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I'm looking for a tool that will help me to define some configuration for example in JSON file or something containing what to install and how to setup the whole environment like install nginx, ruby, postgres and so on.

Is there anything that let me do that? Let's imagine I have a bunch of servers or I'm trying different VPS and I'd like to easily and fast configure them with the same setup instead of doing manually sudo apt-get install -y ... each time and then configuring every component separately.

Kamil Lelonek
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Yes, software packages that do this fit into the category of Configuration Management.

Ansible, Saltstack, Chef, Puppet, CFEngine are a few to consider.

If you're new to CM or new to programming in general, start out with Ansible. IMHO, it's the easiest to get up and running with.

EEAA
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  • Yep, Chef and Puppet are tools I've already met. I found also packer.io, but the most important thing for me is comprehensive documentation and wide community. – Kamil Lelonek Sep 17 '14 at 21:09
  • In that case, you'll need to examine each and make your own decision. They all have good documentation, and they all have large communities surrounding them. – EEAA Sep 17 '14 at 21:10
  • I just wonder if these solutions are to complex for just simple needs. As far as I can see they are quite bit advanced already and I'm not sure if I use more of their features at all. – Kamil Lelonek Sep 17 '14 at 21:16
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    I know ansible best of all these, as that's what we use at $work. It can be **ridiculously** simple or **ridiculously** complex. They're a tool to help you - use it as you wish. There's no need to make things overly complex. – EEAA Sep 17 '14 at 21:18
  • I see it's a paid solution which can produce unnecessary cost while I just want to try that. Am I right? – Kamil Lelonek Sep 17 '14 at 21:58
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    Ansible Tower (their web UI) is for-pay. The core Ansible CM tool is F/OSS, with no costs associated. – EEAA Sep 17 '14 at 21:59