Software Alternatives & Reviews

Cobbler VS pyinfra

Compare Cobbler VS pyinfra and see what are their differences

Cobbler logo Cobbler

Cobbler is a Linux installation server that allows for rapid setup of network installation...

pyinfra logo pyinfra

pyinfra automates infrastructure super fast at massive scale.
  • Cobbler Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-30
  • pyinfra Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-25

pyinfra turns Python code into shell commands and runs them on your servers. Execute ad-hoc commands and write declarative operations. Target SSH servers, local machine and Docker containers. Fast and scales from one server to thousands.

  • 🚀 Super fast execution over thousands of hosts with predictable performance.
  • 🚨 Instant debugging with stdout & stderr output on error or as required (-v|-vv|-vvv).
  • 📦 Extendable with any Python package as configured & written in standard Python.
  • 💻 Agentless execution against SSH/Docker/subprocess/winrm hosts.
  • ❗️ Two stage process that enables --dry runs before executing any changes.
  • 🔌 Integrated with Docker, Vagrant/Mech & Ansible out of the box.

pyinfra

$ Details
free
Platforms
Mac OSX Linux Windows Python
Release Date
2016 August

Cobbler videos

Robbie Collin reviews The Cobbler

More videos:

  • Review - Cobbler Union | Shoe Shine & Initial Review
  • Review - The Cobbler Movie Review! // Adam Sandler

pyinfra videos

Pure Python Configuration Management With PyInfra

More videos:

  • Review - A full Ubuntu PXE server in a Pi, auto-configured with pyinfra.com.
  • Review - Auto-install Ubuntu with Ubiquiti ERX, Synology DS418, and pyinfra

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Cobbler and pyinfra)
DevOps Tools
65 65%
35% 35
Product Deployment
80 80%
20% 20
IT Automation
52 52%
48% 48
Monitoring Tools
100 100%
0% 0

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Cobbler and pyinfra.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

pyinfra's answer:

Python not YAML. Faster. Executing shell commands give clear errors.

What makes your product unique?

pyinfra's answer:

pyinfra works like a human by running regular shell commands to configure servers.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

pyinfra's answer:

Python (local only, no agent). SSH/Docker/subprocess.

User comments

Share your experience with using Cobbler and pyinfra. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Cobbler might be a bit more popular than pyinfra. We know about 10 links to it since March 2021 and only 8 links to pyinfra. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Cobbler mentions (10)

  • WDS equivalent for Linux
    I'm looking for Windows Deployment Services equivalent for my Linux network. At the momment I'm using Cobbler (https://cobbler.github.io/) but I'm are looking for a software where I could place .iso images and PXE boot for any machine. Source: 11 months ago
  • Deploy Linux Workstations
    Take a look at Cobbler. I've used it for quite a few years & love it. It supports both preseed & kickstart. Source: over 1 year ago
  • [HELP] PXE Boot without data loss
    I haven't setup a PXE server in a long time. There are management tools like MaaS, Collins, Cobbler, etc that deal with the provisioning of systems. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Recommendations to help these fit?
    For users and enthusiasts of the Cobbler System http://cobbler.github.io/. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Network Booting 400+ Pi4b's from a Windows 10 Enterprise Workstation
    If you built a Linux Cobbler server you can do this all. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

pyinfra mentions (8)

  • Show HN: A new open-source automation tool as an alternative to Ansible/Salt
    There is https://pyinfra.com/ As a sidenote, I also made a small experiment a while ago : https://github.com/linkdd/tricorder/ But it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. Without users, I don't know how it should be used, without features I won't get any users. So for now, it's in a state of "I'll address bug reports and feature requests, but I won't actively... - Source: Hacker News / 21 days ago
  • How to manage multiple Wagtail sites from central point
    Pyinfra - https://pyinfra.com/ - Pyinfra is simpler for me than Ansible. I completed the entire deployment in one afternoon, from installing and configuring the VPS server from scratch to deploying the application and automatically restoring the database from a backup. Source: 5 months ago
  • How do you guys handle server automation?
    I’ve replaced Ansible with PyInfra where ever possible. https://pyinfra.com/ is very clean, and fast but lacks the shear amount of automation that can be found with Ansible. Source: over 1 year ago
  • What Ansible is capable to do that Python doesn't?
    Some folks don't like YAML all that well, and I can understand where they are coming from. I wish Ansible provided a good Python API so that playbooks could be written in Python easier. But there is a project called PyInfra that is trying to do something similiar to Ansible, using Python as the configuration language. https://pyinfra.com/ It is still pretty new so not got nearly as many modules written for it... Source: over 1 year ago
  • SSHScript: Integrate subprocess and Paramiko to Automate in Python
    My ‘go to’ tool for automating infrastructure is pyinfra It’s fast, is versioning control friendly aka git and best of all, it relies on python files and modules for its storage of executable commands. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Cobbler and pyinfra, you can also consider the following products

Ansible - Radically simple configuration-management, application deployment, task-execution, and multi-node orchestration engine

Puppet Enterprise - Get started with Puppet Enterprise, or upgrade or expand.

Python Fabric - Fabric is a Python library and command-line tool for streamlining the use of SSH for application...

Salt - Fast, scalable and flexible software for data center automation

Chef - Automation for all of your technology. Overcome the complexity and rapidly ship your infrastructure and apps anywhere with automation.

Foreman - Foreman is an open source project that helps system administrators manage servers throughout their...