Install and Configure Puppet

Updated April 17, 2024, by Elle Krout

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Deprecated
This guide has been deprecated and is no longer being maintained. Please refer to the updated version of this guide.

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Puppet is a configuration automation platform that simplifies various system administrator tasks. Puppet uses a client/server model where the managed servers, called Puppet agents, talk to and pull down configuration profiles from the Puppet master.

Puppet is written in its own custom language, meant to be accessible to system administrators. A module, located on the Puppet master, describes the desired system. The Puppet software then translates the module into code and alters the agent servers as needed when the puppet agent command is run on an agent node or automatically at designated intervals.

Puppet can be used to manage multiple servers across various infrastructures, from a group of personal servers up to an enterprise level operation. It is intended to run on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, but has also been ported to Windows. For the purpose of this guide, however, we will be working with an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS master server and two agent nodes: one Ubuntu 16.04, and one CentOS 7.

Note

Begin this guide as the root user. A limited user with administrative privileges will be configured in later steps.

Before You Begin

You should have three available Linodes, one of which has at least four CPU cores for the Puppet master. A Linode 8GB plan is recommended. The two other nodes can be of any plan size, depending on how you intend to use them after Puppet is installed and configured.
Follow the Setting Up and Securing a Compute Instance guide and ensure your Linodes are configured to use the same timezone.
Note
For ease of use, set the Puppet master server’s hostname to puppet, and have a valid fully-qualified domain name (FQDN).
To check your hostname, run hostname and to check your FQDN, run hostname -f.

Puppet Master

Install Puppet Master

Install the puppetlabs-release repository into Ubuntu 16.04 and update your system. This process downloads a .deb file that will configure the repositories for you:
```
wget https://apt.puppet.com/puppetlabs-release-pc1-xenial.deb
dpkg -i puppetlabs-release-pc1-xenial.deb
apt update
```
Note
If you wish to run another Linux distribution as your master server, the initial .deb file can be substituted for another distribution based on the following formats:
Red Hat-based systems:
wget https://yum.puppet.com/puppetlabs-release-pc1-OS-VERSION.noarch.rpm
Debian-based systems:
wget https://apt.puppet.com/puppetlabs-release-pc1-VERSION.deb
Any Ubuntu-specific commands will then have to be amended for the proper distribution. More information can be found in Puppet’s Installation Documentation or our guide to package management.
Install the puppetmaster-passenger package:
```
apt install puppetmaster-passenger
```
The default Puppet installation may start Apache and configure it to listen on the same port as Puppet. Stop Apache to avoid this conflict (if using CentOS7, change apache2 in this example to httpd):
```
systemctl stop apache2
```
Ensure you have the latest version of Puppet by running:
```
puppet resource package puppetmaster ensure=latest
```

Configure Puppet Master

Update /etc/puppet/puppet.conf and add the dns_alt_names line to the section [main], replacing puppet.example.com with your own FQDN:
File: /etc/puppet/puppet.conf
1 2
[main] dns_alt_names=puppet,puppet.example.com
Start the Puppet master:
```
systemctl start puppetmaster
```
By default, the Puppet master process listens for client connections on port 8140. If the puppetmaster service fails to start, check that the port is not already in use:
```
netstat -anpl | grep 8140
```

Puppet Agents

Install Puppet Agent

On agent nodes running Ubuntu 16.04 or other Debian-based distributions, use this command to install Puppet:

apt install puppet

On agent nodes running CentOS 7 or other Red Hat systems, follow these steps:

For CentOS 7 only, add the Puppet Labs repository:
```
rpm -ivh https://yum.puppet.com/el/7/products/x86_64/puppetlabs-release-22.0-2.noarch.rpm
```
Note
If you’re on a Red Hat system other than CentOS 7, skip this step.
Install the Puppet agent:
```
yum install puppet
```

Configure Puppet Agent

Modify your Puppet Agent’s host file to resolve the Puppet master IP as puppet:
File: /etc/hosts
1
198.51.100.0 puppet
Add the server value to the [main] section of the node’s puppet.conf file, replacing puppet.example.com with the FQDN of your Puppet master:
File: /etc/puppet/puppet.conf
1 2
[main] server=puppet.example.com
Restart the Puppet service:
```
systemctl restart puppet
```

Generate and Sign Certificates

On each agent, generate a certificate for the Puppet master to sign:
```
puppet agent -t
```
This will output an error, stating that no certificate has been found. This error is because the generated certificate needs to be approved by the Puppet master.
Log in to your Puppet master and list the certificates that need approval:
```
puppet cert list
```
It should output a list with your agent node’s hostname.
Approve the certificates, replacing hostname.example.com with the hostname of each agent node:
```
puppet cert sign hostname.example.com
```
Return to the Puppet agent nodes and run the Puppet agent again:
```
puppet agent -t
```

Add Modules to Configure Agent Nodes

Both the Puppet master and agent nodes configured above are functional, but not secure. Based on concepts from the Setting Up and Securing a Compute Instance guide, a limited user and a firewall should be configured. This can be done on all nodes through the creation of basic Puppet modules, shown below.

Note

This is not meant to provide a basis for a fully-hardened server, and is intended only as a starting point. Alter and add firewall rules and other configuration options, depending on your specific needs.

Add a Limited User

From the Puppet master, navigate to the /etc/puppet/modules directory and create your new module for adding user accounts, then cd into that directory:
```
mkdir /etc/puppet/modules/accounts
cd /etc/puppet/modules/accounts
```
Create the following directories, which are needed to have a functioning module:
```
mkdir {examples,files,manifests,templates}
```
The examples directory allows you to test the module locally. files contains any static files that may need to be edited or added. manifests contains the actual Puppet code for the module, and templates contains any non-static files that may be needed.
Move to the manifests directory and create your first class, called init.pp. All modules require an init.pp file to be used as the main definition file of a module.
```
cd manifests
```

Within the init.pp file, define a limited user to use instead of root, replacing all instances of username with your chosen username:

File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/init.pp

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class accounts {

  user { 'username':
    ensure      => present,
    home        => '/home/username',
    shell       => '/bin/bash',
    managehome  => true,
    gid         => 'username',
    }

}

The init.pp file initially defines the accounts class. It then calls for the user resource, where a username is defined. The ensure value is set to ensure that the user exists (is present). The home value should be set to the user’s home directory path. shell defines the shell type, in this instance the bash shell. managehome notes that the home directory should be created. Finally, gid sets the primary group for the user.

Although the primary group is set to share the username, the group itself has not been created. Save and exit init.pp. Then, create a new file called groups.pp and add the following contents. This file will be used to create the user’s group. Again, replace username with your chosen username:
File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/groups.pp
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class accounts::groups { group { 'username': ensure => present, } }
Include this file by adding include groups to the init.pp file, within the accounts class:
File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/init.pp
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class accounts { include groups ... }

This user should have privileges so that administrative tasks can be performed. Because we have agent nodes on both Debian- and Red Hat-based systems, the new user needs to be in the sudo group on Debian systems, and the wheel group on Red Hat systems. This value can be set dynamically through the use of a selector and facter, a program included in Puppet that keeps track of information, or facts, about every server. Add a selector statement to the top of the init.pp file within the accounts class brackets, defining the two options:

File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/init.pp

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class accounts {

  $rootgroup = $osfamily ? {
    'Debian'  => 'sudo',
    'RedHat'  => 'wheel',
    default   => warning('This distribution is not supported by the Accounts module'),
  }

  user { 'username':
  ...

}

This command sequence tells Puppet that within the accounts module the variable $rootgroup should evaluate, using facter, the operating system family ($osfamily), and if the value returned is Debian, to set the $rootgroup value to sudo. If the value returned is RedHat, this same value should be set to wheel; otherwise, the default value will output a warning that the distribution selected is not supported by this module.

Note

The user definition will include the $rootgroup, and the Puppet Configuration Language executes code from top to bottom. You must define the $rootgroup before the user so that it can be accessed.

Add the groups value to the user resource, calling to the $rootgroup variable defined in the previous step:

File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/init.pp

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user { 'username':
  ensure      => present,
  home        => '/home/username',
  shell       => '/bin/bash',
  managehome  => true,
  gid         => 'username',
  groups      => "$rootgroup",
}

The value "$rootgroup" is enclosed in double quotes (") instead of single quotes (’) because it is a variable. Any value enclosed within single quotes will be added as typed in your module; anything enclosed in double quotes can accept variables.

The final value that needs to be added is the password. Since we do not want to use plain text, it should be fed to Puppet as a SHA1 digest, which is supported by default. Set a password from the terminal:

openssl passwd -1

You will be prompted to enter your password and confirm. A hashed password will be output. This should then be copied and added to the user resource:

File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/init.pp

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class accounts {

  user { 'username':
    ensure      => present,
    home        => '/home/username',
    shell       => '/bin/bash',
    managehome  => true,
    gid         => 'username',
    groups      => "$rootgroup",
    password    => '$1$07JUIM1HJKDSWm8.NJOqsP.blweQ..3L0',
    }

}

Important

The hashed password must be included in single quotes (’).

After saving your changes, use the puppet parser to ensure that the code is correct:
```
puppet parser validate init.pp
```
Any errors that need to be addressed will be logged to standard output. If nothing is returned, your code is valid.
Before the module can be tested further, navigate to the examples directory and create another init.pp file, this time to call to the accounts module:
```
cd ../examples
```
File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/examples/init.pp
1
include accounts
After adding this line, save and exit the file.

While still in the examples directory, test the module without making changes:

puppet apply --noop init.pp

Note

The --noop parameter prevents Puppet from actually running the module.

It should return:

Notice: Compiled catalog for puppet.example.com in environment production in 0.26 seconds
Notice: /Stage[main]/Accounts::Groups/Group[username]/ensure: current_value absent, should be present (noop)
Notice: Class[Accounts::Groups]: Would have triggered 'refresh' from 1 events
Notice: /Stage[main]/Accounts/User[username]/ensure: current_value absent, should be present (noop)
Notice: Class[Accounts]: Would have triggered 'refresh' from 1 events
Notice: Stage[main]: Would have triggered 'refresh' from 2 events
Notice: Finished catalog run in 0.02 seconds

Again from the examples directory, run puppet apply to make these changes to the Puppet master server:
```
puppet apply init.pp
```
Log out as root and log in to the Puppet master as your new user. The rest of this guide will be run by this user.

Edit SSH Settings

Although a new user has successfully been added to the Puppet master, the account is still not secure. Root access should be disabled for the server before continuing.

Navigate to files within the account module directory:
```
cd /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/files
```
Copy the sshd_config file to this directory:
```
sudo cp /etc/ssh/sshd_config .
```
Open the file with sudo, and set the PermitRootLogin value to no:
File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/files/sshd_config
1
PermitRootLogin no
Navigate back to the manifests directory and, using sudo, create a file called ssh.pp. Use the file resource to replace the default configuration file with the one managed by Puppet:
```
cd ../manifests
```
File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/ssh.pp
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
class accounts::ssh { file { '/etc/ssh/sshd_config': ensure => present, source => 'puppet:///modules/accounts/sshd_config', } }
Note
The file directory is omitted from the source line because the files folder is the default location of files. For more information on the format used to access resources in a module, refer to the official Puppet module documentation.

Create a second resource to restart the SSH service and set it to run whenever sshd_config is changed. This will also require a selector statement because the SSH service is called ssh on Debian systems and sshd on Red Hat:

File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/ssh.pp

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class accounts::ssh {

$sshname = $osfamily ? {
    'Debian'  => 'ssh',
    'RedHat'  => 'sshd',
    default   => warning('This distribution is not supported by the Accounts module'),
  }

  file { '/etc/ssh/sshd_config':
    ensure  => present,
    source  => 'puppet:///modules/accounts/sshd_config',
    notify  => Service["$sshname"],
  }

  service { "$sshname":
    hasrestart  => true,
  }
}

Include the ssh class within init.pp:

File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/init.pp

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class accounts {
  include groups
  include ssh

...

Your complete init.pp will look similar to this:

File: /etc/puppet/modules/accounts/manifests/init.pp

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class accounts {
    include groups
    include ssh

    $rootgroup = $osfamily ? {
        'Debian' => 'sudo',
        'RedHat' => 'wheel',
        default => warning('This distro not supported by Accounts module'),
    }
    user { 'example':

        ensure  => present,
        home    => '/home/username',
        shell   => '/bin/bash',
        managehome  => true,
        gid     => 'username',
        groups  => "$rootgroup",
        password => '$1$07JUIM1HJKDSWm8.NJOqsP.blweQ..3L0'
    }

}

Run the Puppet parser, then navigate to the examples directory to test and run puppet apply:
```
sudo puppet parser validate ssh.pp
cd ../examples
sudo puppet apply --noop init.pp
sudo puppet apply init.pp
```
Note
You may see the following line in your output when validating:
Error: Removing mount "files": /etc/puppet/files does not exist or is not a directory
This refers to a Puppet configuration file, not the module resource you’re trying to copy. If this is the only error in your output, the operation should still succeed.
To ensure that the ssh class is working properly, log out and then try to log in as root. You should not be able to do so.

Add and Configure IPtables

In this section, we’ll configure firewall rules using iptables. However, these rules will not persist across reboots by default. To avoid this, install the appropriate package on each node (both master and agents) before proceeding:

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install iptables-persistent

CentOS 7:

CentOS 7 uses firewalld by default as a controller for iptables. Be sure firewalld is stopped and disabled before starting to work directly with iptables:

sudo systemctl stop firewalld && sudo systemctl disable firewalld

sudo yum install iptables-services

On your Puppet master node, install Puppet Lab’s firewall module from the Puppet Forge:
```
sudo puppet module install puppetlabs-firewall
```
The module will be installed in your /etc/puppet/modules directory.
Navigate to the manifests directory under the new firewall module:
```
cd /etc/puppet/modules/firewall/manifests/
```

Create a file titled pre.pp, which will contain all basic networking rules that should be run first:

File: /etc/puppet/modules/firewall/manifests/pre.pp

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class firewall::pre {

  Firewall {
    require => undef,
  }

   # Accept all loopback traffic
  firewall { '000 lo traffic':
    proto       => 'all',
    iniface     => 'lo',
    action      => 'accept',
  }->

   #Drop non-loopback traffic
  firewall { '001 reject non-lo':
    proto       => 'all',
    iniface     => '! lo',
    destination => '127.0.0.0/8',
    action      => 'reject',
  }->

   #Accept established inbound connections
  firewall { '002 accept established':
    proto       => 'all',
    state       => ['RELATED', 'ESTABLISHED'],
    action      => 'accept',
  }->

   #Allow all outbound traffic
  firewall { '003 allow outbound':
    chain       => 'OUTPUT',
    action      => 'accept',
  }->

   #Allow ICMP/ping
  firewall { '004 allow icmp':
    proto       => 'icmp',
    action      => 'accept',
  }

   #Allow SSH connections
  firewall { '005 Allow SSH':
    dport    => '22',
    proto   => 'tcp',
    action  => 'accept',
  }->

   #Allow HTTP/HTTPS connections
  firewall { '006 HTTP/HTTPS connections':
    dport    => ['80', '443'],
    proto   => 'tcp',
    action  => 'accept',
  }

}

Each rule is explained via commented text. More information can also be found on the Puppet Forge Firewall page.

In the same directory create post.pp, which will run any firewall rules that need to be input last:
File: /etc/puppet/modules/firewall/manifests/post.pp
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class firewall::post { firewall { '999 drop all': proto => 'all', action => 'drop', before => undef, } }
These rules will direct the system to drop all inbound traffic that is not already permitted in the firewall.
Run the Puppet parser on both files to ensure the code does not return any errors:
```
sudo puppet parser validate pre.pp
sudo puppet parser validate post.pp
```
Move up a directory, create a new examples directory, and navigate to it:
```
cd ..
sudo mkdir examples
cd examples
```

Within examples, create an init.pp file to test the firewall on the Puppet master:

File: /etc/puppet/modules/firewall/examples/init.pp

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resources { 'firewall':
  purge => true,
}

Firewall {
  before        => Class['firewall::post'],
  require       => Class['firewall::pre'],
}

class { ['firewall::pre', 'firewall::post']: }

firewall { '200 Allow Puppet Master':
  dport          => '8140',
  proto         => 'tcp',
  action        => 'accept',
}

This code block ensures that pre.pp and post.pp run properly, and adds a firewall rule to the Puppet master to allow nodes to access it.

Run the init.pp file through the Puppet parser and then test to see if it will run:
```
sudo puppet parser validate init.pp
sudo puppet apply --noop init.pp
```
If successful, run the puppet apply without the --noop option:
```
sudo puppet apply init.pp
```

Once Puppet is done running, check the iptables rules:

sudo iptables -L

It should return:

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
ACCEPT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere             /* 000 lo traffic */
REJECT     all  --  anywhere             127.0.0.0/8          /* 001 reject non-lo */ reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
ACCEPT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere             /* 002 accept established */ state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     icmp --  anywhere             anywhere             /* 004 allow icmp */
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             multiport ports ssh /* 005 Allow SSH */
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             multiport ports http,https /* 006 HTTP/HTTPS connections */
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             multiport ports 8140 /* 200 Allow Puppet Master */
DROP       all  --  anywhere             anywhere             /* 999 drop all */

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             /* 003 allow outbound */

Add Modules to the Agent Nodes

Now that the accounts and firewall modules have been created, tested, and run on the Puppet master, it is time to add them to the Puppet agent nodes created earlier.

From the Puppet master, navigate to /etc/puppet/manifests.
```
cd /etc/puppet/manifests
```
List all available agent nodes:
```
sudo puppet cert list -all
```

Create the file site.pp to define which nodes will take what modules. Replace ubuntuagent.example.com and centosagent.example.com with the FQDNs of your agent nodes:

File: /etc/puppet/manifests/site.pp

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node 'ubuntuagent.example.com' {
  include accounts

  resources { 'firewall':
    purge => true,
  }

  Firewall {
    before        => Class['firewall::post'],
    require       => Class['firewall::pre'],
  }

  class { ['firewall::pre', 'firewall::post']: }

}

node 'centosagent.example.com' {
  include accounts

  resources { 'firewall':
    purge => true,
  }

  Firewall {
    before        => Class['firewall::post'],
    require       => Class['firewall::pre'],
  }

  class { ['firewall::pre', 'firewall::post']: }

}

This includes the accounts module and uses the same firewall settings as above to ensure that the firewall rules are applied properly.

On each Puppet agent node, enable the puppet agent command:
```
puppet agent --enable
```
Run the Puppet agent:
```
puppet agent -t
```
To ensure the Puppet agent worked, log in as the limited user that was created and check the iptables:
```
sudo iptables -L
```

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed Puppet on a master and two agent nodes. Now that you’ve confirmed everything is working, you can create additional modules to automate configuration management on your agent nodes. For more information, see Puppet module fundamentals. You can also install and use those modules others have created on the Puppet Forge.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

This page was originally published on September 17, 2015.

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Install and Configure Puppet

Before You Begin

Puppet Master

Install Puppet Master

Configure Puppet Master

Puppet Agents

Install Puppet Agent

Configure Puppet Agent

Generate and Sign Certificates

Add Modules to Configure Agent Nodes

Add a Limited User

Edit SSH Settings

Add and Configure IPtables

Add Modules to the Agent Nodes

More Information

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