Yes.All servers are at least somewhat unique, but very few servers are entirely unique; host names and IP addresses (e.g.) will always differ, but nearly every server runs a relatively standard operating system. Servers are also often very similar to other servers within a single organization — all Solaris servers might have similar security settings, or all web servers might have roughly equivalent configurations — even if they’re very different from servers in other organizations. Finally, servers are often needlessly unique, in that they have been BUILT and managed manually with no attempt at retaining appropriate consistency.

Puppet can help both on the side of consistency and UNIQUENESS. Puppet can be used to express the consistency that should exist, even if that consistency spans arbitrary sets of servers based on any type of data like operating system, data centre, or physical LOCATION. Puppet can also be used to handle uniqueness, either by allowing SPECIAL PROVISION of what makes a given host unique or through specifying exceptions to otherwise standard classes.

Yes.All servers are at least somewhat unique, but very few servers are entirely unique; host names and IP addresses (e.g.) will always differ, but nearly every server runs a relatively standard operating system. Servers are also often very similar to other servers within a single organization — all Solaris servers might have similar security settings, or all web servers might have roughly equivalent configurations — even if they’re very different from servers in other organizations. Finally, servers are often needlessly unique, in that they have been built and managed manually with no attempt at retaining appropriate consistency.

Puppet can help both on the side of consistency and uniqueness. Puppet can be used to express the consistency that should exist, even if that consistency spans arbitrary sets of servers based on any type of data like operating system, data centre, or physical location. Puppet can also be used to handle uniqueness, either by allowing special provision of what makes a given host unique or through specifying exceptions to otherwise standard classes.