Why choose Puppet for DevOps?

If you're like most in the DevOps world, you're always interested in automating tasks and securing your infrastructure. But it's important to find ways that won't sacrifice the quality or lose efficiency.

Forty-two percent of all DevOps businesses currently use this handy tool, for good reason. Puppet for DevOps is unique because it allows you to enforce automation, enhance organization, boost security measures, and ramp up the overall speed across an entire infrastructure. Puppet's special abilities are clearly game-changing. And a big part of this sharp setup is due to the initialization of the module authoring process.

A Puppet module is a self-contained grouping of critical components. This can include things like classes, manifests, data, and more. Through Puppet modules, we can define specific resources. Each Puppet module ultimately aids us in recycling Puppet code and keeping the organization of groups of code over time. A manifest consists of a class or defined type, which is a Puppet code (written in the Puppet DSL). A module that one wishes to author must first have a final end-goal in mind — knowing the purpose is priority number one.

A Puppet environment can hold massive quantities of modules as well — sometimes over hundreds of them if needed. A series of specific named classes, dedicated to certain tasks, act as programs that have to be created. These programs then lead to the generation of manifests.

Manifests are files containing Puppet configuration language describing how resources should be configured. They declare resources that define the state to be enforced on a node; saved with the extension of .pp

Additionally, the housing location of the module class must be defined leveraging the configuration variable called, modulepath and then the installation parameters should be set. In the example below, this is how a class command creation would be typically structured:

sudo pdk new class install

For example, a manifest would be the install.pp file for a nginx module.

It contains the nginx::install class, made up of the package resource type that dictates the actions this class will execute once it's applied on a node:class nginx::install {

package {nginx:

ensure => present,

}

}The install.pp file, where the “install class” is, holds the central location for resources.Furthermore, classes mainly assist with minimizing the amount of time to recycle repeated code within a manifest file. Chunks of code divide out across several manifests as well; therefore, a module is a complete lifesaver.

Puppet is extremely useful for juggling an immense number of servers. It eliminates a lot of the additional stress that comes with time-consuming manual configuration management steps. Our Puppet Professional Certification – PPT206 course by Elle Krout dives into Puppet Enterprise plus Open Source Puppet, which will assist you immensely if you wish to learn more about the Puppet module authoring, best-practices, and how to leverage the implementation of additional features.

Configuration hiccups and crawling speeds can be costly for any organization. Puppet Enterprise (PE) can make IT network service deployment and maintenance projects a breeze. -Code management and infrastructure strategies are less of a headache to tackle as a result of PE packing a gauntlet-like punch with some excellent built-in tools as well. 

Now that you have a basic idea of what Puppet for DevOps is, and how to use it, you're ready to see it in action. Be sure to subscribe to the blog for course releases, security tips and tricks, and even more great Linux Academy content.If you have any questions about the course, Puppet modules, or anything else, feel free to get in touch with Elle on LinkedIn. And don't forget to join the conversation happening on the Linux Academy Community Slack channel!We hope you enjoy the course — get ready to take your Puppet Enterprise skills to a new level.