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http://info.puppetlabs.com/download-learning-puppet-VM.html
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Configuration management tools: This is roughly the situation we have now. Several different CM systems have been developed over the years, with new ones coming along all the time, but only a few have achieved significant market share. At the time of writing, at least for UNIX-like systems, these CM systems are Puppet, Chef, and CFEngine. There really isn't much to choose between these different systems. They all solve more or less the same problems - the ones we saw earlier in this chapter - in more or less the same way. Some people prefer the Puppet way of doing things; some people are more comfortable with Chef, and so on. But essentially, these, and many other CM systems, are all great solutions to the CM problem, and it's not very important which one you choose as long as you choose one.
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\[read full book for free via CU Library's Safari subscription\] Configuration management tools: This is roughly the situation we have now. Several different CM systems have been developed over the years, with new ones coming along all the time, but only a few have achieved significant market share. At the time of writing, at least for UNIX-like systems, these CM systems are Puppet, Chef, and CFEngine. There really isn't much to choose between these different systems. They all solve more or less the same problems - the ones we saw earlier in this chapter - in more or less the same way. Some people prefer the Puppet way of doing things; some people are more comfortable with Chef, and so on. But essentially, these, and many other CM systems, are all great solutions to the CM problem, and it's not very important which one you choose as long as you choose one. \-----------------\-
Infrastructure as code: Once we start writing programs to configure machines, we get some benefits right away. We can adopt the tools and techniques that regular programmers - who write code in Ruby or Java, for example - have used for years:
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From one person's comment to the "versus" article<http://bitfieldconsulting.com/puppet-vs-chef
> above:
Chef will draw in Ruby developers because it's not declarative, and because it's easy.
My experience is that most developers don't do declarative systems. Everyday languages are imperative, and when you're a developer looking to get something deployed quickly, you're most likely to pick the tool that suits your world view.
Systems Administrators tend to use more declarative tools (make, etc.)
Developers and Systems Administrators also have a divergent set of incentives. Developers are generally rewarded for delivering systems quickly, and SA's are rewarded for stability. IMHO, Chef is a tool to roll out something quickly, and Puppet is the one to manage the full lifecycle. That's why I think Chef makes a good fit for cloud deployment because Vm instances have a short lifespan.
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