Learning Puppet 4: A Guide to Configuration Management and Automation

With this practical book, you’ll not only come to understand the specifics of the popular Puppet configuration management tool, but you’ll also learn important configuration management concepts and various deployment methodologies. It’s ideal for system administrators, developers, and anyone else interested in ensuring that their deployments go smoothly.

• Learn exactly what Puppet is, why was it created, and what problems it solves
• Firmly grasp all the concepts necessary to use Puppet successfully
• Find out how to set up your own workstation and workflow, commonly one of the biggest headaches in learning Puppet
• Tailor Puppet to your infrastructure with a design that meets all of your needs
• Learning about key tools in the Puppet ecosystem: MCollective, Puppet Dashboard, Foreman, and PuppetDB

Table of Contents

Part I. Controlling with Puppet Apply
Chapter 1. Thinking Declarative
Chapter 2. Creating a Learning Environment
Chapter 3. Installing Puppet
Chapter 4. Writing Manifests
Chapter 5. Using the Puppet Configuration Language
Chapter 6. Controlling Resource Processing
Chapter 7. Expressing Relationships
Chapter 8. Upgrading Puppet 3 Manifests
Chapter 9. Wrap-Up of Puppet Basics

Part II. Creating Puppet Modules
Chapter 10. Creating a Test Environment
Chapter 11. Separating Data from Code
Chapter 12. Using Modules
Chapter 13. Designing a Custom Module
Chapter 14. Improving the Module
Chapter 15. Extending Modules with Plugins
Chapter 16. Documenting Modules
Chapter 17. Testing Modules
Chapter 18. Publishing Modules

Part III. Using a Puppet Server
Chapter 19. Preparing for a Puppet Server
Chapter 20. Creating a Puppet Master
Chapter 21. Creating a Puppet Server
Chapter 22. Connecting a Node
Chapter 23. Migrating an Existing Puppet Master
Chapter 24. Utilizing Advantages of a Puppet Server
Chapter 25. Managing TLS Certificates
Chapter 26. Growing Your Puppet Deployment

Part IV. Integrating Puppet
Chapter 27. Tracking Puppet Status with Dashboards
Chapter 28. Running the Puppet Agent on Windows
Chapter 29. Customizing Environments
Chapter 30. Controlling Puppet with MCollective
Chapter 31. Managing Network Infrastructure with Puppet
Chapter 32. Assimilating Puppet Best Practices
Chapter 33. Finding Support Resources

Appendix A. Installing Puppet on Other Platforms
Appendix B. Configuring Firewalls on Other Platforms
Appendix C. Installing Ruby