I thought so too for a long time. Until that time when I upgraded the RAID10 on our database servers from a 4 drive to a 8 drive configuration (which requires rebuilding the whole array if you want the performance benefits). Getting the intricate configuration of the two machines (postgres streaming replication works, but has a lot of moving parts to keep in mind) back without having to remember any details was absolutely priceless.<p>Completely wiping and reinstalling the main database servers (one after another of course) during the day while the system was in active use and completing the process with zero user intervention, that felt amazing.<p>Since then, whenever I had to reinstall a machine for one reason or another, I always appreciated the immense speed-up I gained by not having to ever manually re-do the configuration.<p>Better yet: All the years of growing the configuration, all the small insights learned over time, all the small fixes to the configuration: All are preserved and readily available. Even better: By using git, I can even go back in time and learn why I did what and when.<p>&quot;Why am I using TCP for NFS? Oh right - that was back in december of 2012 when we were using UDP and we ran into that kernel deadlock&quot; - that&#x27;s next to impossible to do when you&#x27;re configuring servers manually.