On May 2, 5:22 pm, rmarque <rob.j.marq...@gmail.com> wrote: > I just became the Linux Admin for a large company's development team. There > are about 6 servers (ubuntu on HP) and roughly 35 people who all have > ubuntu workstations and laptops (dual boot). I have heard of puppet and > have tried to wrap my head around what it might be good for in the > environment. I do have to keep these environments pretty strict as it is > development of major software. I also have a couple of new servers coming > in that I will need to image as close to the other servers as possible. > > So, in laymans terms...would puppet be good for deploying/imaging new > servers/workstation/laptops in the same strict OS/pkgs as everybody else?
Puppet will not handle the initial imaging of a new machine. The machine has to be running with at least a minimal configuration (including the Puppet agent) before Puppet can do anything with it. Puppet could be used to bring systems up from a minimal image to a standard operational configuration. That might be useful vs. trying to do everything in an image, because it's a lot easier to modify your Puppet configuration than to create a new image. Moreover, Puppet can adapt to the system it is configuring, such as by inserting its hostname into configuration files, or by ensuring a host- or role- specific set of software is installed. On the other hand, it's more complicated to set up an initial all- encompassing Puppet configuration than to just make a filesystem image. That one-time initial effort buys you a lot of flexibility, and I think it's worth the effort, but you shouldn't ignore the up- front cost. > Would it be good at deploying new pckgs/patches to the OS across all of > them? Yes, Puppet is great for that -- particularly packages. John -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Puppet Users" group. To post to this group, send email to puppet-users@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to puppet-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/puppet-users?hl=en.
