloning[#] a prepared virtual machine? Shouldn't this or using deployment scripts be "almost always?" > much easier to share a password between machines with LDAP than having the same with user keys. I think this is a different subject, no? I've never had to do this. > Programmers tend to have quite skewed idea on what operates the production, as they rarely see the details. I've worked as both a programmer and a sysadmin for large enterprises, so I've seen both sides! > Cloning an already installed system is usually a stupid thing, unless you make sure that SSH host keys don't get shared (and several similar things). No it isn't. It's fine to have a "base" image that you use to then run deployment scripts on, if done correctly. Way better than having to go through a 20+ step process of securing a new Linux or Windows box :)