Start from scratch with the Puppet configuration management system, and learn how to fully utilize Puppet through simple, practical examples

Overview

Shows you step-by-step how to install Puppet and start managing your systems with simple examples

Every aspect of Puppet is explained in detail so that you really understand what you're doing.

Gets you up and running immediately, from installation to using Puppet for practical tasks in a matter of minutes.

Written in a clear, friendly, jargon-free style which doesn't assume any previous knowledge and explains things in practical terms

In Detail

Everyone's talking about Puppet, the open-source DevOps technology that lets you automate your server setups and manage websites, databases, and desktops. Puppet can build new servers in seconds, keep your systems constantly up to date, and automate daily maintenance tasks.

"Puppet 3 Beginner's Guide" gets you up and running with Puppet straight away, with complete real world examples. Each chapter builds your skills, adding new Puppet features, always with a practical focus. You'll learn everything you need to manage your whole infrastructure with Puppet.

"Puppet 3 Beginner's Guide" takes you from complete beginner to confident Puppet user, through a series of clear, simple examples, with full explanations at every stage.

Through a series of worked examples introducing Puppet to a fictional web company, you'll learn how to manage every aspect of your server setup. Switching to Puppet needn't be a big, long-term project; this book will show you how to start by bringing one small part of your systems under Puppet control and, little by little, building to the point where Puppet is managing your whole infrastructure.

Presented in an easy-to-read guide to learning Puppet from scratch, this book explains simply and clearly all you need to know to use this essential IT power tool, all the time applying these solutions to real-world scenarios.

What you will learn from this book

Installing and configuring your Puppet environment.

Running Puppet on multiple servers.

Deploy configuration files and templates for lightning-fast installations.

Creating and monitoring reports and information.

Managing user accounts, security, access control, and scheduled jobs.

Best practices for organizing your Puppet code using Git.

Approach

Presented in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorial format, Puppet 3 Beginner's Guide will lead you through the basics of setting up your Puppet server with plenty of screenshots and real-world solutions.

Who this book is written for

This book is written for system administrators and developers, and anyone else who needs to manage computer systems. You will need to be able to edit text files and run a few commands on the command line, but otherwise no system administration or programming experience is required.

John Arundel

John Arundel is an infrastructure consultant who helps people make their computer systems more reliable, useful, and cost-effective and has fun doing it. He has what Larry Wall describes as the three great virtues of a programmer: laziness, impatience, and hubris.

Laziness, because he doesn't like doing work that a computer could do instead. Impatience, because he wants to get stuff done right away. Hubris, because he likes building systems that are as good as he can make them.

He was formerly a senior operations engineer at global telco Verizon, designing resilient, high-performance infrastructures for corporations such as Ford, McDonald's, and Bank of America. He now works independently, helping to bring enterprise-grade performance and reliability to clients with slightly smaller pockets but very big ideas.

He likes writing books, especially about Puppet. It seems that at least some people enjoy reading them, or maybe they just like the pictures. He also occasionally provides training and coaching on Puppet, which turns out to be far harder than simply doing the work himself.

Off the clock, he can usually be found driving a Land Rover up some mountain or other. He lives in a small cottage in Cornwall and believes, like Cicero, that if you have a garden and a library, then you have everything you need.

You can follow him on Twitter at @bitfield.