how to setup yum/apt with proxy, ditto for cpan - to deal with firewalling issues
recommend every now and then doing an apt-get update/upgrade plus yum, to keep on the safe side
opmantek application updates - bring in new pre-dependencies occasionally
how to swap out a vm if you don't want to do that - capture configs, logs in /var/(ourdirs), and files not in /data, then deploy new one