Exploits and their consequences should have you thinking of your recovery planning again. This chapter and most of the following chapters end with a reading list citing relevant HOW-TOs and many other books. Everyone finds some tasks repetitive. The chapter on scripting offers ideas in several scripting languages. The Backup chapter discusses practical solutions to the problem.
Most computers are on a network today.
Networking Technologies discusses IPv4, IPv6 and related protocols. This chapter has an extensive reading list. System Profiles gives good guidance here. Once you have a partitioning plan, the OS has to be installed on all machines and upgraded as necessary. Automated Installation and Upgrade discusses some how-to guidelines, including Red Hat's kickstart .