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AWX vs Puppet Labs: What are the differences?
Introduction
In this article, we will compare AWX and Puppet Labs and highlight their key differences in terms of features and functionality.
Installation and Setup: AWX is an open-source tool that can be easily installed on a variety of platforms, providing flexibility for users. On the other hand, Puppet Labs offers a more comprehensive installation process that includes a combination of Puppet Server, Puppet Agent, and PuppetDB.
Configuration Management: AWX specializes in configuring and managing systems using Ansible, a powerful automation tool that allows for easier and faster deployment of configurations. Puppet Labs, on the other hand, provides a more robust and established configuration management framework, enabling users to define, enforce, and manage configurations across multiple systems.
Scalability and Performance: AWX is designed to handle large-scale deployments and can manage a significant number of systems simultaneously. Puppet Labs, on the other hand, excels in scalability and performance, capable of handling complex infrastructures with thousands of nodes efficiently.
Community Support: AWX benefits from a vibrant open-source community, providing access to a vast library of playbooks and modules shared by users. Puppet Labs also has a strong user community, with an extensive collection of pre-built modules and a wealth of community support resources.
Workflow Automation: AWX offers a flexible and customizable workflow engine that allows users to define and automate their workflow processes. Puppet Labs, on the other hand, provides a powerful orchestrator that enables users to automate complex processes, dependencies, and workflows across multiple systems.
User Interface: AWX provides a user-friendly web-based interface that simplifies the management and monitoring of systems, making it easier for non-technical users to interact with the tool. Puppet Labs also offers a web-based interface but with a stronger emphasis on command-line usage, catering to users who prefer more advanced control and flexibility.
In Summary, AWX is an open-source tool focused on Ansible-based configuration management with a user-friendly interface, while Puppet Labs offers a comprehensive configuration management framework with strong scalability and performance capabilities.
I'm just getting started using Vagrant to help automate setting up local VMs to set up a Kubernetes cluster (development and experimentation only). (Yes, I do know about minikube)
I'm looking for a tool to help install software packages, setup users, etc..., on these VMs. I'm also fairly new to Ansible, Chef, and Puppet. What's a good one to start with to learn? I might decide to try all 3 at some point for my own curiosity.
The most important factors for me are simplicity, ease of use, shortest learning curve.
I have been working with Puppet and Ansible. The reason why I prefer ansible is the distribution of it. Ansible is more lightweight and therefore more popular. This leads to situations, where you can get fully packaged applications for ansible (e.g. confluent) supported by the vendor, but only incomplete packages for Puppet.
The only advantage I would see with Puppet if someone wants to use Foreman. This is still better supported with Puppet.
If you are just starting out, might as well learn Kubernetes There's a lot of tools that come with Kube that make it easier to use and most importantly: you become cloud-agnostic. We use Ansible because it's a lot simpler than Chef or Puppet and if you use Docker Compose for your deployments you can re-use them with Kubernetes later when you migrate
Pros of AWX
- Open source1
Pros of Puppet Labs
- Devops52
- Automate it44
- Reusable components26
- Dynamic and idempotent server configuration21
- Great community18
- Very scalable12
- Cloud management12
- Easy to maintain10
- Free tier9
- Works with Amazon EC26
- Declarative4
- Ruby4
- Works with Azure3
- Works with OpenStack3
- Nginx2
- Ease of use1
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Cons of AWX
Cons of Puppet Labs
- Steep learning curve3
- Customs types idempotence1