Installing Puppet Server

Puppet Server is the software that pushes configuration from the Puppet master to the other servers. It runs only on the Puppet master; the other hosts will run the Puppet Agent.

Step 1: Get the puppet installation package from its repository using wget command.

command: wget https://apt.puppetlabs.com/puppet-release-bionic.deb

Step 2: Make the package ready for installation using dpkg command.

command: sudo dpkg -i puppet-release-bionic.deb

Step 3: To ensure every dependicies are installed and updated.

command: sudo apt-get update

Step 4: Install the puppet master

command: sudo apt-get install puppetmaster

Step 5: To check puppet master is running .

command: sudo systemctl status puppet-master.service

Step 5: Configure memory allocation

By default, Puppet Server is configured to use 2 GB of RAM. You can customize this setting based on how much free memory the master server has and how many agent nodes it will manage.

To customize it, open /etc/default/puppetmaster:

command: sudo vim /etc/default/puppetmaster

Then find the JAVA_ARGS line, and use the -Xms and -Xmx parameters to set the memory allocation. We’ll increase ours to 3 gigabytes:

Write JAVA_ARGS="-Xms3g -Xmx3g -XX:MaxPermSize=512m" , Save and Exit the file.

Step 6: Restart puppet master service.

command: sudo systemctl restart puppet-master.service

Step 7: Allow port 8140/tcp from firewall.

command: sudo ufw allow 8140/tcp

Step 8: Enable puppet master to run in background.

command: sudo systemctl enable puppetserver

Now, Install Puppet Agent

The Puppet agent software must be installed on any server that the Puppet master will manage. In most cases, this will include every server in your infrastructure.

Step 1: To ensure every dependicies are installed and updated.

command: sudo apt-get update

Step 2: Get the puppet installation package from its repository using wget command.

command: wget https://apt.puppetlabs.com/puppet-release-bionic.deb

Step 3: Make the package ready for installation using dpkg command.

command: sudo dpkg -i puppet-release-bionic.deb

Step 4: Install the Puppet agent package.

command: sudo apt-get install puppet

Step 5: Start the agent and enable it to start on boot.

command: sudo systemctl start puppet

command: sudo systemctl enable puppet

Step 6: Edit hosts file in puppet Agent machine.

command: sudo nano /etc/hosts

Step 7: Edit hosts file in puppet master machine

command: sudo nano /etc/hosts

Configure puppet master

Step 1: we will sign the certificates on the Puppet master .

To show all available certificate to sign for connection

command: sudo puppet cert list

Step 2: To sign all the certificate sent to puppet master

command: sudo puppet cert sign –all

Create a Manifests on Puppet Server or Master

Step 1: Create a directory for manifests files.

command: sudo nano /etc/puppet/code/environments/production/manifests/site.pp

Step 2: Open site.pp with vim or nano editor. Add below code to site.pp

# execute 'apt-get update'

exec { 'apt-update':                    # exec resource named 'apt-update'

  command => '/usr/bin/apt-get update'  # command this resource will run

# install apache2 package

package { 'apache2':

  require => Exec['apt-update'],        # require 'apt-update' before installing

  ensure => installed,

# ensure apache2 service is running

service { 'apache2':

  ensure => running,

# install mysql-server package

package { 'mysql-server':

  require => Exec['apt-update'],        # require 'apt-update' before installing

  ensure => installed,

# ensure mysql service is running

service { 'mysql':

  ensure => running,

Step 3: Restart puppet-master service.

command: sudo systemctl restart puppet-master

On puppet agent machine

Step 1: Do an agent run.

command: sudo puppet agent –test

Step 2: Confirm installation of apache2

command: sudo service apache2 status