Puppet types are used to manage individual configuration items. Puppet has a package type, a service type, a user type, etc. Each type has providers. Each provider handles the management of that configuration on a different platform or tool, for example the package type has aptitude, yum, RPM, and DMG providers (amongst 22 others - what is wrong with people that they need to invent new packaging systems… but I digress).

You wanted “release early, release often” and the Puppet team has delivered! The 0.25.4 release is a maintenance release (with one important feature - pre/post transaction hooks - discussed below) in the 0.25.x branch. The release primarily addresses a regression introduced in 0.25.3 that caused issues with creating cron jobs. The release is available at: http://reductivelabs.com/downloads/puppet/puppet-0.25.4.tar.gz http://reductivelabs.com/downloads/gems/puppet-0.25.4.gem http://gemcutter.org/gems/puppet Please note that all final releases of Puppet are signed with the Reductive Labs key - http://reductivelabs.

In my first post I introduced you to the Toyota Production System and the Kanban signalling system. At the core of the TPS is the concept of maintaining efficiency and eliminating waste. To govern this processes the TPS has a series of basic principles that articulate how this is achieved: Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface Use the “pull” system to avoid overproduction Level out or smooth the workload AKA “Heijunka” - be the tortoise not the hare Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right from the first Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment Use visual control so no problems are hidden Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes.

This morning I came across a post entitled Puppet versus Chef: 10 reasons why Puppet wins. The post attempts to explain the differences between Chef and Puppet and why Puppet is superior. The post wasn’t great IMHO, personally I thought it was fairly poorly reasoned and made some, potentially accurate, but throughly unsubstantiated claims. Leaving aside the issues with the post itself though, it did prompt an interesting comment thread, particularly comments between Opcode’s CTO Adam Jacob and Reductive Lab’s Teyo Tyree (links are to the respective comments - Adam’s and Teyo’s reply).

Puppet 0.25.3 - code-named “Clifford” The 0.25.3 release is a maintenance release in the 0.25.x branch. The release addresses a regression introduced in 0.25.2 that caused issues with command execution. The release is available at: http://reductivelabs.com/downloads/puppet/puppet-0.25.3.tar.gz http://reductivelabs.com/downloads/puppet/puppet-0.25.3.gem http://gemcutter.org/gems/puppet Please note that all final releases of Puppet are signed with the Reductive Labs key. http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/DownloadingPuppet#verifying-puppet- downloads Please report feedback via the Reductive Labs Redmine site: http://projects.reductivelabs.com Please select an affected version of 0.