What is Puppet?

Puppet is one of the most used configuration management tools and is often used for server provisioning. It is one of the earliest Configuration management is a set of methodologies and rules used to keep track of the current build state and design of a system. It is used to keep a record of the performance, functions, design, and operational information of any system. Now, coming back to Puppet, it is a configuration management technology that is available as both open-source and enterprise versions. It is developed by Puppet Labs and written in Ruby DSL (domain-specific language). Puppet runs on UNIX-like and Windows systems and is used to manage the configuration of those systems.

Why do we use Puppet?

Puppet is one of the most popular configuration management tools in the IT world these days. It is being extensively used by Fortune 500 companies as well. Most of the businesses using DevOps methodologies are getting inclined toward using Puppet. There are multiple reasons explaining why it is coming out on top when compared with other configuration management tools such as chef:

·         Puppet provides more platform support. For example, the following are the platforms we can manage using Puppet:

o     Debian/Ubuntu

o     Microsoft Windows

o     Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora

o     MacOS X

·         Puppet has better documentation

·         Unlike other configuration management tools, Puppet, after deploying a configuration on any system, keeps verifying those configurations in certain intervals. These intervals can be modified as well

·         Puppet is being used by some of the major organizations in the industry, namely, Google, Red Hat, etc.

·         Puppet helps DevOps professionals and System Administrators work faster and smarter

Understanding the Puppet Architecture and Puppet Components:

Puppet follows the client–server architecture where the client is what we call a Puppet agent and the server is what we call a Puppet master. Following are the components of the Puppet architecture:

·         Puppet master: Puppet master handles the entire configuration-related information. It runs on a designated server and manages the entire deployments, configuration, etc.

·         Puppet agent: Puppet agent runs on the client. Puppet agents are the actual working machines maintained and managed by the Puppet master.

·         Config repository: Config repository is where the entire server-related configurations and nodes are stored. They can be pulled at any time as required.

·         Facts: They are the global variables containing details related to the machine such as the operating system, network interfaces, etc. They are used to analyze the current status of any node.

·         Catalog: All configurations written in Puppet are converted to a compiled format which is called a catalog and then those catalogs are applied in the target system.

·         Manifests: Manifests are the files where all the resources, i.e., services, packages, or files that need to be checked and changed, are declared. Manifests have the .pp extension.

·         Modules: A module is a collection of manifest files organized in a way that it facilitates the sharing of the files.

·         Classes: Puppet, like other programming languages, also has classes to organize the codes better, making it easier to read and understand the code and to reuse some parts of the code.

·         Resources: In Puppet codes, the coding block is defined by declaring resources where resources may represent packages, files, users, or commands.

·         Nodes: All the servers or clients that are to be managed where Puppet agents are installed are called the nodes.

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