Comparison of open-source configuration management software

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This is a comparison of notable free and open-source configuration management software, suitable for tasks like server configuration, orchestration and infrastructure as code typically performed by a system administrator.

Basic properties

"Verify mode" (also called dry run) refers to having an ability to determine whether a node is conformant with a guarantee of not modifying it, and typically involves the exclusive use of an internal language supporting read-only mode for all potentially system-modifying operations. Mutual authentication (mutual auth) refers to the client verifying the server and vice versa.

Agent describes whether additional software daemons are required. Depending on the management software these agents are usually deployed on the target system or on one or many central controller servers. Although Agent-less = No is colored red and might seem to be a negative, instead, having an agent can be considered quite advantageous to many. Consider the impact if an agent-less tool loses connectivity to a node while making critical changes—leaving the node in an indeterminate state that compromises its (production?) function.

Language License Mutual auth. Encryption Verify mode Agent-less Incl. GUI First release Latest stable release
Template:Rh | Ansible Python GPLv3+ YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn Yes Yes Yes[1] 2012-03-08 2025-03-25 2.18.4[2]
Template:Rh | Bcfg2 Python BSD 2-clause[3] YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn No Yes[4] 2004-08-11[5] 2015-06-11 1.3.6[5]
Template:Rh | Capistrano Ruby MIT YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn No 2005 2022-08-07 3.17.1
Template:Rh | cdist Python GPLv3+ YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn Yes 2010 2021-08-24 6.9.8[6]
Template:Rh | Chef Ruby, Erlang Apache 2.0 YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn[7] No Yes 2009-01-15 0.5.0 2023-01-05 18.1.0 (client),[8] 15.4.0 (server)[9]
Template:Rh | CFEngine C[10] GPLv3[11] YesTemplate:Efn Yes[12] Yes[13][14][15][16] No Yes[17] 1993

2025-01-07 3.26.0,[18] 2025-05-13 3.24.2,[19] 2025-05-13 3.21.7[20]

Template:Rh | Consfigurator Scheme (SBCL) GPLv3+[21] YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn No 2024-07-26 1.4.2[22]
Template:Rh | Guix Scheme (Guile)[23][24] GPLv3+[25] YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn No No[26] 2022-12-19 1.4.0
Template:Rh | ISconf Python GPL[27] YesTemplate:Efn No[28] 1998 2006-08-13 4.2.8.233
Template:Rh | Juju Python, Go[29] AGPL YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn No No Yes[30] 2010-09-17[31] 2025-06-09 3.6.7[32]
Template:Rh | Local ConFiGuration system (LCFG) Perl GPL Partial[33] Partial[34] No No No 1994 Weekly Releases
Template:Rh | NOC Project Python BSD 2.0 YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn Yes Yes Yes 2012-03-08 2015-05-20 15.05.1[35]
Template:Rh | OCS Inventory NG with GLPI Perl, PHP, C++ GPL No[36] YesTemplate:Efn No 2003 2014-07-13[37]
Template:Rh | Open pc server integration (Opsi) Python, Java GPL No YesTemplate:Efn No 2004 2013-03-01 4.0.3
Template:Rh | PIKT C GPLv2+[38] Yes[39] Yes[40] No 1998[41] 2007-09-10 1.19.0
Template:Rh | Puppet Ruby, C++ & Clojure (server-side also Ruby before 4.0[42]) Apache since 2.7.0, GPL before then YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn[43] No Yes[44] 2005-08-30[45] 2024-04 8.6.0, 7.30.0 (client),[46] 2024-04 8.6.0, 7.17.0 (server)[47]
Template:Rh | Pyinfra Python MIT License Yes Yes Yes Yes 2016-08-10 0.1[48] 2025-01-30 3.2[49]
Template:Rh | Quattor Perl, Python Apache 2.0[50][51] Yes[52] Yes[53] Partial[54] No 2005-04-01[55] 2024-11-22 24.10.0[56]
Template:Rh | Radmind C BSD[57] Yes[58] Yes[59] No 2002-03-26[60] 2008-10-08 1.13.0[61]
Template:Rh | Rex Perl Apache YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn Yes 2010-11-05 0.9.0[62] 2021-07-05 1.13.4[63]
Template:Rh | Rudder C, Scala, Rust GPLv3, Apache 2.0[64] YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn[65] No Yes 2011-10-31 2023-07-21 7.3.4 [66]
Template:Rh | SmartFrog Java Apache 2.0[67] Yes[68] Yes[68] No 2004-02-11 2012-03-13 3.18.016[69]
Template:Rh | Salt[70] Python[71] Apache 2.0[72] Yes[73] Yes[73] Yes Both[74][75] Yes[76][77] 2011-03-17 0.6.0[78] 2023-05-05 v3006.1[79]
Template:Rh | Spacewalk Java (C, Perl, Python, PL/SQL) GPLv2 Yes Yes No 2008-06[80] 2019-01-14 2.9[81]
Template:Rh | STAF C++ CPL[82] NoTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn Partial[83] No 1998-02-16[84] 2012-12-16 3.4.16 [85]
Template:Rh | Synctool[86] Python[87] GPLv2[88] YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn Yes[89] 2003[90] 2019-08-11 6.3[91]
Template:Rh | Uyuni Java, Python, PL/SQL (Perl) GPLv2, Apache 2.0 Yes Yes Yes Both Yes 2018-06[92] 2024-01-31-01 2024.01[93]
Language License Mutual auth Encrypts Verify mode Agent-less Have a GUI First release Latest stable release

Platform support

Note: This means platforms on which a recent version of the tool has actually been used successfully, not platforms where it should theoretically work since it is written in good portable C/C++ or an interpreted language. It should also be listed as a supported platform on the project's web site.

AIX *BSD HP-UX Linux OS X Solaris Windows Others
Template:Rh | Ansible Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Template:Efn Yes[94]
Template:Rh | Bcfg2 PartialTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn No YesTemplate:Efn PartialTemplate:Efn Yes No No
Template:Rh | CFEngine Yes YesTemplate:Efn Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (enterprise version only) YesTemplate:Efn
Template:Rh | cdist Yes Yes Yes No
Template:Rh | Chef Yes[95] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[96] Yes
Template:Rh | Consfigurator Partial[97] Yes[97] No[97]
Template:Rh | Guix No No No PartialTemplate:Efn No No No PartialTemplate:Efn
Template:Rh | ISconf Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Template:Rh | Juju Yes Yes[98]
Template:Rh | Local ConFiGuration system (LCFG) No No No PartialTemplate:Efn PartialTemplate:Efn PartialTemplate:Efn No No
Template:Rh | OCS Inventory NG Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Template:Rh | Open pc server integration (Opsi) No No No Yes No No Yes No
Template:Rh | PIKT Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No YesTemplate:Efn
Template:Rh | Puppet Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[99] Yes
Template:Rh | Pyinfra Yes Yes Yes Partial[100]
Template:Rh | Quattor No No No Yes Partial[101] Yes No No
Template:Rh | Radmind Yes YesTemplate:EfnTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Template:Rh | Rex Yes Yes Yes[102] Yes Yes[102] No
Template:Rh | Rudder Yes PartialTemplate:Efn No Yes PartialTemplate:Efn Partial[103] Yes YesTemplate:Efn
Template:Rh | SmartFrog NoTemplate:Efn NoTemplate:Efn Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes NoTemplate:Efn
Template:Rh | Salt Yes Yes PartialTemplate:Efn Yes[104] Yes Yes[105] Yes PartialTemplate:Efn
Template:Rh | Spacewalk No[106] No No Yes[107] No No[108] No No
Template:Rh | STAF YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn Yes[109] YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn YesTemplate:Efn
Template:Rh | Synctool Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No YesTemplate:Efn
Template:Rh | Uyuni No No No PartialTemplate:Efn No No No No
AIX *BSD HP-UX Linux OS X Solaris Windows Others

Short descriptions

Not all tools have the same goal and the same feature set. To help distinguish between all of these software packages, here is a short description of each one.

Ansible
Combines multi-node deployment, ad-hoc task execution, and configuration management in one package. Manages nodes over SSH and requires python (2.6+ or 3.5+) to be installed on them.[110] Modules work over JSON and standard output and can be written in any language. Uses YAML to express reusable descriptions of systems.
Bcfg2
Software to manage the configuration of a large number of computers using a central configuration model and the client–server paradigm. The system enables reconciliation between clients' state and the central configuration specification. Detailed reports provide a way to identify unmanaged configuration on hosts. Generators enable code or template-based generation of configuration files from a central data repository.
CFEngine
Lightweight agent system. Manages configuration of a large number of computers using the client–server paradigm or stand-alone. Any client state which is different from the policy description is reverted to the desired state. Configuration state is specified via a declarative language.[111] CFEngine's paradigm is convergent "computer immunology".[112]
cdist
cdist is a zero dependency configuration management system: It requires only ssh on the target host, which is usually enabled on all Unix-like machines. Only the administration host needs to have Python 3.2 installed.
Chef
Chef is a configuration management tool written in Erlang,[113] and uses a pure Ruby DSL for writing configuration "recipes". These recipes contain resources that should be put into the declared state. Chef can be used as a client–server tool, or used in "solo" mode.[114]
Consfigurator
While Debian and derivatives are the best supported distributions, Consfigurator also work on other distributions and various unixes but they have less support for properties for configuring specific aspects of the system. Consfigurator can set properties to be applied in scheme. This requires Consfigurator to be installed on the target computer. A more restricted language is also available which works without needing Consfigurator to be installed on the target. Remote configuration is also supported: the of hosts can be defined with scheme code.
Guix
Guix integrates many things in the same tool (a distribution, package manager, configuration management tool, container environment, etc). To remotely manage systems, it needs the target machines to already run Guix[115] or it can also alternatively deploy configurations inside Digital Ocean Droplet.[116] The machines are configured with Scheme.
ISconf
Tool to execute commands and replicate files on all nodes. The nodes do not need to be up; the commands will be executed when they boot. The system has no central server so commands can be launched from any node and they will replicate to all nodes.
Juju
Juju concentrates on the notion of service, abstracting the notion of machine or server, and defines relations between those services that are automatically updated when two linked services observe a notable modification.
Local Configuration system (LCFG)
LCFG manages the configuration with a central description language in XML, specifying resources, aspects and profiles. Configuration is deployed using the client–server paradigm. Appropriate scripts on clients (called components) transcribe the resources into configuration files and restart services as needed.
Open PC server integration (Opsi)
Opsi is desktop management software for Windows clients based on Linux servers. It provides automatic software deployment (distribution), unattended installation of OS, patch management, hard- and software inventory, license management and software asset management, and administrative tasks for the configuration management.[117]
PIKT
PIKT is foremost a monitoring system that also does configuration management. "PIKT consists of a sophisticated, feature-rich file preprocessor; an innovative scripting language with unique labor-saving features; a flexible, centrally directed process scheduler; a customizing file installer; a collection of powerful command-line extensions; and other useful tools."
Puppet
Puppet consists of a custom declarative language to describe system configuration, distributed using the client–server paradigm (using XML-RPC protocol in older versions, with a recent switch to REST), and a library to realize the configuration. The resource abstraction layer enables administrators to describe the configuration in high-level terms, such as users, services and packages. Puppet will then ensure the server's state matches the description. There was brief support in Puppet for using a pure Ruby DSL as an alternative configuration language starting at version 2.6.0. However this feature was deprecated beginning with version 3.1.[111][114][118][119]
Pyinfra
Pyinfra is an agentless server configuration management tool created in Python. Its execution speed is up to 10 times faster than Ansible.[120] Pyinfra is also excellent for system integration, as it can control SSH connections, Docker, Terraform, Ansible, etc. using a mechanism called a connector. Pyinfra can be run ad hoc or through the API.[121]
Quattor
The quattor information model is based on the distinction between the desired state and the actual state. The desired state is registered in a fabric-wide configuration database, using a specially designed configuration language called Pan for expressing and validating configurations, composed out of reusable hierarchical building blocks called templates. Configurations are propagated to and cached on the managed nodes.
Radmind
Radmind manages hosts configuration at the file system level. In a similar way to Tripwire (and other configuration management tools), it can detect external changes to managed configuration, and can optionally reverse the changes. Radmind does not have higher-level configuration element (services, packages) abstraction. A graphical interface is available (only) for OS X.
Rex
Rex is a remote execution system with integrated configuration management and software deployment capabilities. The admin provides configuration instructions via so-called Rexfiles. They are written in a small DSL but can also contain arbitrary Perl. It integrates well with an automated build system used in CI environments.
Salt
Salt started out as a tool for remote server management. As its usage has grown, it has gained a number of extended features, including a more comprehensive mechanism for host configuration. This is a relatively new feature facilitated through the Salt States component. With the traction that Salt has gotten in the last bit, the support for more features and platforms might continue to grow.
SmartFrog
Java-based tool to deploy and configure applications distributed across multiple machines. There is no central server; you can deploy a .SF configuration file to any node and have it distributed to peer nodes according to the distribution information contained inside the deployment descriptor itself.
Spacewalk
Spacewalk is an open source Linux and Solaris systems management service and is the upstream project for the source of Red Hat Network Satellite. Spacewalk works with RHEL, Fedora, and other RHEL derivative distributions like CentOS, Scientific Linux, etc. There are ongoing efforts on getting it packaged for inclusion in Fedora. Spacewalk provides systems inventory (hardware and software information, installation and updates of software, collection and distribution of custom software packages into manageable groups, provision systems, management and deployment of configuration files, system monitoring, virtual guest provisioning, starting/stopping/configuring virtual guests and delegating all of these actions to local or LDAP users and system entitlements). As of May 2020, Spacewalk is now EOL with users having moved to either Uyuni or Foreman/Katello.
STAF
The Software Testing Automation Framework (STAF) enables users to create cross-platform, distributed software test environments. STAF removes the tedium of building an automation infrastructure, thus enabling users to focus on building their automation service. The STAF framework provides the foundation upon which to build higher-level products, and provides a pluggable approach supported across a large variety of platforms and languages.
Synctool
Synctool aims to be easy to understand, learn and use. It is written in Python and makes use of SSH (passwordless, with host-based or key-based authentication) and rsync. No specific language is needed to configure Synctool. Synctool has dry run capabilities that enable surgical precision. Synctool depends on Python2 which is now EOL and there are no current plans to migrate it to Python3.

See also

Notes

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References

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  21. https://spwhitton.name/tech/code/consfigurator/
  22. https://github.com/spwhitton/consfigurator/tags
  23. https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/en/guix.html#System-Configuration
  24. https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/en/guix.html#Invoking-guix-deploy
  25. https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu.scm?h=v1.4.0#n8
  26. It requires the guix daemon on the target Guix system.
  27. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  28. Improved security which would include an encrypted, mutually authenticated, peer-to-peer message bus is tracked here Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  33. LCFG does not provide its own transport mechanism; it relies on an external program, most often Apache. Using Apache it should be possible to do mutual authentication in several ways; however the documentation at The Complete Guide to LCFG, Section 9.4: Authorization and Security, shows access control based on IP address ranges, implying that the client does not authenticate itself to the server via an SSL certificate; it also does not mention if the LCFG client checks the validity of the server's SSL certificate (such as via a per-site fingerprint distributed with the client, or a chain of trust to an accredited CA). It mentions that there can be a per-client password in the profile, but also states that "The contents of the LCFG profile should be considered public".
  34. LCFG supports encrypted communications channels (SSL via Apache); however the documentation at The Complete Guide to LCFG, Section 9.4: Authorization and Security, states that "The contents of the LCFG profile should be considered public".
  35. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  36. Server authenticates to client, but client does not authenticate to server. See OCS Inventory NG Installation and Administration guide, page 114.
  37. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  39. PIKT uses shared secret keys for mutual authentication. "As an option, you can use secret key authentication to prove the master's identity to the slave. [...] If one managed to crack any system in the PIKT domain, one would have access to all common secrets. To solve this problem, you may use per-slave uid, gid, and private_key settings." - from Security Considerations.
  40. "For file installs, file fetches (to diff against the central configuration), and command executions, you can optionally encrypt all such data traffic between master and slave." - from Security Considerations.
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  52. "Client to server authentication and vice versa: on one hand, this allows to enforce access policies to sensitive data according to the client "name", on the other hand, clients are guaranteed to talk to the original server." - from Quattor Installation and User Guide: Version 1.1.x Template:Webarchive, page 70
  53. "[...] secure information transfer, since data are encrypted: this prevents eavesdroppers from obtaining information in transit over the network." - from Quattor Installation and User Guide: Version 1.1.x Template:Webarchive, page 70
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  58. "SSL certificates can also be used to authenticate both the Radmind server and the managed clients, regardless of DNS or IP-address variation." - from Radmind: The Integration of Filesystem Integrity Checking with Filesystem Management
  59. "For network security, Radmind supports SSL-encrypted links. This allows nodes on insecure networks to be updated securely." - from Radmind: The Integration of Filesystem Integrity Checking with Filesystem Management
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  68. a b See Using the new SmartFrog Security
  69. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  70. Salt is an open source tool to manage your infrastructure. Easy enough to get running in minutes and fast enough to manage tens of thousands of servers
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  83. There is a feature request for a Secure TCP/IP Connection Provider, and one of the developers stated on 2007-04-05 that "You will need to download the source code for OpenSSL and point the build files at it. Other than that, it should just work.", so it looks like there may be working encryption if you build from scratch instead of using the prebuilt binaries. It is unclear what if any authentication building against OpenSSL would give STAF.
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  86. Synctool aims to be easy to understand and use. It is built in Python and uses SSH and Rsync.
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  94. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Can manage any machine with Python 2.4 or later and sshd. Control machine can be any non-Windows machine with Python 2.6 or 2.7 installed. This includes Red Hat, Debian, CentOS, OS X, any of the BSDs, and so on.
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  97. a b c https://spwhitton.name/doc/consfigurator/introduction.html#portability-and-stability
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  105. Salt was added to the OpenCSW package repository in September of 2012 in version 0.10.2 of Salt
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  115. https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/en/guix.html#index-machine_002dssh_002dconfiguration
  116. https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/en/guix.html#index-digital_002docean_002dconfiguration
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