Part of automating deployment is automating key management. Ignoring host key checks is the worst possible solution. You're actually better off just baking a s

Part of automating deployment is automating key management. Ignoring host key checks is the worst possible solution. You're actually better off just baking a shared key into your image. So long as it's a key you generated yourself (not like this Digital Ocean scenario, where the key came from the cloud host), only someone who has already rooted one server can successfully MITM your SSH connections. Whereas if you ignore host key checks entirely, anyone who gains control of one network hop between you and your servers can own you.