How to avoid boring work

Over the past few years working as an IT consultant, I've learned that having easy access to a robust lab where I can learn or test solutions is critical. But my approach to building a test lab has changed over the years.
These days I prefer not to "build" a lab but to "define" one — it is a better use of my time.
Building requires a long step-by-step process of installing all the necessary components: OS, databases, app servers, one by one based on the documentation. 
Instead, I can define a lab using tools such as Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Oracle Enterprise Manager, on top of tools that manage Virtual Machines like Vagrant or libvirt.

I presented my thoughts during Irish Oracle User Group conference in March 2015 ( How to avoid boring work ) and now I would like to start a series of blog post about this.

Avoid boring work_v2 from Marcin Przepiórowski
 

Here is a list of topics I plan to cover in the next few weeks:

• Creating and managing a Virtual Machine using Vagrant (create a new box, add storage, use KVM or AWS EC2 as providers )
  
• Installing and configuring Oracle Database using Ansible ( Thanks to great work of Mikael Sandström on his Github Ansible repository )
• Integration of Delphix "Data as a Service" product with an automated test environment build

regards,
Marcin