# Glossary

|    **Term**                    |        **Description**                                                       |
|--------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|    AD                          |  Active Directory (AD) is Microsoft's implementation of directory information services for Windows Domain networks.                |
|    Ansible                     |  Ansible is an open-source automation tool that lets you push scripts across servers. Ansible does not check the configuration of the server before you push the scripts. |
|    Chef                        |  Chef is an open-source automation tool that lets you check for possible errors before deploying software across servers.          |
|    FIPS mode                   |  The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) mode is a requirement for US government employees and personnel, who must use FIPS encryption.    |
|    LDAP                        |  Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an open-source protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services.    |
|    Puppet                      |  Puppet is an automation tool that lets you customize the deployment of software according to the configuration of the servers. Puppet works differently from Ansible and Chef in that a Puppet agent is installed on the nodes. The Puppet agent periodically contacts the centralized Puppet master to determine if its node has the latest configuration. The Puppet master can require different configurations across the nodes. Puppet has two versions: open source and Puppet Enterprise.  |
