Suggestions on node/client management

[Luciel]

Hello all,

Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this kind of question but we're using Linux mint on all our office desktops so who knows, maybe someone has some experience in the following:

Currently we're running Zentyal on our Office server. Our office workers log in with their accounts on their Linux Mint desktops (their accounts being on Zentyal, i.e. LDAP Authentication), once they login, their home directory is mounted automagically on their desktops and unmounted when they log out (so everything's kept on the Zentyal Server and they can log in to their accounts from any PC and their desktop, work, etc is always available).

We're now looking for a way to manage software on clients from the server (to clarify, this doesn't have to be a zentyal module). I've had a look at Puppet and Chef, both seems incredibly complex and either geared for server management rather than desktops or for huge organizations. Really all we want to do is be able to maintain the desktops in our offices in an easier manner (20-40 pcs max).

Any ideas on how we can approach this?

Thank you