Pro Puppet, Second Edition

Pro Puppet, Second Edition, now updated for Puppet 3, is an in-depth guide to installing, using, and developing the popular configuration management tool Puppet.

Puppet provides a way to automate everything from user management to server configuration. You'll learn how Puppet has changed in the latest version, how to use it on a variety of platforms, including Windows, how to work with Puppet modules, and how to use Hiera.

Puppet is a must-have tool for system administrators, and Pro Puppet will teach you how to maximize its capabilities and customize it for your environment.

Install and configure Puppet to immediately start automating tasks and create reporting solutions

Learn insider tricks and techniques to better manage your infrastructure

Become a Puppet expert!

What you’ll learn

• How to use Puppet to administer Linux, Unix, and Windows systems
• Best practices for at-scale deployment
• How to write reusable puppet modules for yourself and for the community
• How to use numerous tools around Puppet such as rspec-puppet, Geppetto, and PuppetDB
• Advanced Puppet Features such as Hiera and Mcollective

Who this book is for

System administrators who need to quickly get into the details of configuration management with Puppet. You don't need previous Puppet experience, but it will help if you've had some experience with configuration management.

About the Authors

Spencer Krum is a Linux and application administrator with UTi Worldwide Inc., a shipping and logistics firm. He lives and works in Portland. He has been using Linux and Puppet for years. His interests are in DevOps and teaching the next generation of hackers. He, like William, is a product of the Computer Action Team at Portland State University. He has spoken, often with either William or Ben, at Puppet Conf, Open Source Bridge, numerous BarCamps and user groups, and at Cascadia IT Conf. Spencer participates in the Portland DevOps user group and the Portland Puppet Users group.

William Van Hevelingen started with Linux and configuration management as part of the Computer Action Team’s Braindump program at Portland State University in 2009. He worked on the Wintel, Nix, and Networking teams as a volunteer and later as a student worker helping to manage hundreds of workstations, servers, and networking infrastructure. William now works full time for the Computer Action Team (TheCAT), which provides IT for the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science at Portland State University, as the Unix Team lead. He helps teach the Unix server portion of the Braindump, covering topics like web servers, databases, storage, virtualization, and Puppet. William speaks regularly at conferences including OpenSource Bridge, BeaverBarcamp, CascadiaIT, and LinuxFestNW.

Benjamin Kero is a systems administrator with Mozilla’s Web Operations team, where he deals with the nuances of administrating Mozilla’s large server infrastructure and web stacks. Previously, Ben worked as a community systems administrator for the Oregon State University Open Source Lab, where he helped to maintain the infrastructure for dozens of high-profile open source projects, including Drupal and kernel.org.

Based in Portland, Oregon, he speaks at conferences worldwide on all things DevOps and scaling large-scale systems. He also participates in many local user groups, such as the PDXPUG (Puppet User Group), Portland State University’s Braindump program, and the OSU Linux User’s Group.

James Turnbull is the author of seven technical books about open source software and a long-time member of the open source community. James has authored books about Docker, LogStash, and Puppet. He works for Venmo as VP of Engineering. He was previously at Puppet Labs running Operations and Professional Services.

James speaks regularly at conferences including OSCON, Linux.conf.au, FOSDEM, OpenSourceBridge, DevOpsDays, and a number of others. He is a past president of Linux Australia and a former committee member of Linux Victoria, was Treasurer for Linux.conf.au 2008, and serves on the program committee of Linux.conf.au and OSCON.

Jeff McCune is a long-time Puppet community member and open source software advocate. He started off with computers and Unix at a young age thanks to his parents’ company, Summit Computer Services. Before graduating with his BS CSE degree, Jeff managed Mac OS X and Linux systems at the Mathematics Department at Ohio State University, where he got started with configuration management and Puppet.

Jeff works for Puppet Labs, hacking on code and working with customers to improve their Puppet deployments. Jeff also speaks regularly at conferences, including Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, Macworld, Open Source Bridge, Velocity, and others. He travels the world teaching and consulting on Puppet.