book

Pro Puppet, Second Edition

by Spencer Krum, William Van Hevelingen, Ben Kero, James Turnbull, Jeffery McCune

December 2013

Intermediate to advanced

332 pages

8h 37m

English

Apress

Read now

Unlock full access

What Is Puppet?Selecting the Right Version of PuppetInstalling PuppetConfiguring PuppetConnecting Our First AgentCreating Our First Configuration ItemCreating Our First ModuleSummaryResources
Getting StartedConfiguring NodesMaking (More) Magic With ModulesSummaryResources

The puppet apply Command and Modes of OperationForeground Puppet MasterDeveloping Puppet with VagrantEnvironmentsMaking Changes to the Development EnvironmentTesting the New Environments with the Puppet AgentEnvironment Branching and MergingDynamic Puppet Environments with Git BranchesSummaryResources
Identifying the ChallengesRunning the Puppet Master with Apache and PassengerTesting the Puppet Master in ApacheLoad-Balancing Multiple Puppet MastersScaling FurtherLoad Balancing AlternativesMeasuring PerformanceSplay TimeSummaryGoing FurtherResources
External Node ClassificationStoring Node Configuration in LDAPSummaryResources
Virtual ResourcesGetting Started with Exported and Stored ConfigurationsUsing Exported ResourcesExpiring Stale ResourcesSummaryResources
The ForemanPuppet Enterprise ConsolePuppetboardSummaryResources
Puppet Forge and the Module ToolSearching and Installing a Module from the ForgeGenerating a ModuleManaging Module DependenciesTesting the ModulesDeveloping Puppet modules With GeppettoSummaryResources
Getting StartedConfiguring ReportingReport ProcessorsCustom ReportingOther Puppet ReportersSummaryResources
Writing and Distributing Custom FactsDeveloping Custom Types, Providers and FunctionsSummaryResources
More Background on MCollectiveInstalling and Configuring MCollectiveTestingInstalling MCollective Plug-insAddressing Hosts with MetadataAdditional Plug-insSummaryResources
The Power of HieraInstalling Hiera on Earlier Versions of PuppetInitial Hiera ConfigurationThe Hiera Command-Line UtilityComplex Data StructuresAdditional BackendsHiera Functions in DepthModule Data BindingsHiera ExamplesHiera-2SummaryResources

Content preview from Pro Puppet, Second Edition

CHAPTER 5

Externalizing Puppet Configuration

In Chapter 2 we talked about the ways you can define your hosts or nodes to Puppet. We talked about specifying them in a variety of forms as node statements in your Puppet manifest files. We also mentioned that Puppet has the capability to store node information in external sources. This avoids the need to specify large numbers of nodes manually in your manifest files, a solution that is time-consuming and not scalable.

Puppet has two ways to store node information externally: