Puppet

Puppet

Puppet is software written in the Ruby programming language that is used to manage and configure Unix systems. Using Puppet and its declarative configuration language results in significant time savings in the administration of computer networks.

The source code is available for download on the project page.

Puppet is one of the most established open-source tools in the field
of configuration management and has been part of the standard toolkit for years in
professional Linux and Windows server environments. The basic principle is based on a
declarative approach: instead of formulating step-by-step instructions,
you describe in so-called manifests the state a system should be in—
Puppet then independently ensures that this state is established and permanently
maintained.

Configuration is written in its own domain-specific language, Puppet DSL
(alternatively in Ruby), and organized into reusable units known as
modules. These modules encapsulate resources such as packages, services,
files, or user accounts and can be flexibly applied to different system roles.
A comprehensive community library of ready-made modules is available via the Puppet Forge.

In a typical Puppet infrastructure, the managed systems
(agents) communicate regularly with a central Puppet Server, retrieve
their individual catalog there, and reconcile their local state against it— a
mechanism referred to as catalog compilation. Deviations from the
target state are corrected automatically (enforcement), and all
changes can be tracked in reporting.

Integrating Puppet into Foreman makes it possible to assign configuration classes directly
to hosts and host groups in the Foreman interface. This creates an end-to-end
workflow: from provisioning a new machine through to its complete
configuration—controlled from a single interface. credativ supports companies
with the introduction, operation, and further development of Puppet-based
infrastructure solutions.