Puppet vs. Chef: Comparing Configuration Management Systems

Envato Tuts+ Courses

Course Description

Configuration management and automation are strategies that every systems administrator should know when managing more than a handful of servers. They are also very handy for developers who have to manage infrastructure but prefer to write code to specify an environment, rather than typing configuration commands by hand.

In this course, Envato Tuts+ instructor Markus Mühlberger is going to compare two of the most popular configuration management systems, Puppet and Chef. You’ll learn how to use both Puppet and Chef to create reproducible Rails application servers. By completing this task using both technologies, you’ll see the strengths and weaknesses of each one.

What You’ll Learn

• The principles and benefits of configuration management.
• The full step-by-step process of creating reproducible Rails application servers, using first Puppet and then Chef.
• Using Puppet modules, nodes, and tools such as Puppet Forge.
• Using Chef cookbooks, roles and environments, as well as tools such as Knife, Berkshelf, and Supermarket.
• The important differences between Puppet and Chef, and how they compare.

About the Instructor

Markus Mühlberger is a software developer from Vienna, Austria. He mostly works on web applications, focusing on Ruby and JavaScript, but occasionally does mobile development on iOS. Find him on Twitter, GitHub, or on his website.