After discussing this further with @Marek_Hulan we agreed that %post is too large. However, it’s isn’t obvious where exactly things should go.
I noted that the yum/dnf update part should go into the proper sections (when possible), like more native integration. There are probably more.
However, marking as built does make sense at first boot. That ensures the network config is actually correct. Or at least, it can route to Foreman so it could be fixed with REX/configuration management. But just moving it isn’t everything.
@TimoGoebel has in the past suggested to add more steps in between. Today the host status is building or built, but it would be nice if there are steps in between. If you could somehow find out that it made it past %post (or the Debian equivalent) and should have been rebooted. I don’t recall if this was made into an RFC or otherwise, but it would give users more insight into how far provisioning is.
So in summary:
-
%postis too large - Some things should move to steps before
%post - Some things should move beyond
%post - More fine grained statuses would be nice