How do jenkins, Github and Puppet interact

Question

First I should disclose I only manage vendor relationships and lack deep technical knowledge.

I just had a conference call with one of our sub-contractors who has asked me to sign off on a PO for 4 different servers (one for Jenkins another for Github, a third for Puppet and a fourth as a test box).

The technical architect seems quite defensive when I ask him questions. I know its not my job to question his ability but I do have a budget to manage and I am concerned they have over- engineered this (or at least the 3 products they have mentioned seem to overlap alot). Would someone be so kind as to clearly explain to me the role each one plays.

I would also appreciate a second opinion as to whether they really need 4 servers and whether some of the technologies mentioned could co-exist on the same servers. (i.e could Jenkins, Github and Puppet all live on a single Ubuntu server ?).

Answer 1

The 4 tools do not overlap. They interact and complement altogether.

GIT is the source control tool. You store all the history of programming there. It's the dev blackbox. Jenkins is the continuous integration tool. It will use GIT to get the latest version of the code ( or the testing version or the pre-production version ) to test it against the test patterns you defined. Puppet seems to be a server administration toolbox.

Honestly, it depends on your project. If it's a huge app that requires heavy building cycles, then jenkins will be better off on its own server, so that people can still work normally with other services. I believe Jenkins/Puppet could be on the same server. Or so could be Pupper and GIT ( git is very low resource ).

The testbox sounds ok. But I think that the GIT box could also be served as a testbox.

I think you could cut that server needs by 2. But again, it depends on the size of your project. If it's a big project, play it fair and let them do it. Even if the server split is a little strange, it could be necessary. But frankly I think you don't really need that.