lens

Well while working in software industry I have had experiences with PUPPET. This is not something we relate to usually when we say "PUPPET". PUPPET is basically a software that has been tailored to perform server automation works. However there are a lot of activities we can carry out using Puppet like provisioning, patching, server management and most importantly system automation works. People in the industry have heard the name of this tool & might have even used it but I doubt whether academicians have even heard the name. I think in India when it comes to practical skills in engineering and technology majority of the academicians associated with teaching and research are way behind. The people working in industry have much more practical skills and knowledge. Well instead of going into this debate of INDUSTRY Vs ACADEMIA let me throw some light into this tool called PUPPET.

Puppet was principally developed by Luke Kanies and his company, Puppet Labs (formerly Reductive Labs). Kanies has been involved with Unix and systems administration since 1997 and developed Puppet from that experience. Unsatisfied with existing configuration management tools, Kanies began working with tool development in 2001 and in 2005 he founded Puppet Labs, an open source development house focused on automation tools. Shortly after this, Puppet Labs released their flagship product, Puppet. Puppet can be used to manage configuration on UNIX (including OSX) and Linux platforms, and recently Microsoft Windows platforms as well. Puppet is often used to manage a host throughout its lifecycle: from initial build and installation, to upgrades, maintenance, and finally to end-of-life, when you move services elsewhere. Puppet is designed to continuously interact with your hosts, unlike provisioning tools which build your hosts and leave them unmanaged. Puppet has a simple operating model that is easy to understand and implement. Puppet is a Ruby-based, licensed as GPLv2 and can run in either client-server or stand-alone modes.

To be very honest I have not been paid to advertise about it. The reason why I am blogging about this tool is that I have found it very powerful, light weight and most importantly easy to learn and use. Puppet has a free version as well as an enterprise version as well.

Puppet can be downloaded from this link
https://puppetlabs.com/

There are also several online communities and forums of Puppet users. Puppetlabs organizes conference every year. These conferences have huge audiences and they grab huge attention from technical communities. The conferences are very useful from technological perspective as well as business perspective.