What Is Puppet Manifest

Manifests are all Puppet programs that are written in the Ruby programming language and saved with the.pp extension. A manifest is a general term for all Puppet programs that are built with the goal of creating or managing any target host machine. All Puppet programs adhere to the Puppet coding style.

The way resources are declared and how these resources represent their state is at the heart of Puppet. A user can have a collection of different types of resources in any manifest, which are grouped together using class and definition.

In rare circumstances, a conditional statement can be included in a Puppet manifest to achieve a desired state. However, at the end of the day, it's all about making sure that all of the resources are defined and used correctly, and that the defined manifest, once converted to a catalog, is capable of performing the task for which it was created.

What are Puppet manifests written in?

You can construct Puppet manifests to govern the nodes that are running the Puppet agent after installing and configuring Puppet. Puppet manifests utilize a.pp file extension and are authored in a Puppet-specific language that is comparable to Ruby.

The main file used by Puppet to define global system configuration is the site manifest (site.pp). A site manifest specifies configuration for each node, making it excellent for handling system-wide setups like DNS servers, LDAP configuration, and other site-wide settings that apply to all nodes.

A site manifest can also contain node-specific code blocks that only apply to specific nodes. Within a site manifest, you can assign unique configurations to certain nodes using this feature. See Specifying Node-Specific Code in Puppet Manifests.

Where do you put Puppet manifest?

As a result, the prior resource declaration defines a user resource named'mitchell' that has the properties specified.

Enter the following command to see a list of all the default resource types available to Puppet:

Manifests

Manifests are the name for puppet programs. Puppet code makes up manifests, which are saved with the.pp extension. /etc/puppet/manifests/site.pp is the default primary manifest in Puppet installed via apt.

You've already built a manifest that produces a file and installs Apache if you followed the prerequisite Puppet instruction. In this tutorial, we'll also write a couple more.

Class Definition

The code that makes up a class lives in a class definition. The act of defining a class makes it available for usage in manifests, but it does not evaluate anything.

What is Puppet module?

Puppet modules are a set of manifests and data that might include things like facts, files, and templates. Modules allow you to break Puppet code into multiple manifests, which helps you organize and reuse it. Except for the main site, that is.

How does a Puppet work?

Puppet allows you to specify which software and settings a system requires, as well as preserve that state beyond the initial setup.

To define configuration parameters for a given environment or infrastructure, you utilize a declarative Domain Specific Language (DSL) comparable to Ruby. Puppet gathers information on a system with the use of a tool called Facter, which is included with the Puppet software package. See Using Facter to Gather Information About a System for further information.

The Puppet master is a system that uses manifests to handle crucial configuration information for all of the nodes it manages. Puppet Manifests can be found here.

The master has control over the nodes that have Puppet installed and are executing the Puppet agent, which is a daemon. The Puppet master receives the configuration information that the agent collects about a node. The Puppet master then creates a catalog depending on the node's configuration. That information is used by each node to apply any necessary configuration updates to itself.

Agents query the master at regular intervals to retrieve site-specific and node-specific configurations, and Puppet works in a pull mode. The Puppet agent application is often run as a background service on controlled nodes in this system. Go to Overview of Puppet's Architecture for further details.

About the Puppet Master

The Puppet master is a daemon that runs on a specific server and serves as Puppet's principal source of configuration data and authority. All of the nodes in the Puppet infrastructure receive instructions from the master. Because some aspects of component configuration are dependent on the configuration of other components, the Puppetmaster server must be aware of the complete system's setup. By running the master as its own user and group, Puppetrestricts access to it. See Puppet User and Group Functions for further information.

What are the benefits of Puppet?

What role do puppets play in the development of children? As a parent, you might be surprised to learn that children who play with puppets learn a lot. They have the potential to increase a variety of skills, including language, creativity, and social awareness.

Here are nine reasons why utilizing puppets in the classroom and at home is beneficial.

What is the difference between Ansible and Puppet?

I've seen that people are still having trouble distinguishing between Ansible and Puppet. As someone who prefers Puppet, I discovered that when I had to move totally from Puppet to Ansible in my work, I found that I began to prefer Ansible over Puppet.

In this article, I'll go over the advantages and disadvantages of each with some technical examples.

In short… the differences.

I would generally classify these as different use cases (more on this below), but in general, you need have a basic understanding of Puppet and Ansible before getting started. Ansible is more of a provisioning, configuration, and deployment tool, whereas Puppet is more of a configuration management tool. Despite the fact that Puppet now has the ability to provision infrastructure, I would seriously consider Puppet for that purpose. Anyway, let's get this party started.

Ansible is simple! (They said)

Ansible, on the other hand, makes use of the YAML language, whereas Puppet has its own declarative language. If you make a mistake with Puppet, it will be easily visible, and Puppet Lint or Puppet Run will almost always fail.

Tasks in Ansible are executed in a specified order, so if you have syntax mistakes in your plays or roles, they will fail whenever you hit them, rather than before the entire play is executed. Playbooks can take a long time to receive feedback. In this scenario, I prefer Puppet since it will refuse to generate a catalog if the grammar is incorrect.

Some may argue “Okay, but Puppet utilizes YAML as well”… sure, for hiera, and if you make YAML errors in Puppet, you might have identical problems with Ansible.

Although YAML lint does not produce any errors or warnings, the above breaks the overall structure. Take a peek at this performance:

The first item was found with the right key value pair, but the second item was null, as you can see in the sample above. This is due to incorrect indentation, which fundamentally affected the structure of your data. You may now respond “Yes, but that's rather clear!” It is and it isn't, especially for novices, and it's a quite common blunder (including myself). Because of these types of indentation problems, I also experienced a lot more serious YAML hierarchy errors in the bigger plays, which YAML lint didn't catch up on at all. YAML is not the easiest language to debug, as everyone who has worked with it knows.

Ansible needs to know what to run where…

…along with Puppet. Ansible is inextricably linked to a flat file inventory, dynamic inventories, or smart inventories, which you must manage. If you try to perform a task against a server that isn't in your inventory, Ansible will simply refuse to do so. The Puppet agent communicates with the master, and the master manages “the inventory,” but you must also declare the configuration of nodes (servers), unless you use the default node declaration, which applies to all hosts. Puppet also requires the master to sign (manually) node certificates. This gives you some assurance that the code will not run or be performed against untrustworthy servers (or configured). If you want your master to sign certificates automatically, you can use autosign.conf (can be limited to certain hostnames or wildcards).

Don't reinvent the wheel…

Modules. Both solutions include a large number of modules and/or roles that have already been built by others and are stored in specific “repositories.” Look at Puppet Forge for Puppet and Ansible Galaxy for Ansible.

When I need to write something, I always look through these resources to save time and effort. If I can discover a module that does something useful for me, I install it (instead of writing it on my own because there is a big chance someone has already done that better than me anyway).

Based on my own experience, Puppet is the undisputed champion in terms of module selection and quality. Puppet Forge has a large module library, and PuppetLabs manages some of the modules themselves, which helps. Modules created in compliance with some PuppetLabs best practices may receive Supported or Approved marks/grades from the Puppet team. This is really helpful in deciding which module to employ, simply because you want the greatest ones that are actively developed on a daily basis. Modules that have been tested and shown to work are also desirable.

This, in my opinion, is the fundamental reason Ansible lost the battle. I just tried various Ansible Galaxy modules, and two of the three I utilized required some manual edits and customizations to accomplish my goals. I'm not going to mention names, but I was utilizing certain collected and zabbix agent modules.

* In regards to the stars above, writing a supported or approved Puppet module would take a significant amount of work.

But Puppet needs extra components!

True. The infrastructure required to support your automation operations is a common objection I hear against Puppet. If you want to use Puppet to its greatest potential, you'll require infrastructure. If you wish to see the node's facts, reports, and other information, you'll require puppet master(s) and puppet db (s). Many people associate this argument with the overhead that Puppet introduces. I can't say which is better because Puppet and Ansible, in my perspective, serve slightly different goals yet are extremely similar.

Another argument against Puppet is that it requires X puppet to run. Ansible is required to operate ansible-playbook. Ansible-playbook may be run from a centralized location, whereas Puppet requires an agent to run on each node. Unless you use masterless setup and run your puppet manifests locally on the box, you'll need puppet installed on that server, as well as the source code for all of your modules and manifests.

In short, regardless of whether you go masterless or not, Puppet will always require an additional component/package to be installed on the target server to make it all work.

Ansible can deploy and configure stuff at the same time…

Yes. This is correct. By connecting directly to the infrastructure providers, you can use built-in Ansible modules to provision your infrastructure (AWS, VMWare, Azure, etc). You can write a code to describe your infrastructure and configure it on the fly.

As long as Puppet offers similar modules and capabilities (for example, AWS), I'd be hesitant to use Puppet code to deploy an AWS instance… but that's just my view. Instead, I'd most likely utilize Terraform or Ansible for that task.

Provisioning complex infrastructure and configurations…

As previously said, Ansible (or Terraform) would be my preferred infrastructure provisioning tool. If you have an environment that must be developed in a specific order, you can build your game to wait for certain components to arrive, or you can work on your infrastructure before customizing bits and pieces. I'm not sure if that's possible with Puppet. I've never done it due of the reasons stated above.

In both Ansible and Puppet, complex configurations can be equally difficult or simple. If the task is complex, you'll probably have to write it yourself, using your own set of templates or flat files, so the tool you use here is a matter of personal preference.

Task scheduling…

You might want to run your tasks every now and then. Puppet agent checks that the status of the checked in node (server) is in the desired (specified) state every 30 minutes by default. Because Ansible lacks that capability, if you require a scheduler, you should check into Ansible Tower, which has recently become open source. Puppet comes with everything by default. So, when we talked about the extra infrastructure and an overhead, you should start looking at Ansible Tower if you require some Ansible fireworks (or AWX).

Puppet is a devil's tool because…

– Yes, since when Puppet Agent runs, it will undo all of your modifications if they differ from the Puppet manifests. Right, but isn't this precisely what you want?

“Not really, I'd like to make manual modifications, so I'm going to disable or halt Puppet Agent.”

The above may seem familiar to some. The fundamental goal of scheduled run is to ensure that your code reflects and enforces the current configuration on the destination systems. I believe many individuals are to blame here, as everyone (including myself) has been in a circumstance where you needed to turn puppet agent off in order to test or alter (and then test) something on a live system. This behavior is frequently enforced by test infrastructure that does not exist. Unfortunately, life is not ideal, and there are times when you must do so.

Different code base per environment…

Puppet has a tool called r10k that is one of the greatest I've ever seen and used. I was ecstatic when (first and foremost) I figured out how to use it! In a nutshell, r10k is a program that allows you to manage your modules based on branches or unique environment parameters.

It creates the ‘code basis' for your whole Puppet module based on the Puppetfile for that specific environment. This means you won't have any accidentally installed modules in your module inventory, and each module will be kept in its own git repository. Complete victory! This makes module management and development, as well as testing your modifications, much easier. You can also refer to distinct modules in your production or QA environment from different branches, versions, commit points, and so on (for future promotion).

When you run r10k deploy environment production -p, it will download all of the modules listed from Puppet Forge as well as the profiles module from my own GitLab server, but with a specific commit number, presuming my Puppetfile is in the production branch in git. So, assuming I have a QA branch in my local GitLab where I do all my changes, if I want to test my profiles in the QA environment, I just do this:

You'll test these modifications after running r10k and pointing your puppet agent to the qa branch. r10k is absolutely deserving of its own article.

Summary

To summarize this paper, both options are deserving of consideration. If you're a storage or network engineer, I believe you should skip over Ansible and go straight to it. In terms of provisioning, I believe Ansible has a significant advantage. If your deployment necessitates ordering or other unique duties that must be meticulously planned and coordinated. Ansible is especially ideal for short-term situations because it eliminates the complexity of handling Puppet node SSL certificates and other issues. It's not a major deal, and I believe Puppet can compete with Ansible in this area. Puppet is unquestionably more developed, and I believe it has more to offer in terms of support. Ansible is easy to use at first, but as you add more complex tasks, you may find it challenging to manage them. Without Tower, Ansible isn't really ‘idiot proof' (or safe), as it just allows you to run playbooks over your entire inventory. Imagine declaring a new root password in your Ansible Vault, running your play, and realizing halfway through that the password is something you don't remember because you jumbled up the SHA256 hash. You have just irreparably lost access to portions of your infrastructure if you use password authentication to access your servers (which is sort of stupid anyway because you should only use SSH key authentication).

If you employ key authentication and have to change your account's key (to the wrong one), you've irreparably lost access to (part of) your infrastructure. That situation may be corrected with puppet because the agent runs every so often, allowing you to update your code, deploy it to puppet master, and wait for another puppet agent run. Puppet has more and better-written modules that just work, and it is a more enterprise-ready solution, in my opinion. In contrast to job scheduling in Ansible without Tower, which simply gives you a few options.

What language is used for Puppet?

Puppet is a software configuration management solution with its own declarative language for describing system configuration in computing. It's a model-driven approach that just takes a basic understanding of programming.

Puppet is manufactured by Puppet, Inc, which was founded in 2005 by Luke Kanies. Puppet Enterprise, Puppet's main offering, is a commercially sponsored version of the open-source Puppet. Puppet's automation software manages multiple stages of the IT infrastructure lifecycle, including provisioning, patching, configuration, and management of operating system and application components across enterprise data centers and cloud infrastructures, using Puppet's declarative language.

Puppet is based on an open-source approach; until version 2.7.0, the free-software version was distributed under version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPL), and later releases used the Apache License, while Puppet Enterprise was distributed under a proprietary license.

Puppet and Puppet Enterprise are cross-platform software that run on a variety of Unix-like systems (including Linux, Solaris, BSD, Mac OS X, AIX, and HP-UX) and also support Microsoft Windows. Puppet is written in Ruby, while Facter and Puppet Server are developed in C++ and Clojure, respectively.

What are the benefits of Puppet in DevOps?

• It keeps track of configuration changes at regular intervals, unlike other programs, which improves security. (after the deployment of the configuration in any system)
• To control host configurations, it employs a simple language known as DSL (or Domain Specific Language).
• It allows DevOps administrators to establish custom setups for each server as well as numerous layouts and configuration schemes.
• Puppet is a low-cost solution for resolving configuration bottlenecks and delays.

What is Puppet node?

A node definition, also known as a node statement, is a Puppet code block that only appears in the catalogs of matching nodes. This enables you to assign different settings to different nodes. Every node has its own compilation of puppet code that isn't defined in any node declaration.

What is Puppet agent?

Puppet agent is a Puppet labs software program that runs on any node in a Puppet cluster. If you wish to use the Puppet master to manage any server, you must first install the Puppet agent software on that server. On any given infrastructure, the Puppet agent will be installed on all machines except the Puppet master machine. The Puppet agent program can run on a wide range of Linux, UNIX, and Windows platforms. We'll use a CentOS machine to install Puppet agent software in the following examples.

Step 1: Run the following command to enable the official Puppet labs collection repository.

Step 3: Once the Puppet agent is installed, run the following command to enable it.

One of the most important features of the Puppet agent is that when it first starts up, it generates an SSL certificate and sends it to the Puppet master, who will sign and approve it. The agent will be able to communicate and manage the agent node once the Puppet master authorizes the agent's certificate signature request.

Note that the following procedures must be repeated on all nodes that need to be setup and maintained by a given Puppet master.

What is masterless Puppet?

When testing and fine-tuning a Puppet strategy, the ) technique is advised. This technique retrieves Puppet artifacts such as templates, declared types, and files from the local Puppet manifests and data, rather than from an external server. Puppet apply is used to test a Puppet module in the Puppet Vagrant configuration that comes with WSO2 Puppet Modules.