PUPPET AUTOMATION SERIES - PART 3 - INSTALLATION

In this LAB, I have 2 servers hosted in my own laptop’s VirtualBox :

puppet-master.summernguyen.net : 192.168.56.101
puppet-agent.summernguyen.net : 192.168.56.102

OS: CentOS 6.6 x64

But in real life, I place puppet-master on my own laptop (using Ubuntu) and puppet-agent on VirtualBox. It’s very easy for me to code on my machine and test by appling to the testing server.

Step 1 : Set Hostname of the servers

It’s an easy task, everyone can do it :)

Make sure puppet-agent can ping puppet-master.summernguyen.net by hostname. You can do it using /etc/hosts file or your own DNS Server.

Step 2 : Enable the Puppet Labs Package Repository on both nodes

The newest versions of Puppet can be installed from the yum.puppetlabs.com package repository.

Enterprise Linux 7

$ sudo rpm -ivh https://yum.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs-release-el-7.noarch.rpm

Enterprise Linux 6

$ sudo rpm -ivh https://yum.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs-release-el-6.noarch.rpm

Enterprise Linux 5

$ sudo rpm -ivh https://yum.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs-release-el-5.noarch.rpm

Step 3 : install the puppet master on puppet-master.summernguyen.net (you will do this task only once )

Run the command :

[root@puppet-master ~]# yum install puppetserver -y

It will install puppet master and all it’s dependencies .

Configuring the Master with config file /etc/puppet/puppet.conf

[main]
    # The Puppet log directory.
    # The default value is '$vardir/log'.
    logdir = /var/log/puppet

    # Where Puppet PID files are kept.
    # The default value is '$vardir/run'.
    rundir = /var/run/puppet

    # Where SSL certificates are kept.
    # The default value is '$confdir/ssl'.
    ssldir = $vardir/ssl

    ####### DNS Name , Change your own Name
    dns_alt_names = puppet-master,puppet-master.summernguyen.net

    ##Enable Auto Sign Agent SSL Certificate ###
    autosign = false


[agent]
    # The file in which puppetd stores a list of the classes
    # associated with the retrieved configuratiion.  Can be loaded in
    # the separate ``puppet`` executable using the ``--loadclasses``
    # option.
    # The default value is '$confdir/classes.txt'.
    classfile = $vardir/classes.txt

    # Where puppetd caches the local configuration.  An
    # extension indicating the cache format is added automatically.
    # The default value is '$confdir/localconfig'.
    localconfig = $vardir/localconfig

Start & enable the puppet master service

[root@puppet-master ~]# service puppetserver start
[root@puppet-master ~]# chkconfig puppetserver on

Note: The puppet master must has more than 2199MB of RAM or you will get the message: Exception in thread “main” java.lang.Error: Not enough RAM. Puppet Server requires at least 2199MB of RAM.

If you are in testing environment and your server doesn’t have enough RAM, start it in no-daemonize mode

[root@puppet-master ~]# puppet master --verbose --no-daemonize

In Production Server, please follow the instruction to Install Puppet master for production environment.

In the first time running puppet master, the master will generate itself a certificate .

Puppet Master will be started on Port TCP 8140. Please ensure that this server is reachable by this port.

Step 4 : install the puppet agent on puppet-agent.summernguyen.net (you will do this task anytime you have a new server )

Run the command :

yum install puppet -y

It will install puppet agent and all it’s dependencies .

Configuring the Agent with config file /etc/puppet/puppet.conf

[main]
    # The Puppet log directory.
    # The default value is '$vardir/log'.
    logdir = /var/log/puppet

    # Where Puppet PID files are kept.
    # The default value is '$vardir/run'.
    rundir = /var/run/puppet

    # Where SSL certificates are kept.
    # The default value is '$confdir/ssl'.
    ssldir = $vardir/ssl

    ## Point to the puppet-master host ###
    server = puppet-master.summernguyen.net

    ## SSL Certificate Hostname ###
    certname = puppet-agent.summernguyen.net


[agent]
    # The file in which puppetd stores a list of the classes
    # associated with the retrieved configuratiion.  Can be loaded in
    # the separate ``puppet`` executable using the ``--loadclasses``
    # option.
    # The default value is '$confdir/classes.txt'.
    classfile = $vardir/classes.txt

    # Where puppetd caches the local configuration.  An
    # extension indicating the cache format is added automatically.
    # The default value is '$confdir/localconfig'.
    localconfig = $vardir/localconfig

There are two modes when running Puppet agent :

Daemon : it will periodically fetch configuration from Puppet Master if we start the puppet agent service service puppet start
Command : It will fetch configuration from Puppet Master whenever we run command puppet agent -t

Like Puppet master, at the first time running, Puppet agent will generate a SSL certificate as it’s identifier.

If Puppet master enable autosign , the puppet master will accept the agent’s certificate.

If Puppet master disable autosign, we have to manual accept the agent’s certificate by issue the command on Puppet Master:

puppet cert list  ## This will list all unaccept requested SSL certificate.
puppet cert sign puppet-agent.summernguyen.net ## This will accept the certifiate

That’s how to setup for Puppet Agent to connect to Puppet Master .

Previous Topic :PUPPET AUTOMATION SERIES - PART 2 - ARCHITECTURE

Next Topic : PUPPET AUTOMATION SERIES - PART 4 - BEGINNERS CONFIGURATION GUIDE

Puppet Automation Series - Part 3 - Installation

Summer Nguyen

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