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Puppet is an open-source configuration management tool that automates the administration of computing infrastructure and software. Developed by Luke Kanies, Puppet was first introduced in 2005, aiming to provide system administrators with a powerful platform for automating repetitive tasks, deploying applications, and managing system configurations across a diverse set of hardware and software environments. Puppet uses a declarative language to describe system configuration, which is compiled into catalogs and applied to target machines, ensuring consistency and reliability in infrastructure management.
The architecture of Puppet is based on a master-agent model, where the Puppet master server compiles and serves configuration catalogs to multiple agent nodes (servers or virtual machines) based on manifest files written by administrators. These manifest files, written in Puppet's declarative language, describe the desired state of resources (such as packages, services, and files) on the system. Puppet ensures that the actual state of the system resources matches the desired state described in the manifests, applying any changes as necessary.
Puppet is a cornerstone in the practice of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), allowing infrastructure management to be treated as if it were software. By using Puppet, system configurations are written in code, version-controlled, and subject to the same review and testing practices as application development. This approach not only automates the provisioning and management of infrastructure but also significantly enhances the speed, safety, and reliability of IT operations.
Puppet offers extensive integration capabilities with other tools and platforms, including version control systems like Git, CI/CD pipelines, cloud services like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and containerization technologies such as Docker. The extensible nature of Puppet through its modules, which are collections of manifests and code that encapsulate specific system configurations, allows users to extend Puppet's functionality and tailor it to fit their specific needs. The Puppet Forge is a repository of thousands of these modules, contributed by the Puppet community, facilitating reuse and sharing of code.
Adoption of Puppet is widespread among organizations implementing DevOps practices, as it enables seamless collaboration between development, operations, and quality assurance teams. By automating the deployment and operation of infrastructure, Puppet helps break down silos between these teams, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and accelerating the delivery of software. Puppet not only automates the provisioning of infrastructure but also ensures compliance and security policies are consistently applied across all environments.
Since its inception, Puppet has continued to evolve, adapting to new technologies and the changing landscape of IT infrastructure management. The active Puppet community plays a vital role in this evolution, contributing modules, tools, and best practices. As cloud computing, containerization, and microservices continue to shape the future of IT, Puppet's commitment to innovation and community collaboration positions it to remain a key player in configuration management and automation, helping organizations navigate the complexities of modern IT environments.
Puppet is a software configuration management tool developed used to manage stages of the IT infrastructure lifecycle.
Puppet uses an open-core model; its free-software version was released under version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPL) until version 2.7.0, and later releases use the Apache License, while Puppet Enterprise uses a proprietary license. Puppet and Puppet Enterprise operate on multiple Unix-like systems (including Linux, Solaris, BSD, Mac OS X, AIX, HP-UX) and has Microsoft Windows support. Puppet itself is written in Ruby. Facter, Puppet’s cross-platform system profiling library, is written in C++. Puppet Server and Puppet DB are written in Clojure.
It is developed by Puppet Inc., which is owned by Perforce, which is owned in turn by private equity firms.
Puppet is written in Ruby. (So is Chef).
From Luke Kanies, Puppet creator:
“I was a sysadmin by trade and had mostly developed in perl, but when I tried to write the prototype I had in mind, I couldn’t get the class relationships I wanted in perl. I tried Python, because this was around 2003 and Python was the next new thing and everyone was saying how great it is, but I just can’t seem to write in Python at all. A friend had said he’d heard Ruby was cool, so I gave it a try, and in four hours I went from never having seen a line of it to having a working prototype. I haven’t looked back since then, and haven’t regretted the choice.” Fair Use Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16727224/why-do-puppet-and-chef-use-ruby
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