Puppet

About the Tutorial

Puppet is a configuration management technology to manage the infrastructure on
physical or virtual machines. It is an open-source software configuration management tool
developed using Ruby which helps in managing complex infrastructure on the fly.

This tutorial will help in understanding the building blocks of Puppet and how it works in
an infrastructure environment. All the examples and code snippets used in this tutorial are
tested. The working code snippets can be simply used in any Puppet setup by changing
the current defined names and variables.

Audience
This tutorial has been prepared for those who want to understand the features and
functionality of Puppet and how it can help in reducing the complexity of managing an
infrastructure.

After completing this tutorial one would gain moderate level understanding of Puppet and
its workflow. It will also give you a fair idea on how to configure Puppet in a preconfigured
infrastructure and use it for automation.

Prerequisites
We assume anyone who wants to understand and learn Puppet should have an
understanding of the system administration, infrastructure, and network protocol
communication. To automate the infrastructure provisioning, one should have a command
over basic Ruby script writing and the underlying system where one wants to use Puppet.

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in this tutorial, please notify us at contact@tutorialspoint.com

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Table of Contents
About the Tutorial ............................................................................................................................................ i
Audience ........................................................................................................................................................... i
Prerequisites ..................................................................................................................................................... i
Copyright & Disclaimer ..................................................................................................................................... i
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................ ii

BASIC PUPPET ............................................................................................................................. 1

1. Puppet ─ Overview ................................................................................................................................... 2

Features of Puppet System.............................................................................................................................. 2
Puppet ─ Workflow.......................................................................................................................................... 3
Puppet ─ Key Components .............................................................................................................................. 4

2. Puppet ─ Architecture ............................................................................................................................... 6

3. Puppet ─ Installation ................................................................................................................................. 8

Prerequisites .................................................................................................................................................... 8
Facter Installation ............................................................................................................................................ 8

4. Puppet ─ Configuration ........................................................................................................................... 10

Open Firewall Ports on Machines .................................................................................................................. 10
Configuration File .......................................................................................................................................... 10
Key Components of Config File...................................................................................................................... 12

5. Puppet ─ Environment Conf .................................................................................................................... 14

Allowed Settings ............................................................................................................................................ 15

6. Puppet ─ Master ..................................................................................................................................... 17

Prerequisites .................................................................................................................................................. 17
Creating Puppet Master Server ..................................................................................................................... 17
Installing NTP ................................................................................................................................................. 17
Setup Puppet Server Software ...................................................................................................................... 19
Configure Memory Allocation on the Puppet Server .................................................................................... 19

7. Puppet – Agent Setup ............................................................................................................................. 21

8. Puppet ─ SSL Sign Certificate Setup ......................................................................................................... 22

9. Puppet – Installing & Configuring r10K ................................................................................................... 24

10. Puppet – Validating Puppet Setup .......................................................................................................... 26

Setting Up the Virtual Machine ..................................................................................................................... 26
Validating Multiple Machine Configuration .................................................................................................. 28

11. Puppet – Coding Style ............................................................................................................................. 30

Fundamental Units ........................................................................................................................................ 30
Metaparameters............................................................................................................................................ 31

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Resource Collections ..................................................................................................................................... 32

Run Stages ..................................................................................................................................................... 35
Advanced Supported Features ...................................................................................................................... 38
Capitalization ................................................................................................................................................. 38
Arrays ............................................................................................................................................................ 39
Variables ........................................................................................................................................................ 39
Conditionals ................................................................................................................................................... 41
If-Else Statement ........................................................................................................................................... 42
Virtual Resource ............................................................................................................................................ 43
Comments ..................................................................................................................................................... 43
Operator Precedence .................................................................................................................................... 44
Working with Templates ............................................................................................................................... 46
Defining and Triggering Services ................................................................................................................... 46

12. Puppet – Manifest Files........................................................................................................................... 47

Manifest File Workflow ................................................................................................................................. 47
Writing Manifests .......................................................................................................................................... 48

13. Puppet ─ Module .................................................................................................................................... 50

Module Configuration ................................................................................................................................... 50
Modules Source ............................................................................................................................................. 50
Module Naming ............................................................................................................................................. 51
Module Internal Organization ....................................................................................................................... 51
Module Lookup.............................................................................................................................................. 53

14. Puppet – File Server ................................................................................................................................ 54

File Format ..................................................................................................................................................... 54
Security .......................................................................................................................................................... 55

15. Puppet – Facter & Facts .......................................................................................................................... 57

Puppet Facts .................................................................................................................................................. 58
Custom Facts ................................................................................................................................................. 62
Using FACTERLIB ............................................................................................................................................ 64
External Facts ................................................................................................................................................ 65

ADVANCED PUPPET .................................................................................................................. 67

16. Puppet – Resource .................................................................................................................................. 68

Resource Type ............................................................................................................................................... 68
Resource Title ................................................................................................................................................ 70
Attributes & Values ....................................................................................................................................... 71

17. Puppet – Resource Abstraction Layer...................................................................................................... 77

18. Puppet ─ Template.................................................................................................................................. 85

Evaluating Templates .................................................................................................................................... 85
Using Templates ............................................................................................................................................ 85

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19. Puppet ─ Classes ..................................................................................................................................... 90

Parameterized Class ...................................................................................................................................... 92

20. Puppet ─ Function ................................................................................................................................... 94

File Function .................................................................................................................................................. 94
Include Function ............................................................................................................................................ 94
Defined Function ........................................................................................................................................... 95

21. Puppet – Custom Functions .................................................................................................................... 96

Writing Custom Functions ............................................................................................................................. 96
Location to Put Custom Function .................................................................................................................. 96
Creating a New Function ............................................................................................................................... 97

22. Puppet ─ Environment ............................................................................................................................ 98

Using the Environment on Puppet Master .................................................................................................... 98
Setting the Clients Environment .................................................................................................................... 99
Puppet Search Path ..................................................................................................................................... 100

23. Puppet – Type & Provider ..................................................................................................................... 101

24. Puppet – RESTful API............................................................................................................................. 105

REST API Security ......................................................................................................................................... 105
Puppet Master API Reference ..................................................................................................................... 106
Puppet Agent API Reference ....................................................................................................................... 107

25. Puppet – Live Project ............................................................................................................................ 108

Creating a New Module ............................................................................................................................... 108
Installing a HTTP Server ............................................................................................................................... 108
Running the httpd Server ............................................................................................................................ 110
Configuring httpd Server ............................................................................................................................. 111
Configuring the Firewall .............................................................................................................................. 113
Configuring the SELinux ............................................................................................................................... 115
Copying HTML Files in the Web Host .......................................................................................................... 116

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Basic Puppet

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1. Puppet ─ Overview

Puppet is a configuration management tool developed by Puppet Labs in order to automate

infrastructure management and configuration. Puppet is a very powerful tool which helps
in the concept of Infrastructure as code. This tool is written in Ruby DSL language that
helps in converting a complete infrastructure in code format, which can be easily managed
and configured.

Puppet follows client-server model, where one machine in any cluster acts as client known
as puppet master and the other acts as server known as slave on nodes. Puppet has the
capability to manage any system from scratch, starting from initial configuration till end-
of-life of any particular machine.

Features of Puppet System

Following are the most important features of Puppet.

Idempotency
Puppet supports Idempotency which makes it unique. Similar to Chef, in Puppet, one can
safely run the same set of configuration multiple times on the same machine. In this flow,
Puppet checks for the current status of the target machine and will only make changes
when there is any specific change in the configuration.

Idempotency helps in managing any particular machine throughout its lifecycle starting
from the creation of machine, configurational changes in the machine, till the end-of-life.
Puppet Idempotency feature is very helpful in keeping the machine updated for years
rather than rebuilding the same machine multiple times, when there is any configurational
change.

Cross-platform
In Puppet, with the help of Resource Abstraction Layer (RAL) which uses Puppet resources,
one can target the specified configuration of system without worrying about the
implementation details and how the configuration command will work inside the system,
which are defined in the underlying configuration file.

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Puppet ─ Workflow
Puppet uses the following workflow to apply configuration on the system.

 In Puppet, the first thing what the Puppet master does is to collect the details of
the target machine. Using the factor which is present on all Puppet nodes (similar
to Ohai in Chef) it gets all the machine level configuration details. These details are
collected and sent back to the Puppet master.

 Then the puppet master compares the retrieved configuration with defined
configuration details, and with the defined configuration it creates a catalog and
sends it to the targeted Puppet agents.

 The Puppet agent then applies those configurations to get the system into a desired
state.

 Finally, once one has the target node in a desired state, it sends a report back to
the Puppet master, which helps the Puppet master in understanding where the
current state of the system is, as defined in the catalog.

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Puppet ─ Key Components

Following are the key components of Puppet.

Puppet Resources
Puppet resources are the key components for modeling any particular machine. These
resources have their own implementation model. Puppet uses the same model to get any
particular resource in the desired state.

Providers
Providers are basically fulfillers of any particular resource used in Puppet. For example,
the package type ‘apt-get’ and ‘yum’ both are valid for package management. Sometimes,
more than one provider would be available on a particular platform. Though each platform
always have a default provider.

Manifest
Manifest is a collection of resources which are coupled inside the function or classes to
configure any target system. They contain a set of Ruby code in order to configure a
system.

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Modules
Module is the key building block of Puppet, which can be defined as a collection of
resources, files, templates, etc. They can be easily distributed among different kinds of
OS being defined that they are of the same flavor. As they can be easily distributed, one
module can be used multiple times with the same configuration.

Templates
Templates use Ruby expressions to define the customized content and variable input. They
are used to develop custom content. Templates are defined in manifests and are copied
to a location on the system. For example, if one wants to define httpd with a customizable
port, then it can be done using the following expression.

Listen <%= @httpd_port %>

The httpd_port variable in this case is defined in the manifest that references this template.

Static Files
Static files can be defined as a general file which are sometimes required to perform
specific tasks. They can be simply copied from one location to another using Puppet. All
static files are located inside the files directory of any module. Any manipulation of the file
in a manifest is done using the file resource.

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2. Puppet ─ Architecture

Following is the diagrammatic representation of Puppet architecture.

Puppet Master
Puppet Master is the key mechanism which handles all the configuration related stuff. It
applies the configuration to nodes using the Puppet agent.

Puppet Agent
Puppet Agents are the actual working machines which are managed by the Puppet master.
They have the Puppet agent daemon service running inside them.

Config Repository
This is the repo where all nodes and server-related configurations are saved and pulled
when required.

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Facts
Facts are the details related to the node or the master machine, which are basically used
for analyzing the current status of any node. On the basis of facts, changes are done on
any target machine. There are pre-defined and custom facts in Puppet.

Catalog
All the manifest files or configuration which are written in Puppet are first converted to a
compiled format called catalog and later those catalogs are applied on the target machine.

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3. Puppet ─ Installation

Puppet works on the client server architecture, wherein we call the server as the Puppet
master and the client as the Puppet node. This setup is achieved by installing Puppet on
both the client and well as on all the server machines.

For most of the platforms, Puppet can be installed via the package manager of choice.
However, for few platforms it can be done by installing the tarball or RubyGems.

Prerequisites
Factor is the only pre-requisite that does not come along with the standard package edition
of Puppet. This is similar to Ohai which is present in Chef.

Standard OS Library
We need to have standard set of library of any underlying OS. Remaining all the system
comes along with Ruby 1.8.2 + versions. Following is the list of library items, which an OS
should consist of.

 base64
 cgi
 digest/md5
 etc
 fileutils
 ipaddr
 openssl
 strscan
 syslog
 uri
 webrick
 webrick/https
 xmlrpc

Facter Installation
As discussed, the facter does not come along with the standard edition of Ruby. So, in
order to get the facter in the target system one needs to install it manually from the source
as the facter library is a pre-requisite of Puppet.

This package is available for multiple platforms however just to be on the safer side it can
be installed using tarball, which helps in getting the latest version.

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First, download the tarball from the official site of Puppet using the wget utility.

$ wget http://puppetlabs.com/downloads/facter/facter-latest.tgz ------: 1

Next, un-tar the tar file. Get inside the untarred directory using the CD command. Finally,
install the facter using install.rb file present inside the facter directory.

$ gzip -d -c facter-latest.tgz | tar xf - -----: 2

$ cd facter-* ------: 3
$ sudo ruby install.rb # or become root and run install.rb -----:4

Installing Puppet from the Source

First, install the Puppet tarball from the Puppet site using wget. Then, extract the tarball
to a target location. Move inside the created directory using the CD command. Using
install.rb file, install Puppet on the underlying server.

# get the latest tarball

$ wget http://puppetlabs.com/downloads/puppet/puppet-latest.tgz -----: 1

# untar and install it

$ gzip -d -c puppet-latest.tgz | tar xf - ----: 2
$ cd puppet-* ------: 3
$ sudo ruby install.rb # or become root and run install.rb -------: 4

Installing Puppet and Facter Using Ruby Gem

# Installing Facter
$ wget http://puppetlabs.com/downloads/gems/facter-1.5.7.gem
$ sudo gem install facter-1.5.7.gem

# Installing Puppet
$ wget http://puppetlabs.com/downloads/gems/puppet-0.25.1.gem
$ sudo gem install puppet-0.25.1.gem

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4. Puppet ─ Configuration

Once we have Puppet installed on the system, the next step is to configure it to perform
certain initial operations.

Open Firewall Ports on Machines

To make the Puppet server manage the client’s server centrally, one needs to open a
specified port on all the machines, i.e. 8140 can be used if it is not in use in any of the
machines which we are trying to configure. We need to enable both TCP and UDP
communication on all the machines.

Configuration File
The main configuration file for Puppet is etc/puppet/puppet.conf. All the configuration
files get created in a package-based configuration of Puppet. Most of the configuration
which is required to configure Puppet is kept in these files and once the Puppet run takes
place, it picks up those configurations automatically. However, for some specific tasks such
as configuring a web server or an external Certificate Authority (CA), Puppet has separate
configuration for files and settings.

Server configuration files are located in conf.d directory which is also known as the Puppet
master. These files are by default located under
/etc/puppetlabs/puppetserver/conf.d path. These config files are in HOCON format,
which keeps the basic structure of JSON but it is more readable. When the Puppet startup
takes place it picks up all .cong files from conf.d directory and uses them for making any
configurational changes. Any changes in these files only takes place when the server is
restarted.

List File and Settings File

 global.conf
 webserver.conf
 web-routes.conf
 puppetserver.conf
 auth.conf
 master.conf (deprecated)
 ca.conf (deprecated)

There are different configuration files in Puppet which are specific to each component in
Puppet.

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Puppet.conf
Puppet.conf file is Puppet’s main configuration file. Puppet uses the same configuration file
to configure all the required Puppet command and services. All Puppet related settings
such as the definition of Puppet master, Puppet agent, Puppet apply and certificates are
defined in this file. Puppet can refer them as per requirement.

The config file resembles a standard ini file wherein the settings can go into the specific
application section of the main section.

Main Config Section

[main]
certname = Test1.vipin.com
server = TestingSrv
environment = production
runinterval = 1h

Puppet Master Config File

[main]
certname = puppetmaster.vipin.com
server = MasterSrv
environment = production
runinterval = 1h
strict_variables = true

[master]
dns_alt_names = MasterSrv,brcleprod01.vipin.com,puppet,puppet.test.com
reports = puppetdb
storeconfigs_backend = puppetdb
storeconfigs = true
environment_timeout = unlimited

Detail Overview
In Puppet configuration, the file which is going to be used has multiple configuration
sections wherein each section has different kinds of multiple number of settings.

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Config Section
Puppet configuration file mainly consists of the following config sections.

 Main: This is known as the global section which is used by all the commands and
services in Puppet. One defines the default values in the main section which can
be overridden by any section present in puppet.conf file.

 Master: This section is referred by Puppet master service and Puppet cert
command.

 Agent: This section is referred by Puppet agent service.

 User: It is mostly used by Puppet apply command as well as many of the less
common commands.

[main]
certname =PuppetTestmaster1.example.com

Key Components of Config File

Following are the key components of Config file.

Comment Lines
In Puppet, any comment line starts with (#) sign. This may intend with any amount of
space. We can have a partial comment as well within the same line.

# This is a comment.
Testing= true #this is also a comment in same line

Settings Lines
Settings line must consist of -

 Any amount of leading space (optional)

 Name of the settings
 An equals = to sign, which may be surrounded by any number of space
 A value for the setting

Setting Variables
In most of the cases, the value of settings will be a single word but in some special cases,
there are few special values.

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Paths
In configuration file settings, take a list of directories. While defining these directories, one
should keep in mind that they should be separated by the system path separator character,
which is (:) in *nix platforms and semicolons (;) on Windows.

# *nix version:
environmentpath = $codedir/special_environments:$codedir/environments
# Windows version:
environmentpath =
$codedir/environments;C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\code\environment

In the definition, the file directory which is listed first is scanned and then later moves to
the other directory in the list, if it doesn’t find one.

Files and Directories

All the settings that take a single file or directory can accept an optional hash of
permissions. When the server is starting up, Puppet will enforce those files or directories
in the list.

ssldir = $vardir/ssl {owner = service, mode = 0771}

In the above code, the allowed hash are owner, group, and mode. There are only two valid
values of the owner and group keys.

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