So that you’ve completed your analysis and settled on Puppet as your configuration administration (CM) and automation instrument of selection. But it surely is available in 2 flavors: a industrial enterprise product and a free open-source model. Can free beat payment on this case? Let’s dig into the small print to assist inform your choice.
Open Supply ≠ Free
First, a be aware concerning open supply software program: most, if not all CM instruments available on the market are open supply. Their supply code is overtly modifiable and redistributable, giving organizations the flexibleness to switch the software program to suit distinctive necessities. So whereas open supply equates to software program freedom, it doesn’t essentially imply freed from value. Usually, core performance comes normal—with different premium options out there for buy (e.g., freemium). Finally it comes right down to how the seller chooses to strategically bundle up its resolution. Take Open Supply Puppet’s arch nemesis/counterpart Open Supply Chef as a consultant instance.
“Wait…” you ask. “Chef has a free open source version of its product?”
It does, in actual fact—although it won’t be readily obvious or known as such. Based on Chef, it doesn’t market an open supply model of their resolution, since “there is only one completely free, fully Open Source, Chef Server.” Honest sufficient, although options just like the administration console and replication options can be found at a premium solely (or severely restricted). Equally, Puppet Enterprise comes with further options and official assist from Puppet Labs that’s absent within the free, open supply model.
The Puppet Platform
Puppet was written in Ruby and makes use of a declarative Ruby-like Area-Particular Language (DSL) in its command-line atmosphere (pure Ruby assist has since been discontinued). It makes use of an idempotent master-agent mannequin consisting of a central controlling server known as—appropriately sufficient—the Puppet Grasp, and a fleet of agent-controlled nodes.
Idempotence is a vital precept when discussing CM instruments: it means you possibly can safely run Puppet a number of instances and it’ll solely make any modifications to the system if the system state doesn’t match the configured state. One other vital idea to grasp is that the Puppet DSL (Area Particular Language) is declarative: Which means that you solely want to explain the specified finish state(s) of the system and Puppet kinds out the steps wanted to get there. Not like an crucial language, you don’t have to determine all of the steps required to attain the specified finish state. Puppet helps all main working programs – Linux, *nix, Home windows, and MacOS. That is undoubtedly a serious driver for its widespread adoption, as many competing options are solely out there on *nix platforms.
Open Supply Puppet
Open supply Puppet is free to be used and open to modification and customization. You get a complete instrument with core CM capabilities and performance out-of-the-box, and—when you possess the ability set— may be tweaked and improved upon immediately via modifying its supply code immediately. You get entry to an enormous assortment of modules: reusable, sharable items of code that may in flip be used to increase Puppet throughout your infrastructure by automating duties akin to establishing a database, internet server, or mail server, amongst others. So for example, in case you are automating the provisioning and deployment of a brand new Apache internet server, there’s no want to put in writing your individual set of Puppet instructions from scratch – merely head over to the PuppetForge module repository and obtain no matter you want from the three,500+ module library.
As a mature industry-proven know-how, Puppet enjoys a sizeable and lively consumer neighborhood, a plethora of free wonderful documentation, and different associated on-line sources akin to wikis and mailing lists. Nonetheless, Open Supply Puppet lacks the nifty administration GUI out there within the Enterprise providing—extensively thought to be the most effective in its class. Granted, the CLI can nonetheless do every thing the GUI can, however the latter does make life a lot simpler—particularly for newbies making an attempt to be taught the system. Seasoned ops workers wanting a fast, visible option to implement and monitor deployments for giant setups additionally respect the centralized GUI dashboard. In truth, many select to implement Foreman as a reliable, free GUI to interface with Puppet. We’ve coated Foreman in-depth beforehand, so be sure you take a look at our tackle the favored orchestration platform. Given the above, Open Supply Puppet is predominantly utilized in smaller infrastructures and deployments.
For extra data concerning Foreman, take a look at our Foreman vs. SaltStack comparability.
Puppet Enterprise
Contemplating you get core Puppet performance at no cost within the open supply model, why on earth would you go for the Enterprise model? There are all the time trade-offs once you select to construct versus purchase. Many enterprises begin with the open supply model solely to understand they don’t have the time or sources to keep up the deployment, or they want further capabilities which they need to construct and keep themselves.
The next are a few of the extra standard causes giant organizations select Puppet Enterprise:
Packaging – Puppet Enterprise contains over 40+ open supply tasks (MCollective, Facter, Hiera, and so on.) in an easy installer. This protects groups treasured time in packaging and managing dependencies for his or her Puppet deployments.Out-of-the-box Scalability – Puppet Enterprise is steady, examined and hardened and features a multi-master installer for giant deployments.Person Interface – an intuitive, visible atmosphere containing an in depth assortment of extremely helpful options—dashboards for simple monitoring, superior reporting capabilities, alerting capabilities, a unified installer, and the power to deploy brokers with just some mouse clicks. And once more, the GUI is a way more helpful interface for each newbies wishing to be taught Puppet and busy ops people trying to keep away from typing out repetitive instructions.Puppet Apps: a. Puppet Node Supervisor – A rules-based node classifier that teams nodes based mostly on key traits, akin to working system, graphic location and enterprise unit. b. Puppet Code Supervisor – Leverages r10k know-how to deploy infrastructure modifications in a testable and programmatic means. Mixed with Jenkins and Puppet Labs’ Beaker for acceptance testing, you possibly can apply steady supply practices to your infrastructure code. c. Puppet Configuration Supervisor – Achieve perception into relationships of node configurations to make sure dependable deployments. You may visualize and simply map relationships throughout the sources on a node for troubleshooting functions.Enterprise-only Capabilities a. RBAC – Essential for giant, distributed groups, RBAC permits you to safely delegate duties to people and teams. Puppet Enterprise integrates immediately with listing companies akin to Lively Listing and Open LDAP. Learn our full information on role-based entry management right here. b. Reporting – Puppet Server Reporting collects all kinds of metrics about your Puppet Server well being and efficiency together with lively requests, request period, execution instances and compilation load. c. Occasion Inspection – Digests hundreds upon hundreds of piece of knowledge generated by Puppet Enterprise and visualizes modifications by nodes, lessons and sources so precisely what modified, the place and the waySupported Modules: Enterprise clients can name assist once they need assistance with any one of many Puppet Supported modules. Supported modules embrace essential companies akin to Apache, MySQL, NTP, F5, Home windows Registry, Docker, AWS, and extra. Some modules, such because the SQL Server and VMware vSphere modules can be found just for Puppet Enterprise.Automated Provisioning: Help for automated provisioning of containers, cloud, VMs and naked metallic.Official Puppet Labs Help: Enterprises generally shrink back from open supply choices due to perceived lack of official company sponsorship and assist. For mid-sized and enormous company shoppers with a whole bunch or hundreds of nodes to handle, the peace of thoughts that comes with vendor-supported software program is indispensable. Product upgrades, upkeep, and coaching come out-of-the-box with Puppet Enterprise, with assist choices out there in each Normal (9am-5pm, 5 days per week) or Premium (24x7x365) codecs.Entry to Skilled Companies: Skilled Companies might help you with deployment of Puppet Enterprise, upgrades, customization and training. Additionally, a Puppet Labs’ Skilled Companies marketing consultant can consider your Open Supply Puppet infrastructure and supply finest apply suggestions to assist migrate to Puppet Enterprise.
In fact, the draw back to all these advantages is that it’ll value you. Puppet Enterprise is tiered based mostly on variety of managed nodes and the assist plan chosen. Pricing ranges from $112 per node/12 months with a normal assist plan to $199 per node/12 months with the premium plan. For comparability’s sake, a normal subscription for 100 digital nodes of Pink Hat Enterprise Linux Server could be $39,950 per 12 months. Extra particulars on pricing is offered on Puppet Lab’s pricing web page.
Abstract
On this case, free beats payment provided that Puppet Enterprise’s further options and advantages listed above don’t apply to your use case. Smaller, developer-centric setups and “one-off” tasks are finest suited to Open Supply Puppet, however require better technical proficiency to efficiently handle. And although it lacks a reliable GUI, Open Supply Puppet may be augmented with free instruments like Foreman for simple, visible administration of nodes and sources. However, enterprises who want enterprise-grade assist and administration capabilities would little question be higher served by Puppet Enterprise’s time-saving GUI, out-of-the-box scalability, completely examined releases, and strong purposes and options. amongst others.
*particular due to Puppet Labs for the in-depth product data and updates/clarification concerning the data on this article.
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