Puppet, chef or something else?

Question

linux

I had a chance to meet with both animals, but within the framework of very trivial tasks, so it was not possible to taste which “tastier” did not succeed, therefore I ask which, in your opinion, is better (and most importantly why ?!) will cope with the tasks:
1) User management and rights to servers.
2) Management of applications and their configuration.
3) Execution of some one-time "command", ala mass update, backup at inopportune hours, etc.

Answer 1

Both tools are good for setting up a large number of servers of the same type. If you have a zoo, then they will not help you, I like the pupet more.
Well, you need to launch something else at an inopportune time.

Answer 2

Both chef and puppet are suitable for the first two tasks.
Puppet will be a bit more readable and usable on simple configurations (a little easier to learn I guess), but on perverted configurations chef is better.
Chef - significantly more code (if you use ready-made cookbooks) but also more flexibility in customization.
For one-time tasks, a separate small manifest for puppet (launch in standalone mode) is quite suitable.
(Chef can be used in solo mode, but the amount of configuration is much more than puppet)
Or look towards Fabric - an ideal candidate for one-time remote tasks.