AWS Systems Manager State Manager vs OpenVox

AWS Systems Manager State Manager automates keeping managed nodes and other AWS resources in a state that customers define. Its associations specify the configuration to maintain, when to apply it and which resources to target. Targets can be selected by tags, AWS Resource Groups, individual node IDs or all managed nodes in the current Region and account. Associations can run immediately or later and accept most standard cron and rate expressions, but association cron expressions cannot specify months. On Linux, macOS and Windows Server managed nodes, State Manager can bootstrap software, schedule agent updates, configure network settings, join nodes to a Microsoft Active Directory domain and run scripts. Association run output can be stored in Amazon S3, and State Manager is supported as an event type and target type in Amazon EventBridge rules. It has no additional charge, although limits may apply. State Manager runs as a cloud service with an agent-based model. AWS Systems Manager follows a shared responsibility model: AWS protects cloud infrastructure, while customer responsibilities depend on the service, data and requirements. Third-party auditors assess Systems Manager under assurance programs including SOC, PCI, FedRAMP and HIPAA.

OpenVox is a community-maintained implementation of Puppet for declarative configuration management: it describes system state and applies it through agents managed by a server or in standalone mode. In standalone use, `puppet apply` compiles and applies a catalog locally. Existing Puppet Open Source manifests, modules, Hiera data, and tooling work unchanged. It is self-hosted and lists support for Enterprise Linux, Amazon Linux, Fedora, SLES, Debian, Ubuntu, macOS, and Windows. Agent/server communication uses HTTPS with mutual TLS; agents must first obtain a signed certificate from a local Puppet certificate authority or an external CA. OpenVox Server exposes HTTP APIs for catalogs, certificate authority, status, and metrics. OpenVoxDB stores reports, inventory, and exported resources, while OpenBolt automates infrastructure over SSH and WinRM without agents. Documented packages include agent, server, database, termini, and orchestration components. The software is free and community-maintained. Documentation points users to community help and commercial support partners.