Use Bolt to install Puppet agent on different platforms at the same time📍

Need to install Puppet agents on different platforms at the same time? We have the code and modules (puppetlabs-puppet_agent, puppetlabs-puppet_conf) to help you do that.

Version and installation information

Puppet version: 5.5 and later

Forge modules (installed using a Puppetfile later in this article): puppetlabs-inifile version 3.1.0,
puppetlabs-translate version 2.1.0,
puppetlabs-apt version 7.3.0,
puppetlabs-concat version 6.2.0,
puppetlabs-stdlib version 6.1.0,
puppetlabs-puppet_agent version 3.0.1,
puppetlabs-puppet_conf version 0.6.0

OS: RedHat: 5, 6, 7, 8
CentOS: 5, 6, 7
OracleLinux: 5, 6, 7
Scientific: 5, 6, 7
Debian: 8, 9, 10
Ubuntu: 14.04, 16.04, 18.04
Fedora: 28, 29, 30, 31
Windows: Server 2008, Server 2008 R2, Server 2012, Server 2012 R2, Server 2016, Server 2019, 7, 8, 8.1, 10

Installation type: Puppet agent, Bolt

Solution

To install the Puppet agent on many nodes at a time, use one of the two plans below with Bolt, and some additional files.

Create plans and files

Your plan should be in a profile module:

<MODULEPATH>/profile/plans/<PLAN_NAME>.pp

For example:

modules/profile/plans/large_num_agent_install.pp

• This plan (large_num_agent_install.pp) splits one large group of target nodes into smaller groups. It’s helpful if you have many nodes (more than 100). If you run this plan, and failures occur, run the plan against the nodes from the failure on. If you submitted 200 nodes, and node 25 fails, then remove nodes one to 24 from the list and start again. If you prefer, you can run the entire job again, since the installation process is idempotent. If you do, set sign_cert to true in the plan below.

  plan profile::large_num_agent_install (
    TargetSpec $targets,
    String     $puppetmaster,
    String     $collection = 'puppet5',
    Boolean    $sign_cert = false,
    Integer    $concurrency = 5,
  ) {
  
    $target_list = $targets.split('\n').convert_to(Array)
    $target_list.slice($concurrency).each | $smaller_list | {
      # This will install the agent
      run_plan(
        'profile::agent_installs',
        $smaller_list,
        collection   => $collection,
        puppetmaster => $puppetmaster,
        sign_cert    => $sign_cert,
      )
    }
  }

• This plan (agent_installs.pp) uses Puppet modules to install Puppet. Use this plan if you have less than 100 nodes. If there are failures, you can run the entire job again, since the installation process is idempotent. If you do, set sign_cert to false in the plan below.

    plan profile::agent_installs (
      TargetSpec $targets,
      String     $puppetmaster,
      String     $collection = 'puppet5',
      Boolean    $sign_cert = false,
    ) {
  
      #This strips the proto off the host entry in the target file
      $sign_targets = $targets.regsubst('^.*://(.*?)$', '\1').join(',')
      $string_targets = String($targets)
  
      # This installs the agent
      run_task(
        'puppet_agent::install',
        $targets,
        _run-as         => 'root',
        _tty            => true,
        collection      => $collection,
        install_options => "PUPPET_MASTER_SERVER=${puppetmaster}",
      )
  
      # This sets the server in puppet.conf
      run_task(
        'puppet_conf',
        $targets,
        _tty    => true,
        action  => 'set',
        section => 'agent',
        setting => 'server',
        value   => "$puppetmaster",
      )
  
      # This restarts the service so that a cert signing request is sent to master
      run_task(
        'service',
        $targets,
        _tty    => true,
        action  => 'restart',
        name    => 'puppet',
      )
  
      if $sign_cert == true {
        # TODO: come up with an intelligent way to validate that the expected CSRs
        # have been submitted and are available for signing, prior to signing them.
        # For now, waiting 10 second period time per number of nodes to avoid a small race.
        $time_to_sleep = ((size($string_targets.split(','))) * 10)
        ctrl::sleep($time_to_sleep)
        notice("Array size is $time_to_sleep")
  
        # This signs all the certs provided
        run_command(inline_epp(@(HEREDOC/L)), $puppetmaster)
        /opt/puppetlabs/bin/puppetserver ca sign --certname \
          <%= $sign_targets -%>
        | HEREDOC
      }
    }

You need a few other files to use either one of these plans with Bolt. Here are examples of each one:

params.json

Bolt uses this file to pass parameters to the plan:

    {
        "sign_cert":  true,
        "puppetmaster": "server-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net"
    }

Puppetfile

This example Puppetfile lists all the modules required for these plans.

forge "http://forge.puppetlabs.com"

mod 'profile', local: true
mod 'puppetlabs-inifile', '3.1.0'
mod 'puppetlabs-translate', '2.1.0'
mod 'puppetlabs-apt', '7.3.0'
mod 'puppetlabs-concat', '6.2.0'
mod 'puppetlabs-stdlib', '6.1.0'
mod 'puppetlabs-puppet_agent', '3.0.1'
mod 'puppetlabs-puppet_conf', '0.6.0'

targets.lst

The list of target hosts to install puppet-agent on.

winrm://node1-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
winrm://node2-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
winrm://node3-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
winrm://node4-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
winrm://node5-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
winrm://node6-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
winrm://node7-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
ssh://node8-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
ssh://node9-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
ssh://node10-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
ssh://node11-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
ssh://node12-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net
ssh://node13-oss-env.platform9.puppet.net

Installing the agent on many nodes

After you’ve created the files above, run the following commands to install the Puppet agent on many nodes:

1. Install the required modules onto your Bolt host:

   bolt puppetfile install

2. Run one of these commands to install Puppet on the nodes in targets.lst.

   If you have many nodes, and want to use large_num_agent_install.pp to split one large group of target nodes into smaller groups, run this command:

    bolt plan run profile::large_num_agent_install --params @params.json --no-ssl --targets @targets.lst

   If you have fewer nodes and prefer to run agent_installs.pp on all of your target nodes at once:

    bolt plan run profile::agent_installs --params @params.json --no-ssl --targets @targets.lst

Additional Resources

Bolt

• Writing Bolt Tasks
• Combining PowerShell, Bolt and Puppet Tasks
• Writing Advanced Plans
• Bolt Hands-on Lab
• Configuring Bolt

Module Forge pages

• puppet_agent module
• puppet_conf module