A new technical series on the DEV Community examines using Foreman as an External Node Classifier (ENC) for Puppet Core. Drawing on over a decade of experience, the author explores building custom infrastructure with proprietary modules. The pilot post clarifies the distinction between Configuration Management (CM) and Infrastructure as Code (IaC), providing a foundational overview of automation principles and tooling strategies for modern operations.

The article evaluates major tools like Ansible, Chef, and Terraform, explaining when to use each for specific infrastructure goals. It argues that while Hiera handles internal data lookups, Foreman offers superior node classification. Foreman provides a web-based interface, dynamic rule-based assignments, and integrated provisioning, reducing the need for manual manifest edits and making it a more accessible, scalable choice for enterprise environments.

Looking ahead, this series will cover planning a Puppet infrastructure and setting up a master with Foreman. For teams managing complex, hybrid environments, combining Foreman's dynamic classification with Puppet's declarative state management offers a powerful path to full lifecycle automation. Expect upcoming posts to detail the installation process and infrastructure design best practices.