CFEngine
A configuration management and automation system that keeps servers in a defined, compliant state.
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1 more ways to get CFEngine
Package managers
- Homebrew
brew install cfengine
About CFEngine
CFEngine automates infrastructure by applying declarative policies to servers, handling configuration management, patching, hardening and prevention of configuration drift. It integrates with CI/CD pipelines and produces compliance reports.
A free Community edition is available to download alongside a commercial Enterprise edition with a web UI. The UI includes an AI agent that answers questions about your infrastructure by generating SQL you can inspect, and it can use a local model provider. It suits administrators managing many Linux and Unix machines.
Strengths
- Lightweight agent suited to large fleets
- Configuration drift prevention and compliance reporting
- Free Community edition plus nightly builds
- AI agent can use a local or on-premises model
Limitations
- Own policy language to learn
- Web UI and reporting belong to the Enterprise edition
Details
- Pricing
- FreemiumFree Community edition, with a commercial Enterprise edition.
- License
- Open source, license not stated
- Developer
- Northern.tech
- Platforms
- Linux, Self-hosted, Command line
- How it runs
- Downloadable app, Self-hosted
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Administrators automating configuration and compliance across many servers
- Categories
- Automation, IT administration
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to CFEngine
Compare allSoftware that can replace CFEngine for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Puppet
A configuration management and infrastructure automation tool that enforces the intended state of servers.
Puppet also enforces declared server state with its own language, adds the Puppet Forge module library, but is a paid, closed-source product.
Salt
Open-source automation framework for remote execution, configuration management and orchestration across many servers.
Salt is free and open source, adding remote execution and event-driven automation, though states, grains and pillars take time to learn.
Chef
An infrastructure automation platform for configuration management, compliance audits and workflow orchestration across servers.
Chef offers policy-as-code configuration with scheduled compliance auditing across Windows, macOS and Linux, but is paid with sales-led pricing.
Rudder
Open-source configuration management and compliance platform for Linux and Windows systems.
Rudder is open source with continuous enforcement plus patch, vulnerability and CIS or NIST benchmark auditing for both Linux and Windows.
Uyuni
An open-source server for patching, configuring and provisioning large fleets of Linux machines using Salt.
Uyuni is a free Salt-based server focused on patching, configuring and provisioning Linux fleets through a web interface.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
Foreman
An open-source lifecycle management tool for provisioning, configuring and monitoring physical and virtual servers.
AWX
A web interface, REST API and task engine for running and scheduling Ansible automation.
Rundeck
A self-hosted runbook automation server that lets chosen users run existing scripts, tools and jobs.
Landscape
Canonical's systems management tool for monitoring, patching and auditing fleets of Ubuntu machines.
OpenSCAP
Open source tools for scanning systems against SCAP security policies and hardening baselines.
