Aptira uses Puppet and OpenStack to manage their infrastructure and provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to customers. Puppet allows them to define reusable configurations and scale management of thousands of nodes. With Puppet modules, each completed module is a reusable capability. This enables Aptira to efficiently utilize their 15,000 cores and other resources on demand for customers. Puppet also supports multiple environments and sites, revision control with Git, and scaling as infrastructure grows. Aptira has written over 30 Puppet modules and manages over 1,800 nodes with an average of 50 lines of code per module.

1. Puppet and OpenStack in the Real World
Kavit Munshi
Chief Technical Officer
 What is Aptira?
 What is OpenStack?
 The Problem
 Aptira + Puppet +
OpenStack
 Why Puppet?

2. What is Aptira?

Aptira is a technology services
provider that delivers:
− Managed services
− Bespoke solutions
− Rich media solutions for digital
agencies
− Cloud computing infrastructure and
consulting

3. What is OpenStack?

OpenStack is free, open source Infrastructure
as a Service (IaaS) project.
− Cloud Computing (nova)
− Object Store (swift)
− Block Storage (cinder)
− Network Virtualisation (quantum)
− Authentication (keystone)
− Image Catalog (glance)

4. What is OpenStack?

Managed by the OpenStack Foundation
− 5,600 individual members
− 850 organisations
− 87 countries
− $10 million in funding
− Independent home for OpenStack
− Technical Committee, Board of Directors, User
Committee

5. What is OpenStack?

One of the fastest growing open source
projects in the world
− From 30,000 to 600,000 LOC in 2 years
− <100 people attended first OpenStack summit
− >1500 attended last two summits
− Rate of feature innovation is staggering

6. The Problem

We deploy and maintain OpenStack on premise for our IaaS
customers.

We sell our ability to deploy and maintain OpenStack on
location for private cloud customers.

But there's a catch. Here's what we show our customers:

7. The Problem
This is what we show
our non-tech team
…and here's what I need

8. The Problem

9. The Problem

Add some more ancillary services (MySQL, RabbitMQ, Nagios,
iptables).

Then triple it! (development, testing, production)

Multiply by the number of private cloud customers.

Need a solution that lets me express configurations in OO style:
− Reusable
− Templateable
− Inheritance

Solution must scale to manage thousands of nodes

10. Puppet

Puppet to the rescue!

Puppet modules reusable, which makes each completed module a
capability investment for the business.

Native support for multiple environments and multiple sites.

Couple with git (gitolite) for revision and environment management
(http://puppetlabs.com/blog/git-workflow-and-puppet-environments/)

Passenger plugin allows us to scale config management along with
infrastructure to ensure performance.

~30 puppet modules written (we write our own)

~1,800 lines of puppet manifests

Average ~50 lines of puppet per module

11. Puppet

12. Puppet
- Master-Agent architecture
- On the puppetmaster, each puppet module is created as
follows
- /etc/puppet/modules/<module_name>
- Global variables are defined in site.pp
- The module has following components (each is a folder)
- files (contains files needed for the module)
- manifests (contains the init.pp file need to define
the module)
- templates (contains templates for the config files)
- The agent connects and checks what modules are
applicable to it and syncs config accordingly

13. Puppet

14. Puppet

15. Aptira + Puppet + OpenStack

Aptira infrastructure capability
− ~15,000 cores
− 15TB RAM
− 150TB HDD
− ~1000 nodes

Our puppet infrastructure allows us to utilise and deploy this
capability on demand from customers.

CapEx becomes much more dynamic and efficient. We can
service demands for huge amounts of power without owning
huge amounts of infrastructure.

We scale our IaaS as a Service!

16. Aptira + Puppet + OpenStack

Facter fact developed to determine hardware type (or Virtual
Machine hypervisor)
− Module to install and execute appropriate hardware
management toolset (Dell OpenManage, HP ACU CLI,
VMware Tools, etc)

Augeas used to manage network interfaces (Debian style)

We can also utilise public IaaS offerings, controlled by puppet.
− Bootstrap geographic presence without investing in
physical infrasctructure.

17. Why Puppet?

Aptira evaluates and chooses what we feel is
best of breed.
− Self documenting
− Explicit dependency management (versus Chef)
− Enterprise version if required
− Large community base
− Tacit knowledge: staff have previous experience
with puppet, many companies are using it.

18. Q&A

http://www.aptira.com

http://www.openstack.org

http://www.puppetlabs.com

Twitter:
− @Aptira
− @KavitAptira