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Chapter 1. Introducing Configuration Management Using Puppet

You can use Puppet to manage and automate configurations of hosts. Puppet uses a declarative language to describe the desired state of managed hosts.

Puppet increases your productivity as you can administer multiple hosts simultaneously. At the same time, it decreases your configuration effort as Puppet makes it easy to verify and possibly correct the state of the hosts.

Additional resources

1.1. How Puppet Integrates with Satellite

Puppet uses a server-agent architecture. The Puppet server is the central component that stores configuration definitions. Satellite Server or any Capsules are typically deployed with the Puppet server and Satellite acts as an External Node Classifier (ENC) for such Puppet server. Managed hosts run the Puppet agent that communicates with the Puppet server.

The Puppet agent collects facts about a host and reports them to the Puppet server on each run. You can display the Puppet facts in JSON format by running puppet facts on a host.

The Puppet server forwards facts to Satellite and Satellite stores them for later use. Based on the facts and other definitions, Satellite constructs the ENC answer to the Puppet server. The Puppet server compiles a catalog based on the ENC answer and sends the catalog to the Puppet agent.

The Puppet agent evaluates the system state on the host. If the Puppet agent finds differences, known as drifts, between the desired state defined in the catalog and the actual state, it enforces correction of the state of the host. The Puppet agent then reports correction results back to the Puppet server, which reports them to Satellite.

Puppet modules

The desired state of a host is defined in a catalog. The catalog is compiled from Puppet manifests of one or more Puppet modules assigned to the host. A Puppet module is a collection of classes, manifests, resources, files, and templates. The Puppet modules work as components of host configuration definitions.

Smart Class parameters

You can override parameters of a Puppet module using Smart Class parameters if the module supports the use of parameters. You can define the parameters in your Satellite as key-value pairs, which behave similar to host parameters or Ansible variables.

Puppet environments

You can also create multiple Puppet environments to control versions of configuration definitions or to manage variants of the definitions, and to test the definitions before you deploy them on production.

High-Level Integration Steps

Puppet integration with Satellite involves the following high-level steps:

  1. Enable Puppet integration.
  2. Import Puppet agent packages into Satellite. Puppet agent packages can be managed like any other content with Satellite by enabling Red Hat Repositories and by using Activation Keys and Content Views.
  3. Install Puppet agent on hosts during provisioning, registration, manually, or by remote job execution.

Additional resources

The following procedures outline how to use a Puppet module to install, configure, and manage the ntp service to provide examples.

1.2. Supported Puppet Versions And System Requirements

Before you begin with the Puppet integration, review the supported Puppet versions and system requirements.

Supported Puppet Versions

Satellite supports the following Puppet versions:

  • Puppet 7
System Requirements
Before you begin integrating Puppet with your Satellite, ensure that you meet the system requirements. For details, see System Requirements for Puppet 7 in the Open Source Puppet documentation.

1.3. Enabling Puppet Integration with Satellite

By default, Satellite does not have any Puppet integration configured. You need to enable the integration as is appropriate for your situation. This means that you can configure Satellite to manage and deploy Puppet server on Satellite Server or on Capsule. Additionally, you can deploy Puppet server to Satellite externally and integrate it with Satellite for reporting, facts, and external node classification (ENC).

Procedure

  1. Enable Puppet integration and install Puppet server on Satellite Server: 

    # satellite-installer --enable-foreman-plugin-puppet \
--enable-foreman-cli-puppet \
--foreman-proxy-puppet true \
--foreman-proxy-puppetca true \
--foreman-proxy-content-puppet true \
--enable-puppet \
--puppet-server true \
--puppet-server-foreman-ssl-ca /etc/pki/katello/puppet/puppet_client_ca.crt \
--puppet-server-foreman-ssl-cert /etc/pki/katello/puppet/puppet_client.crt \
--puppet-server-foreman-ssl-key /etc/pki/katello/puppet/puppet_client.key

  2. If you want to use Puppet integration on Capsules, enable Puppet integration and install Puppet server on Capsules: 

    # satellite-installer --foreman-proxy-puppet true \
--foreman-proxy-puppetca true \
--foreman-proxy-content-puppet true \
--enable-puppet \
--puppet-server true \
--puppet-server-foreman-ssl-ca /etc/pki/katello/puppet/puppet_client_ca.crt \
--puppet-server-foreman-ssl-cert /etc/pki/katello/puppet/puppet_client.crt \
--puppet-server-foreman-ssl-key /etc/pki/katello/puppet/puppet_client.key \
--puppet-server-foreman-url "https://satellite.example.com"

    Enter the URL of your Satellite Server as the value of the --puppet-server-foreman-url argument.

1.4. Installing Puppet Agent during Host Provisioning

Install the Puppet agent during the host provisioning process.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Hosts > Provisioning Templates.
  2. Select a provisioning template depending on your host provisioning method. For more information, see Types of Provisioning Templates in the Provisioning guide.

  3. Ensure the puppet_setup snippet is included as follows: 

    <%= snippet 'puppet_setup' %>

  4. Enable Puppet using a host parameter for a single host or host group:

    Add a host parameter named enable-puppet7 for Puppet 7 as type boolean set to true.

  5. Optional: To install the Puppet agent directly from yum.puppet.com, add a host parameter named enable-puppetlabs-puppet7-repo for Puppet 7 as type boolean set to true. Only use this if you don’t provide Puppet agent to the host using its activation key.

1.5. Installing and Configuring Puppet Agent on a Host Manually

Install and configure the Puppet agent on a host manually.

Prerequisites

  • The host must have a Puppet environment assigned to it.
  • The Satellite Client 6 repository must be enabled and synchronized to Satellite Server, and enabled on the host. For more information, see Importing Content in Managing Content.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the host as the root user.

  2. Install the Puppet agent package.

    • On hosts running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and above: 

      # dnf install puppet-agent

    • On hosts running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and below: 

      # yum install puppet-agent

  3. Add the Puppet agent to PATH in your current shell using the following script: 

    . /etc/profile.d/puppet-agent.sh

  4. Configure the Puppet agent. Set the environment parameter to the name of the Puppet environment to which the host belongs: 

    # puppet config set server satellite.example.com --section agent
# puppet config set environment My_Puppet_Environment --section agent

  5. Start the Puppet agent service: 

    # puppet resource service puppet ensure=running enable=true

  6. Create a certificate for the host: 

    # puppet ssl bootstrap
  7. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Capsules.
  8. From the list in the Actions column for the required Capsule Server, select Certificates.
  9. Click Sign to the right of the required host to sign the SSL certificate for the Puppet agent.

  10. On the host, run the Puppet agent again: 

    # puppet ssl bootstrap

1.6. Performing Configuration Management

After you deploy Puppet agent on a host, you can start performing configuration management with Puppet. This involves the following high-level steps:

  1. Managing Puppet modules on the Puppet server, that is installing and updating them.
  2. Importing Puppet classes and environments from Puppet modules into Satellite.
  3. Optional: Creating config groups from Puppet classes.
  4. Configuring overrides of Smart Class parameters on various levels.
  5. Assigning Puppet classes or config groups to host groups or individual hosts.
  6. Configuring intervals for runs of the Puppet agent on hosts and for configuration enforcement runs of the Puppet server.
  7. Monitoring configuration management using reports in the Satellite web UI. For more information, see Monitoring Resources in Administering Red Hat Satellite.
  8. Configuring email notifications. For more information, see Configuring Email Notifications in Administering Red Hat Satellite.

After assigning Puppet classes or config groups, Satellite runs configuration management automatically in the configured intervals to enforce Puppet configuration on the managed hosts, or you can initiate it manually on demand with the Run Puppet Once feature. For more information, see Section 9.1, “Running Puppet Once Using SSH”.

1.7. Disabling Puppet Integration with Satellite

To discontinue using Puppet in your Satellite, follow this procedure.

Note that the command without the --remove-all-data argument removes all Puppet-related data in Satellite database. With the --remove-all-data argument, the command additionally removes Puppet server data files, including Puppet environments.

Warning

If you disable Puppet with the --remove-all-data argument, you will not be able to re-enable Puppet afterwards. This is a known issue, see the Bug 2087067.

Prerequisite

  • Puppet is enabled on Satellite.

Procedure

  1. If you have used Puppet server on any Capsules, disable Puppet server on all Capsules: 

    # satellite-maintain plugin purge-puppet --remove-all-data

  2. Disable Puppet server on Satellite Server: 

    # satellite-maintain plugin purge-puppet --remove-all-data
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