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Chef vs Docker: What are the differences?
Developers describe Chef as "Build, destroy and rebuild servers on any public or private cloud". Chef enables you to manage and scale cloud infrastructure with no downtime or interruptions. Freely move applications and configurations from one cloud to another. Chef is integrated with all major cloud providers including Amazon EC2, VMWare, IBM Smartcloud, Rackspace, OpenStack, Windows Azure, HP Cloud, Google Compute Engine, Joyent Cloud and others. On the other hand, Docker is detailed as "Enterprise Container Platform for High-Velocity Innovation". The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere.
Chef belongs to "Server Configuration and Automation" category of the tech stack, while Docker can be primarily classified under "Virtual Machine Platforms & Containers".
Some of the features offered by Chef are:
- Access to 800+ Reusable Cookbooks
- Integration with Leading Cloud Providers
- Enterprise Platform Support including Windows and Solaris
On the other hand, Docker provides the following key features:
- Integrated developer tools
- open, portable images
- shareable, reusable apps
"Dynamic and idempotent server configuration" is the top reason why over 104 developers like Chef, while over 816 developers mention "Rapid integration and build up" as the leading cause for choosing Docker.
Chef and Docker are both open source tools. Docker with 54K GitHub stars and 15.6K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than Chef with 5.86K GitHub stars and 2.36K GitHub forks.
According to the StackShare community, Docker has a broader approval, being mentioned in 3527 company stacks & 3449 developers stacks; compared to Chef, which is listed in 359 company stacks and 80 developer stacks.
I'm just getting started using Vagrant to help automate setting up local VMs to set up a Kubernetes cluster (development and experimentation only). (Yes, I do know about minikube)
I'm looking for a tool to help install software packages, setup users, etc..., on these VMs. I'm also fairly new to Ansible, Chef, and Puppet. What's a good one to start with to learn? I might decide to try all 3 at some point for my own curiosity.
The most important factors for me are simplicity, ease of use, shortest learning curve.
AnsibleI have been working with Puppet and Ansible. The reason why I prefer ansible is the distribution of it. Ansible is more lightweight and therefore more popular. This leads to situations, where you can get fully packaged applications for ansible (e.g. confluent) supported by the vendor, but only incomplete packages for Puppet.
The only advantage I would see with Puppet if someone wants to use Foreman. This is still better supported with Puppet.
If you are just starting out, might as well learn Kubernetes There's a lot of tools that come with Kube that make it easier to use and most importantly: you become cloud-agnostic. We use Ansible because it's a lot simpler than Chef or Puppet and if you use Docker Compose for your deployments you can re-use them with Kubernetes later when you migrate
lxd/lxc and Docker aren't congruent so this comparison needs a more detailed look; but in short I can say: the lxd-integrated administration of storage including zfs with its snapshot capabilities as well as the system container (multi-process) approach of lxc vs. the limited single-process container approach of Docker is the main reason I chose lxd over Docker.
Pros of Chef
- Dynamic and idempotent server configuration109
- Reusable components76
- Integration testing with Vagrant47
- Repeatable43
- Mock testing with Chefspec30
- Ruby14
- Can package cookbooks to guarantee repeatability8
- Works with AWS7
- Has marketplace where you get readymade cookbooks3
- Matured product with good community support3
- Less declarative more procedural2
- Open source configuration mgmt made easy(ish)2
Pros of Docker
- Rapid integration and build up823
- Isolation688
- Open source518
- Testability and reproducibility505
- Lightweight459
- Standardization217
- Scalable184
- Upgrading / downgrading / application versions105
- Security87
- Private paas environments84
- Portability33
- Limit resource usage25
- Game changer16
- I love the way docker has changed virtualization15
- Fast13
- Concurrency11
- Docker's Compose tools7
- Easy setup5
- Fast and Portable5
- Because its fun4
- Makes shipping to production very simple3
- It's dope2
- Highly useful2
- Very easy to setup integrate and build1
- Package the environment with the application1
- Does a nice job hogging memory1
- Open source and highly configurable1
- Simplicity, isolation, resource effective1
- MacOS support FAKE1
- Its cool1
- Docker hub for the FTW1
- HIgh Throughput1
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Cons of Chef
Cons of Docker
- New versions == broken features8
- Unreliable networking6
- Documentation not always in sync6
- Moves quickly4
- Not Secure3
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What is Chef?
What is Docker?
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