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November 03, 2017
Is Puppet the right tool for the jump?
The company is really engineering driven, so Puppet is being used across the entire organization in order to maintain the configuration and also as a deployment tool when it comes time to GM a new version of one of our applications. Before the use of puppet in this organization there was a longer, more drawn out deployment process which required manually interacting with every host being updated.
- Maintain configurations
- Create a more organized look at what it takes to run a particular application
- Automate deployments
- Coming from Chef, I was much more used to everything being executed from the top down, Puppet executes actions at random and so if you need something like a directory to be created before a file is placed you will need to explicitly declare the order of execution.
- Coming from Chef I also learned to love the knife command, this allows you a few things, but a very valuable action allowed by the knife command is the ability to list nodes that are currently running Chef.
- The ability to use commands across multiple host in parallel(once again, a knife command).
Puppet Data Center Automation is being used throughout our organization to quickly and reliably deploy and maintain various systems. We currently pull our manifests from Git via Puppet to stand-up brand new (virtual) servers and configurations without worrying about configuration drift on each independent snowflake. Using Puppet allows us to automate and streamline multiple aspects of our day-to-day operations and works well within our release process to provide us with solid infrastructure-as-code solution.
- Provides a reliable mechanism for deploying infrastructure-as-code, especially when integrated with source control (such as Git).
- Manages system configuration drift to provide greater stability and system up-time; the same configuration-as-code can be pushed out over and over.
- A strong asset when moving teams towards DevOps by providing development a way to take control of their own assets.
- A bit of a steep learning curve but something that can be easily understood once a few basics are grasped and use of Puppet is put into practice.
- Does not fit well with existing infrastructure but that is not necessarily a failing with Puppet but can require a radical shift in thinking and procedures to reliably implement.
I use it to roll out configuration changes with variables stored in Hiera for all parts of our infrastructure(From LDAP to Apache Vhost configurations). It addresses the need to keep all systems uniformly identical with a clear map of each system as well as a simple way to update each machine as well as ease in automating their deployment.
- Provides a clear map of how a system is configured
- Eases the creation of a system in a specific cluster as it is scripted in code
- Simplifies configuration changes to a cluster or to every system such as rolling out vhost configurations, updating ldap roles, NFS mounts, etc
- The syntax is very easy to read and carries a lot of fluidity once the language is learned.
- It is occasionally squirrelly such as if I want a tarball to decompress once, I have to do run a exec command and onlyif => 'test ! -d /directory_name'.
- I cant for the life of me figure out how to execute it based on environment(production, development, staging) so I am still using puppet 3.7 that utilizes manifest nodes. I would like to utilize puppet 4 because it supports Lambdas and a very Ruby-like syntax for iterations but it requires the use of environments which we do not need. It would be nice to allow for both methods(manifest nodes AND environments) like 3.7 supported.
- It would be nice if the language still supported inline ruby. The new generation language is great for basic tasks but being able to do things like pulling data from a MariaDB database and utilizing that data in a manifest is very nice when operating at scale. We personally do not need it but I can see that being something very useful for those who code their own front ends for larger organizations.
Let me start by saying like any configuration management software, there is a learning curve and there must exist a respect for what it can do across hundreds or thousands of servers with a single Puppet run, or what it can break with that same ease of use! That being said puppet, working in unison with The Foreman, Mcollective and Hiera, are some of the most powerful, and for me personally, the most enjoyable and rewarding set of admin tools I've used in years.
At my current company we needed to automate deployments and configuration consistency across multiple data centers both Colo and Cloud internationally while remaining flexible enough to change parameters, environment settings and application code in a timely and controllable manner.
We needed a full server life cycle management system that automated provisioning, configuration, changes and clean removal of dynamic resources such as on demand server capacity.
- Create a specific role based server from a vanilla provisioning template and maintain configuration state via Puppet automated catalog runs.
- Add new functionality, services or configuration data to all servers or a subset of servers without ever needing to log into them.
- Integrates seamlessly into other server life cycle technologies such as The Foreman and Mcollective for even greater management and automation.
- Steep learning curve for first time users.
- The complexity can get a little overwhelming in a more collaborative deployment methodology across multiple platforms and data centers.
- Some external changes to Puppet like the new Puppet 4 architecture can cause considerable time consuming migration efforts especially if you have a lot of legacy classes and configuration that do not conform readily to the new design.
Our organization uses Puppet Data Center Automation in our integration and test environments as well as in operations. The systems integration team uses Puppet to automate redundant tasks as well as simplify deployment of complex system configurations to benefit system maintainers and installers that are not trained in the intricacies of the platforms and tools being implemented.
- Automation of redundant tasks
- Abstraction of complex tasks
- Integrates well with other community/open-source projects (e.g. Cobbler, Foreman)
- System user interfaces (e.g. Puppet Dashboard)
- Integrated support for password management
- Backend Ruby scripts are very embedded and cumbersome to find/edit in cases where manual bug workarounds are necessary to implement
We used Puppet to automate installs and configure out environment after the initial OS install. It is only used by our engineering area. The problem it addresses is defeating manual repetitive tasks.
- Automating software install.
- Configuring software after post install.
- Taking the same Puppet code to another environment and have it easily deploy there.
- Decrease the learning curve.
- Introduce ways easy ways to write Puppet code to those who have not done it.
- Introduce a UI for those who are fearful of command line.
June 05, 2018
Mature product with an expansive online community
Puppet Enterprise is being used to deploy and manage patching of Linux servers, primarily CentOS, across a wide array of customer systems from web servers to app and database servers we are able to patch in a consistent and reliable manner with proper notifications for our monitoring system and on-call resources.
- certificate management for new device trusts
- viewing all systems currently under puppet control
- view logs from all systems to detect errors and missed runs
- clean interface to navigate through system
- web UI could use quite a bit more functionality to differentiate it from the free version
- multi-tenancy would be a big benefit in our use case
- view and edit puppet code within console ui
February 15, 2016
Easy to Use and Free for All
We are using Puppet Data Center Automation to establish the communication between our master server (database) and the other computers that are being used by the employees in order for them to have access to the most up-to-date files in our server. With the software we ensure that the database is running properly and easy to access.
- It's compatible with all the operating systems that the employees use at our organization.
- Easy to install and initial setup is easy.
- It provides good tools for testing if everything is running properly and in order.
- If you want to do advanced tasks with it, you need to be familiar with Ruby, which not everyone has knowledge about it.
- It doesn't have its own dashboard.
- The support for the tool is not very high due to being an open source software.
February 12, 2016
Puppet is Free and Powerful
Puppet is a great tool. Puppet used in conjunction with other open sourced tools makes VM automation work like magic.
It is currently in development, but will hopefully make it out to be used throughout the organization.
There are few business problems, mainly with the limitation in support for open sourced software, which would be solved by using the closed sourced counterpart, but that would defeat the purpose of open source...
If people helping people is a powerful thing... then Puppet helping Puppet is also a very powerful thing.
It is currently in development, but will hopefully make it out to be used throughout the organization.
There are few business problems, mainly with the limitation in support for open sourced software, which would be solved by using the closed sourced counterpart, but that would defeat the purpose of open source...
If people helping people is a powerful thing... then Puppet helping Puppet is also a very powerful thing.
- Plays well with other open sourced software
- A generally accepted open sourced tool for automation
- Easy to understand
- It is most importantly free
- Support... support.... support
- Does not always work well with other software
We use Puppet Data Center Automation as a configuration management tool in our organization. It allows us to maintain a constant baseline as well as make easy updates across many servers.
- Maintain a solid baseline across many servers.
- Apply updates to many servers.
- Easy to make changes all in one place rather than on 50 servers.
- No GUI for non sys-admin users.
- Ruby syntax is troubling at times.
- No automated deployment.
October 16, 2015
The wonderful world of Puppet
We use Puppet Data Center Automation to standardize our server deployments. This allows us to maintain a uniform configuration across application servers ensuring specific production level standards are met and kept in sync. We are able to be sure accounts are provisioned and deprovisioned in a timely manner as well as centrally control application configuration updates/changes.
- It allows for uniform configuration.
- It allows you to deploy software effectively without having to learn specific nuances of it.
- It allows you to be OS agnostic in that it can translate commands between OS distributions.
- The OpenSource branch of the product does not come with a reasonable dashboard. A third party one must be used.
- Puppet by itself, while good, needs additions made to it to become great, such as Heira, r10k, GIT, etc...
- Puppet has a learning curve. It is best to start with something small, such as NTP and work your way up from there. Do not start with something like Apache.
- Deploying MCollective really helps to round out the Puppet experience.
Puppet Enterprise Scorecard Summary
About Puppet Enterprise
Puppet Enterprise (formerly Puppet Data Center Automation) is IT workload automation software from Puppet in Portland, Oregon.
Categories: Configuration Management
Puppet Enterprise Technical Details
| Operating Systems: | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application: | No |