Tag: Chef

What is Chef?

Chef is an open-source configuration management DevOps tool used for configuration and management of multiple systems in infrastructure. Using Chef, we can use so-called recipes and cookbooks to automate and speed up managing multiple systems in our environment. By using Chef, we can adjust every system in our environment to our desired state, which we defined using the code in recipes. In the process, code is continuously tested and deployed using Chef.

By mfitzgerald

What is Jenkins?

Jenkins is an open-source software written in Java and Scala. This software allows users the ability to automate almost any task and, it saves significant time that can be better utilized addressing other issues. When automating tasks with Jenkins, users can optimize their workflow by quickly automating the jobs that servers cannot do themselves. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Jenkins on CentOS 8. We will also explore what its purpose is and share several benefits that Jenkins offers. We will then configure it to run on our CentOS 8 server.

Ansible is an open-source tool that uses playbooks to enable configuration management, software provisioning, and application deployment. It is primarily written in Python and was released in 2012. Ever since then, it has saved countless hours of often menial work of deploying and maintaining IT infrastructure. Overall, Ansible is very consistent, secure, reliable, and it requires a minimal learning curve. Simply put, Ansible is a powerful tool for automating apps and infrastructure. You can read more about general Ansible information in our recently published article.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a set of various tools, practices, and ideals that combine software development (Dev) and IT Operations (Ops) into a single unifying force. It allows for better collaboration between developers, operations teams, system administrators, and system engineers. Their streamlined goal is to continually provide a high-value software product to the customer at high speed while monitoring and improving the overall process than using traditional software and infrastructure management. 

Introduction

In this article, we will be reviewing the Chef software, how it works, and why it is useful. We will also explore how it is helpful in DevOps. And then, we will install Chef on Ubuntu 18.04. 

Configuration management is the process by which a company or organization defines and tracks the state of its infrastructural resources. Encapsulated in those resources are both physical hardware and software. It is a means to ensure that when changes are made to a system, those changes are tracked, geared toward the ultimate predefined criteria of what state should be.

What is Puppet?

Puppet is a cross-platform client-server based application used for configuration management. It handles the software and its configurations on multiple servers. There are two versions available. One is open-source, the other is a commercial version. It works on both Linux and Windows platforms. It uses a declarative approach to automate updates, installations, and other tasks. This feature allows the software to configure those systems using files called manifests. A manifest contains the instructions for a group or type of server(s) being controlled. 

Introduction

Ansible is a system of configuration management written in Python programming language which uses a declarative markup language to describe configurations. It’s used for automation of configuration and OS setup. Ansible is often used to manage Linux-nodes, but Windows is also supported. It supports work with devices with Python v2.4 and higher installed through SSH connection. In this article, we are going to review the DevOps tool called Ansible.