I hear that @faidon has ideas also.

After several conversations with robh, I think we can start looking at the low hanging fruit. For the record all of these processes are mediated by a dynamic, ever changing checklist.

Resources for the actual process:

• https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Server_Lifecycle#Installation_setup - This documents the process in pretty good detail
• https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T221049 - move reimage checklist example
• https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T221244 - decom checklist example
• https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T209618 - rack setup install checklists example
• https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/P8414 - raw install checklist

getting the netbox module in the cookbooks will save steps on decoms and probably reimages and installs (which share many procedures); the caveat is that in decoms it will have to prompt as to the state to transition into (decom or spare).