Consider a system such as the admin-install one we used for running shell scripts and logging them with timestamps and copies of the code that was run.

Try to set up an expansion of this which, or from which, can be used to restore a machine that must be rebuilt, or to duplicate the configuration of one machine on another.

Such an installation would run the same scripts in the same sequence as was used to set up your pilot machine. Notice that it cannot run unattended, so you will need to get around the need to answer questions, or provide scripts to answer those questions.