This document provides an introduction to Puppet, an open source tool for configuration management. It discusses how Puppet addresses issues with manual configuration and scripting approaches by allowing infrastructure to be coded and version controlled. Puppet uses a master-agent model or can run in standalone mode, and components like Facter, the Puppet language, resources, manifests, classes and templates are explained. Resources are the building blocks for modeling system configurations, and manifests are Puppet programs. Classes describe parts of a system's identity. Templates allow dynamic configuration files. A catalog brings all components together, and learning resources are provided.

1. Introduction to Puppet
Habeeb Rahman | hrahman@apigee.com | pk.habi@gmail.com

2. pre puppet/config management era
manual Installation
login and perform installation/config changes
ad hoc scripts/tools
not scalable
everyone solving same problems their own way
boring

3. puppet era
mature tools
sharing
opensource
infrastructure as a code
version controlled

4. what?
Vanilla Server
Your desired
vanilla server apply puppet application
server
Before Transformation After

5. how? (1/2)
master-agent mode
puppet
master
puppet agent puppet agent puppet agent puppet agent
(server 1) (server 2) (server 3) (server 'n')

6. how? (2/2)
standalone mode
puppet apply
puppet
(server 1)

7. components
facter & facts
puppet language
resources
manifests
classes
templates

8. facter & facts
puppet uses facter to gather information
about the host system

9. puppet language
● DSL
● ruby

10. resources
● the building blocks
● model system configurations
● built-in resources
user { 'dave':
ensure => 'present',
home => '/home/dave',
shell => '/bin/zsh'
}
● puppet describe -s user

11. manifests
puppet programs are called “manifests”
file extension: .pp

12. classes
● describe one part of what makes up a
system’s identity
● not object-oriented programming 'class'

13. templates
puppet uses ruby erb templating system
file {'/etc/foo.conf':
ensure => file,
require => Package['foo'],
content => template('foo/foo.conf.erb'),
}

14. how does it all fit together?

15. catalog

16. puppet help
puppet describe
prints help about puppet resource types, providers, and metaparameters
puppet help <subcommand>
help about puppet commands

17. learning
http://docs.puppetlabs.com/learning/