[BryanRamirez]

(I created an account just to upvote and comment on this)

Absolutely, nevermind managing OS upgrades and needing to use configuration management to mitigate against drift. It took a lot of effort to make sure that each server was not a special snowflake that could not be reliably reproduced.

Also, dealing with vendor warranties, and being on hold with HP (or whoever), then assuring them you're running the latest firmware.. please for the love of god just replace the failed memory/disk/cpu.

I found the sheer physicality of computing infrastructure to be a source of exhaustion and burnout. It's a big part of the reason why I'm a software developer now :)