Learning Puppet 4

Part III. Using a Puppet Server

Puppet server authenticates and provides centralized infrastructure for Puppet agents, including the following:

• Distributes policies to nodes without file sync
• Evaluates and builds a catalog for the node
• Provides a central source for configuration data
• Collects convergence reports from Puppet agents
• Stores backups of files managed by Puppet

In this part we’ll discuss how to install and configure two different servers for your Puppet nodes: the well-known Puppet master, and the fast new Puppet Server. These are two different products that perform much of the same functionality. You’ll learn how to install and configure both, and why you would select one over the other.

“Puppet server” Versus “Puppet Server”

For the remainder of this book, keep the following names in mind:

Puppet master

Refers to the Puppet server provided by the deprecated puppet master command, available with the base Puppet installation. This was the only server available in previous versions of Puppet.

Puppet Server

Refers to the Puppet Server product, which is packaged separately. Puppet Server provides a high-performance, scalable replacement for the Puppet master.

Puppet server

Refers to either the Puppet Server or Puppet master. Any statement with this capitalization would apply equally to both, as they both offer this functionality.

Obviously, the two different capitalizations will be easy to confuse, but that’s OK. Those two are and should be synonymous. Any statement ...