5 Tips for

getting started
with Puppet
When beginning a Puppet deployment, there are
many decisions and tradeoffs to make around
code promotion, source code control, workflows,
and resource modeling. These decisions will have
a long-term impact on the viability of your
Puppet deployment.

Here are some tips you should consider that can

help ensure your success with Puppet.

#1 Pick the right things to automate.

Cost
Time Middleware
Complexity ERP Cluster

DB Cluster

Monitoring
Host Keys

Accounts Syslog
Value
Frequency
Variability

 Low cost High value

Config items you know Optimize for frequency
Low variability

For example
Simple to gather logs
in one spot.
Easy to automate.
Configuration is the same.

#2 Dont learn two things at once.

Automate what you know, and dont automate

your automation framework as your first project.

?
? Dont automate things you dont already
understand... automate the things you do.

Refine the setup. Get down to the steps it

actually takes to do it.

Now start thinking about automating.

Declare state. #puppetize

#3 Use Puppet to make you better.

The resource abstraction layer

Resources are abstracted at the appropriate level.

Custom facts
Add new facts by writing snippets of code on
the Puppet master.

PuppetDB
Get facts about your system.

Puppet Describe
Outputs information about how Puppet works with
every resource type.

Noop
Allows you to see the changes Puppet would like
to make while preventing Puppet from actually
performing the convergence.

#4 Start simple... stay simple.

Think about what you are
automating and why.
Build small,
single-purpose modules
These become primitives
to compose into complex
automation tasks.

Time measurements Public IP in hosts Define tech approver

What are the first things Puppet master in hosts Define business approver
I do when a system My user account Classify as Prod/Dev
comes online? My SSH key Install wget
Install vim-enhanced Configure monitoring
What can I automate? Set up backups Add EPEL
Add me to sudoers Configure vim
Set up locate Configure SELinux
Install build utils Install man, strace

#5 Iteration

Get better, start over, work on it again.

Learn from developers. Version your code.

Core infrastructure configurations

Operating systems | NTP | DNS | SSH | Firewall | Users | Groups

Application infrastructure
SQL server | Tomcat | WebSphere | IIS | MySQL

Provisioning
Bare metal | Virtual environments | Cloud | Containers

Application orchestration
Custom apps | COTS | Share services

Ready to dig in?

Just getting started with open source Check out our other resources at:
Puppet or Puppet Enterprise? Puppet Forge
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