Puppet is a system for automating system administration tasks.
Home of puppet is http://puppetlabs.com

If you are looking for an excellent quick start howto I would recommend:

• 1/2: An introduction to using Puppet
• 2/2: An introduction to using Puppet

Helpful links regarding puppet:

• http://www.devco.net/archives/2009/08/19/tips_and_tricks_for_puppet_debugging.php
• http://www.devco.net/archives/2009/09/28/simple_puppet_module_structure.php

Run the puppet executable (as you're used to from cfengine). This is primary useful for very short (one time) manifests (bootstrapping a standalone machine). The specified manifest can include as many files as needed and can be as complex as you want

puppet /path/to/your/yourmanifest.pp

Dry mode:

puppet --noop /path/to/your/yourmanifest.pp

How to integrate the backports repository see backportsorg

# client:
aptitude install rdoc 
aptitude -t lenny-backports install facter puppet
 
# install the puppetmaster:
aptitude -t lenny-backports install puppetmaster