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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    HashiCorp Packer

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AHashiCorp Packer automates the creation of machine images, coming out of the box with support to build images for Amazon EC2, CloudStack, DigitalOcean, Docker, Google Compute Engine, Microsoft Azure, QEMU, VirtualBox, and VMware.N/A

    Salt

    Score6.2 out of 10
    N/AVMware Salt is an Infrastructure Automation & Configuration Management platform that provisions, configures, deploys, and manages infrastructure components at scale. The solution utilizes an event-driven automation engine to enforce compliant software states across virtual machines, servers, containers, and network devices. The VMware Salt solution is comprised of software components from both VMware and the open-source Salt Project While the Salt Masters and Salt Minions are a part of the open…N/A
    Pricing
    HashiCorp PackerSalt
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HashiCorp PackerSalt
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    HashiCorp PackerSalt
    Small Businesses
    Apache Maven
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    Medium-sized Companies
    Apache Maven
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Perforce Puppet
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Gradle Build Tool (Open Source)
    Score9 out of 10
    Ansible
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    HashiCorp PackerSalt
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (10 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HashiCorp PackerSalt
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    We use packer to generate new machine images for multiple platforms on every change to our Configuration Management tools like Chef/Puppet/Ansible It's act single tool for Image building for Multi-provider like AWS/Azure/GCP Helps to achieve Dev/Prod Parity Packer itself doesn't have a state like Terraform. You can't do packer output AMI ID. If you have a scenario where you want to maintain the state for images it would be tough to manage via Packer.
    Incentivized
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    Broadcom
    SaltStack is a very well architected toolset and framework for reliably managing distributed systems' complexity at varied scale. If the diversity of kind or number of assets is low, or the dependencies are bounded and simple, it might be overkill. Realization that you need SaltStack might come in the form of other tools, scripts, or jobs whose code has become difficult, unreliable, or unmaintainable. Rather than a native from-scratch SaltStack design, be aware that SaltStack can be added on to tools like Docker or Chef and optionally factor those tools out or other tools into the mix.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    IBM
    • Multi-provider portability
    • Greater testability
    • Super fast infrastructure deployment
    Incentivized
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    Broadcom
    • Targeting is easy and yet extremely granular - I can target machines by name, role, operating system, init system, distro, regex, or any combination of the above.
    • Abstraction of OS, package manager and package details is far advanced beyond any other CRM I have seen. The ability to set one configuration for a package across multiple distros, and have it apply correctly no matter the distrospecific naming convention or package installation procedure, is amazing.
    • Abstraction of environments is similarly valuable - I can set a firewall rule to allow ssh from "management", and have that be defined as a specific IP range per dev, test, and prod.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    IBM
    • Manageability
    • Manageability
    • Manageability
    Incentivized
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    Broadcom
    • Managing network hardware should be more native and easy
    • SaltStack should buffer jobs and, when a client returns, make sure it is executed proberly
    • SaltStack should provide basic pillar and states structures to help get newbies started
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    We are happy with the use of Packer in our organization. Apart from manageability, I don't find any other drawback with Packer.
    Incentivized
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    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    IBM
    It's best for building Image with many features and benefits.
    Incentivized
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    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    IBM
    I only once required support and it was very smooth.
    Incentivized
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    Broadcom
    We haven't had to spend a lot of time talking to support, and we've only had one issue, which, when dealing with other vendors is actually not that bad of an experience.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    I haven't found any issue in Implementation that itself describes how well this tool is built.
    Incentivized
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    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    There are lot of tools in market which does the job for Image creation but all of them are not complete Machine/Image as a code. All other alternatives can create Image partially. Main reason for selecting Packer are Packer is lightweight, portable, and command-line driven Packer helps keep development, staging, and production as similar as possible. Packer automates the creation of any type of machine image Multi-provider portability is the feature to die for
    Incentivized
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    Broadcom
    We moved to SaltStack from Puppet about 3 years ago. Puppet just has too much of a learning curve and we inherited it from an old IT regime. We wanted something we could start fresh with. Our team has never looked back. SaltStack is so much easier for us to use and maintain.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • Super fast infrastructure deployment
    • Quick turnaround of infrastructure in multiple cloud using single tool.
    • Increase productivity by reducing time in infrastructure building.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    • We manage two complex highly available self-healing (all infrastructure and systems) environments using SaltStack. Only one person is needed to run SaltStack. That is a HUGE return on investment.
    • Building tooling on top of SaltStack has allowed us to share administrative abilities by role - e.g. employee X can deploy software Y. No need to call a sysadmin and etc.
    • Recovery from problems, or time to stand-up new systems is now counted in minutes (usually under eight) rather than hours. This is a strategic advantage for rolling out new services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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