Lessons Learned

Pre-hardware lessons

architecture can be prepared without pretending that implementation exists
clear repository boundaries prevent duplicated or inflated portfolio claims
access-port-first networking reduces recovery risk
network changes need a console path independent from the interface being changed
management VLAN, unused native VLAN and unused-port parking VLAN are different roles
a backup target should be represented separately from the active guest datastore
guest restore and host reconstruction require separate plans
LXC bind and device mounts need explicit backup review
API access should begin with reviewed data needs, privilege separation, limited ACL paths and expiration
synthetic examples are useful for testing schemas before live data exists
a small schema with tests is stronger than speculative entities based on unreviewed API fields
CI can verify public-safe code and data contracts without implying that hardware has been installed

Add only findings that were observed during real installation, validation, failure analysis or recovery.