I find the line between when to use fabric and when to use puppet/chef is needing the permissions of a more privileged user.
I prefer to deploy applications in the home directory of a dedicated user account with minimal privileges, and use fabric for installing updates and running application tasks.
OTOH, I'd prefer to be using puppet for creating the user accounts, managing the installation and configuration of PostgreSQL, putting app configuration in a safe location, and so on.
This comes down to my (maybe antiquated?) view of having multiple applications running on a single server.
That’s exactly how we do it too. The only difference is that we don’t install the app using Fabric. Instead, puppet installs the deb with the app into the directory.
Maybe I should add a “running apps as root” anti-pattern, but this its 2012 after all, everyone should know that, right? :-/
I prefer to deploy applications in the home directory of a dedicated user account with minimal privileges, and use fabric for installing updates and running application tasks.
OTOH, I'd prefer to be using puppet for creating the user accounts, managing the installation and configuration of PostgreSQL, putting app configuration in a safe location, and so on.
This comes down to my (maybe antiquated?) view of having multiple applications running on a single server.