New server deployment - what choices do you make?

[Yami]

Every time I deploy anything new, I set up;
Public DNS; 1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1, 8.8.8.8 (if tertiary configurable)
Public NTP: 0.uk.pool.ntp.org, 1.uk.pool.ntp.org, etc.

I do have DNS and NTP servers configured in my home, work, and lab networks, but as none are really for production I end up using public for simplicity.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

That's a bit difficult for me...


Before I ever connect it to my network...

1: Grab the MAC, and assign a static DHCP lease, specifying DNS (pair of PiHole VM's, one on each ESXi host), gateway group, and so on in my PFSense firewall.
2: Define in Aliases what vlans it can talk to, or be talked to from.
3: Join to the domain
4: Specify what part of the domain the server is (client, webserver, file server, so on... Yes I have groups for everything, and different GPO's for each set!)
5: Make sure it's getting WSUS information, and proper Windows Firewall rules, if it's a Windows server

After that, it's just the generic roles/services that need setup.

If it's ubuntu or anything else, welll... Nadda, I tend to experiment till things work right in that realm.
Nothing on my network is statically assigned in the OS except for my ESXi hosts. Most my "servers" are VM's, so going the MAC address in PFSense route is much easier.

 

[PP Mguire]

Really depends on context. For a client I go with what they prefer, for me I set Cloudfare DNS in my UDM Pro and call it a day. All of my servers are assigned via DHCP but the gateway remembers NIC MACs and assigns them the same IP so I don't need to assign static IPs.