Inventory Lifecycle

Inventory & Lifecycle Management #

Documents how infrastructure assets are tracked, managed, and retired.


Scope #

This section includes:

  • Host identity and inventory sources of truth
  • Hardware lifecycle stages (active, standby, retired)
  • Image and configuration lifecycle expectations
  • Decommissioning and cleanup principles

This section ensures infrastructure ages intentionally, not accidentally.


Lifecycle Stages #

StageDescription
ProvisioningHost being set up, not yet in service
ActiveIn production use
StandbyAvailable but not currently assigned
MaintenanceTemporarily offline for updates/repairs
RetiredDecommissioned, removed from inventory

Inventory Sources of Truth #

  • ansible-inventory-deevnet - Canonical host identity
  • OPNsense - Authoritative DNS/DHCP (production)
  • Bootstrap node - Authoritative DNS/DHCP (during provisioning)

Decommissioning #

When retiring a host:

  1. Remove from active service (update DNS CNAMEs)
  2. Run cleanup playbook (remove secrets, keys)
  3. Update inventory status to retired
  4. Archive or wipe storage as appropriate
  5. Update documentation
Page last modified: January 3, 2026