Topic: Configuration Management utilities - which to choose?

[stdevel]

Finding the right configuration management can be a daunting task. The "big four" consist of: Ansible, SaltStack, Puppet and Chef - making it hard for newcomers to make a decision. Every tool has its benefits and drawbacks - that could be explained more details for the listeners. Which tool is the easiest to start with? What scales best? Which has the brightest future?

Agenda proposal

• Motivation
  • Why use configuration management?
  • Typical use cases
• Tool overview and history
  • Ansible
  • SaltStack
  • Puppet
  • Chef
• Paradigms, design and features
  • Push vs. Pull
  • Agent-based vs. agent-less
  • Imperative vs. declarative paradigms
  • Remote Execution
  • Language
  • Content communities
• Additional frontends and tools
  • AWX / Ansible Semaphore
  • ARA
  • SaltGUI / Alcali
• Tips, Do's and Don'ts

Estimated duration: ~120 minutes.