Puppet Enterprise and Open Source Puppet

Open Source Puppet

As the most popular collection of open source projects for defining infrastructure as code and enforcing system configurations, open source Puppet is great for individuals managing a small set of servers. But when you have complex or large infrastructure that’s used and managed by different teams, Puppet Enterprise is the way to go.

Puppet Enterprise

Puppet Enterprise builds on the core open source projects, adding a whole set of powerful capabilities out of the box to automate the delivery and operation of enterprise-scale infrastructure. These include orchestration, reporting and compliance, automating the entire application stack, access control, and scale.

Why Puppet Enterprise?

Built for teams

Puppet Enterprise is built for distributed teams. It provides a standardized way to automate delivery and operation of your software. You get efficiency and traceability across large fleets of servers, plus the ability to safely delegate access across teams, view audit trails, and quickly orchestrate change across tens of thousands of machines.

Enterprise scale

Puppet Enterprise lets you deliver value to your organization quickly. Whether your infrastructure spans hundreds or tens of thousands of nodes, Puppet Enterprise scales easily to give you performance monitoring, resiliency and high availability so you can roll out automation across your entire enterprise with full confidence.

Reporting and compliance

Puppet Enterprise gives you graphical reporting so you can visualize your infrastructure, collaborate, and respond to changes faster. You get real-time visibility into the effects of changes so you can see exactly what’s going on in your infrastructure — and prove to executives and auditors that your organization is operating in compliance.

Full-stack automation

Puppet Enterprise gives you a consistent approach to automation across your entire infrastructure lifecycle, from initial provisioning to system configuration, application deployment, and intelligent change orchestration.

Enterprise support

Deliver business value to your organization faster with 24/7 help when you need it. You’ll get a private support portal with email and phone support; immediate access to all product updates; an account manager to help you find what you need; free Puppet training; and prioritization of your bug reports and feature requests.

“

The more we use Puppet Enterprise, the more we find we can do with it. Every new upgrade of Puppet proves to be more innovative, and brings exciting features that we want.

— Pope Davis, senior director of systems engineering at NYSE/ICE

Configuration automation

Define and continually enforce infrastructure configurations.

	Open Source Puppet	Puppet Enterprise
Puppet language	✔	✔
Puppet server	✔	✔
PuppetDB	✔	✔
Unified agent	✔	✔
Web UI		✔
Enterprise-only platforms (AIX, F5)		✔
Guided, out-of-the-box installation		✔
Single installation upgrade for all required components		✔
Supported modules		✔
Enterprise-class integrations		✔

*PuppetDB is fully managed and turnkey out of the box with Puppet Enterprise. Automatically configures and upgrades with Puppet Enterprise.

**Integrations like Slack, ServiceNow, Splunk, DataDog (see list here) are included in Puppet Enterprise and ready to use.

Orchestration

Directly control and view change across distributed apps and global infrastructure.

	Open Source Puppet	Puppet Enterprise
Language extensions	✔	✔
Visualize job execution with status updates like running, failed, and in progress, access to shareable output reports		✔
Offer self-service actions for specific job executions with RBAC for full control		✔
Remote access with full control and API-driven command line interface & tooling		✔
Real-time feedback & visibility into managed IT estate		✔

Automated provisioning

Automate Day One provisioning across your infrastructure.

	Open Source Puppet	Puppet Enterprise
Bare metal	✔	✔
Cloud (AWS, Azure, OpenStack)	✔	✔
Containers (Docker)	✔	✔
Virtual machines		✔
Built-in, supported, upgradeable capabilities		✔

Reporting & compliance

Gain real-time visibility into the state of your infrastructure and changes taking place.

	Open Source Puppet	Puppet Enterprise
View corrective vs. intentional changes		✔
Inspect unmanaged software packages		✔
Event inspection		✔
Consolidated reporting from multiple Puppet servers with key success metrics		✔

Code Management

Manage infrastructure as code across everything for continuous delivery.

	Open Source Puppet	Puppet Enterprise
Community tools for code management (r10k)	✔	✔
Integration with Git	✔	✔
Visual rules-based node classifier		✔
Web UI for node classification		✔
Inventory filtering		✔
Simultaneously sync code base across multiple Puppet servers		✔

Node Management

Classify and manage the lifecycle of your nodes.

	Open Source Puppet	Puppet Enterprise
Command line interface	✔	✔
Supported out-of-the-box workflows		✔

Role-based access control

Assign permissions to teams in line with company and regulatory policies.

	Open Source Puppet	Puppet Enterprise
Role-based access control		✔
Control data access per user/group		✔
Token-based authentication & revocation		✔
Integration with Active Directory, LDAP, and SAML		✔

Enterprise Support

Get 24/7 help when you need it, a private support portal with email and phone support, access to all product updates, an account manager, free training, and prioritized bug reports and feature requests. See our support packages.

	Open Source Puppet	Puppet Enterprise
Community support	✔	✔
Enterprise support		✔
Professional services		✔
Virtual and in-person training		✔