Comments on: Puppet works hard to make sure nodes are in compliance http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/ a system administrators mutterings Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:12:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John Arundel http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-1010 John Arundel Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:35:36 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-1010 Puppet vs Chef is a debate which seems to provoke strong reactions (on both sides). Whatever the history betwen the developers, it's the technical merits of each tool which will weigh most with people choosing their configuration management tool. I've written a summary of the respective merits (in my opinion, of course) of Puppet and Chef here: http://bitfieldconsulting.com/puppet-vs-chef Puppet vs Chef is a debate which seems to provoke strong reactions (on both sides). Whatever the history betwen the developers, it’s the technical merits of each tool which will weigh most with people choosing their configuration management tool.

I’ve written a summary of the respective merits (in my opinion, of course) of Puppet and Chef here:

http://bitfieldconsulting.com/puppet-vs-chef

]]> By: Bryan McLellan http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-1003 Bryan McLellan Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:02:56 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-1003 "Before watching it, you should know that Chef was written by a long-time Puppet user who never contributed much back to Puppet, ..." This is not true. I'm not sure what name to place on the course of events that has led anyone to believe this. Whatever would convey it, disappointing is a word I would associate. Theres a telling trail of crumbs here: http://projects.reductivelabs.com/issues/1010 “Before watching it, you should know that Chef was written by a long-time Puppet user who never contributed much back to Puppet, …”

This is not true. I’m not sure what name to place on the course of events that has led anyone to believe this. Whatever would convey it, disappointing is a word I would associate.

Theres a telling trail of crumbs here:
http://projects.reductivelabs.com/issues/1010

]]> By: Chuck Sharp http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-989 Chuck Sharp Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:33:50 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-989 Another simple way to check text file line terminations (what a horrible troubleshooting time-waster) is the file command. Here's how it looks: $ echo -e 'test\ntest\n' > testme $ file testme testme: ASCII text $ unix2dos testme unix2dos: converting file testme to DOS format ... $ file testme testme: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators Another simple way to check text file line terminations (what a horrible troubleshooting time-waster) is the file command. Here’s how it looks:

$ echo -e ‘test\ntest\n’ > testme
$ file testme
testme: ASCII text
$ unix2dos testme
unix2dos: converting file testme to DOS format …
$ file testme
testme: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators

]]> By: Nick Anderson http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-958 Nick Anderson Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:12:38 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-958 Thanks for the comment Mark. You learn something new every day. I had never used od before, it will be a handy tool to add to my collection. If someone wants a short rundown on the tool see this article http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1326 Thanks for the comment Mark.

You learn something new every day. I had never used od before, it will be a handy tool to add to my collection.

If someone wants a short rundown on the tool see this article http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1326

]]> By: Mark Carey http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-957 Mark Carey Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:44:34 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-957 As you've seen there are other things than bad line endings that can happen when using "bad" windows editors on files that will be parsed in various linux daemons. The most notorious I've encountered is where garbage meta characters are added to the first line of a php file. This causes php to fail to parse the file and returns an obscure error. Unfortunately vi/vim does not show the meta chars. This is where a quick check in a tool like od is handy. As you’ve seen there are other things than bad line endings that can happen when using “bad” windows editors on files that will be parsed in various linux daemons. The most notorious I’ve encountered is where garbage meta characters are added to the first line of a php file. This causes php to fail to parse the file and returns an obscure error. Unfortunately vi/vim does not show the meta chars. This is where a quick check in a tool like od is handy.

]]> By: Nick Anderson http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-926 Nick Anderson Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:18:53 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-926 Indeed I am aware that notepad is horrible. I was just surprised because I did not see any ^M characters on any of the lines. Indeed I am aware that notepad is horrible. I was just surprised because I did not see any ^M characters on any of the lines.

]]> By: Zed http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-925 Zed Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:09:11 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-925 FYI, notepad is the worst editor ever (use notepad2, notepad++ or even wordpad). The issue you were seeing is because of notepad's poor handling of end of lines. FYI, notepad is the worst editor ever (use notepad2, notepad++ or even wordpad).

The issue you were seeing is because of notepad’s poor handling of end of lines.

]]> By: Nick Anderson http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-921 Nick Anderson Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:23:26 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-921 Thanks for the link, that sounds interesting. Im all for being able to re-use knowledge and Im sure that learning Chef would help with ruby things in the future but Im more of a python kind of guy. There are definitely some things with puppet that could improve but personally I am not nervous about some old code that was written when Luke was still learning Ruby. Everyone has that, there are deployments that I did in the past that still work well but I cringe at the thought of doing it that way again. I suppose to me its a good sign, the developers skills are improving and they are critiquing their own code. Thanks for the link, that sounds interesting. Im all for being able to re-use knowledge and Im sure that learning Chef would help with ruby things in the future but Im more of a python kind of guy. There are definitely some things with puppet that could improve but personally I am not nervous about some old code that was written when Luke was still learning Ruby. Everyone has that, there are deployments that I did in the past that still work well but I cringe at the thought of doing it that way again. I suppose to me its a good sign, the developers skills are improving and they are critiquing their own code.

]]> By: Justin Ellison http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-920 Justin Ellison Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:42:55 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-920 This webcast was an interesting watch: http://www.ducea.com/2009/06/30/osbridge-configuration-management-panel/. BCFG2, Chef, Puppet, and CFEngine were all present for a panel discussion. Before watching it, you should know that Chef was written by a long-time Puppet user who never contributed much back to Puppet, so there's some "tension" there. At one point, the panel speaker asks, who comprises the majority of your user base? Sysadmins was the answer for Puppet, and Devs was the answer for Chef. One point for Puppet. Google uses Puppet, which is another point for Puppet. However, the author of Puppet talks about how there's code in there that is still around from when he didn't know Ruby so well, which makes me a bit nervous. Looking at some of my perl programs from when I was first learning it makes me shudder. The one thing that I think is a huge positive is that Chef makes you learn a bit of Ruby to do the configuration. Puppet has it's own DSL, but you can't use that knowledge anyplace else except for within Puppet. What you learn about Chef's "language", you can use later for scripts, Rails, whatever. In the end, I think I'll go with Puppet, but I hope that the author has his eyes open and incorporates some of the things that Chef does well into future releases. Good discussion! This webcast was an interesting watch: http://www.ducea.com/2009/06/30/osbridge-configuration-management-panel/. BCFG2, Chef, Puppet, and CFEngine were all present for a panel discussion. Before watching it, you should know that Chef was written by a long-time Puppet user who never contributed much back to Puppet, so there’s some “tension” there.

At one point, the panel speaker asks, who comprises the majority of your user base? Sysadmins was the answer for Puppet, and Devs was the answer for Chef. One point for Puppet. Google uses Puppet, which is another point for Puppet.

However, the author of Puppet talks about how there’s code in there that is still around from when he didn’t know Ruby so well, which makes me a bit nervous. Looking at some of my perl programs from when I was first learning it makes me shudder.

The one thing that I think is a huge positive is that Chef makes you learn a bit of Ruby to do the configuration. Puppet has it’s own DSL, but you can’t use that knowledge anyplace else except for within Puppet. What you learn about Chef’s “language”, you can use later for scripts, Rails, whatever.

In the end, I think I’ll go with Puppet, but I hope that the author has his eyes open and incorporates some of the things that Chef does well into future releases.

Good discussion!

]]> By: Nick Anderson http://www.cmdln.org/2009/07/29/puppet-works-hard-to-make-sure-nodes-are-in-compliance/comment-page-1/#comment-918 Nick Anderson Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:48:18 +0000 http://www.cmdln.org/?p=425#comment-918 Chef looks nice. However for my environment I think the knowledge of requiring ruby knowledge would not go over well. I'm still drawn to bcfg2 but for now I just can't seem to get over the xml based configs. I'd love to see a good writeup on chef though if you have done anything. I have a feeling that Chef would be a better fit where you have more developer types taking care of systems but maybe thats just a mis-conception on my part. Chef looks nice. However for my environment I think the knowledge of requiring ruby knowledge would not go over well. I’m still drawn to bcfg2 but for now I just can’t seem to get over the xml based configs. I’d love to see a good writeup on chef though if you have done anything. I have a feeling that Chef would be a better fit where you have more developer types taking care of systems but maybe thats just a mis-conception on my part.

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