How Not to Freak Out When You Start Writing Puppet Modules for Windows

Writing your first Puppet module is pretty daunting. There are so many things to set up: tools, repositories, tests! In this presentation we’ll walk through setting up a local Windows development environment, and then write a Puppet module. We’ll also look at debugging, testing and publishing the module to the Puppet Forge.

http://sched.co/6fjw

Recording - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A2-_nPrqfs

Transcript

1. How not to freak out … … when you start writing Puppet modules on Windows
2. before we start ...
3. Me • Senior Software Engineer at Puppet Specialising in Windows • 15 years in Desktop Engineering and IT Navy, Government, Mining, Finance, Corporate • DevOps advocate
4. The setup …
9. What do we need? • Setting up a development environment • Create a Puppet module • Debugging tools
10. What do we need? • Testing tools • Publish the module • Next steps
11. • Setup environment • Create module • Debug tools • Test tools • Publish module • Next steps
12. • Setup environment • Create module • Debug tools • Test tools • Publish module • Next steps
13. Tools you probably already have • Windows computer • Text editor • Puppet Agent Tools you probably need to install • Source Control • Ruby and Ruby Dev Kit
14. Why Source Control? • Made a change and realised it was a mistake and wanted to revert back? • Lost a modules or had a backup that was too old? • Wanted to see the difference between two (or more) versions of your modules? • Wanted to prove that a change broke or fixed a piece of modules? • Wanted to review the history of a modules? • Wanted to submit a change to someone else's modules? • Wanted to share your modules, or let other people work on your modules? • Wanted to see how much work is being done, and where, when and by whom? • Wanted to quickly experiment something new without breaking anything? …
15. Why Source Control? • Undo mistakes • Be kind to you future self
16. Why Source Control? Prefer git for Puppet Module work • Lightweight • Doesn’t require a central server • Very common But, choose something that’s appropriate for you …
17. Why Ruby? Q: Why use ruby? A: Because, Puppet.
18. Why Ruby? Q: Doesn’t that already come with Puppet Agent? A: Yes, but…
19. Which text editor? Common - Atom, Notepad++, VS Code Some have ruby and puppet plugins to help with development Lots of other options though….
20. Which text editor? Common problems • CRLF vs LF Probably best to use LF • Text Encoding and BOM Unrecognised character at Line 1, Pos 1
21. How do we install these tools? • Manual installation • Chocolatey https://chocolatey.org
22. How do we install these tools? PS> choco install git PS> choco install puppet-agent PS> choco install visualstudiocode PS> choco install ruby ruby2.devkit
23. How do we install these tools? Common problems • Ruby Devkit can be tricky to install Manually install the devkit into your ruby installation
24. • Setup environment • Create module • Debug tools • Test tools • Publish module • Next steps
25. Create a Module – Where to start? • Beginner’s Guide to Modules • Module fundamentals
26. Creating a Module - Tools Puppet Module Tool bundler rake
28. • Setup environment • Create module • Debug tools • Test tools • Publish module • Next steps
29. Debugging tools • pry Console driven debugger for ruby • pry-byebug Pry plugin to add step-by-step and stack debugging • pry-stack_explorer Pry plugin to navigate the call stack in ruby
30. Debugging tools • Modify Gemfile • Bundle install … gem "pry" gem "pry-byebug" gem "pry-stack_explorer"
31. Debugging tools require "pry"; binding.pry
33. • Setup environment • Create module • Debug tools • Test tools • Publish module • Next steps
34. Why should I test?
35. • The “un-happy” path • Document the intent • Avoid regression Why should I test?
36. • Acceptance • Integration • Unit Types of tests
37. Types of tests Where should I start? Start with unit and integration tests using automated tools
38. Unit and Integration tests • rspec • rspec-mocks or mocha • rspec-puppet Testing tools
39. Acceptance tests • beaker • beaker-rspec Testing tools
41. • Setup environment • Create module • Debug tools • Test tools • Publish module • Next steps
42. Puppet Module Tool puppet-blacksmith Publishing tools
44. • Setup environment • Create module • Debug tools • Test tools • Publish module • Next steps
45. • Setup environment • Create module • Debug tools • Test tools • Publish module • Next steps
46. • Read up on testing • Learn more ruby • Add automated acceptance tests What’s next
47. • Custom types and providers • Test your Windows modules on Linux nodes What’s next
48. glenn.sarti glenn.sarti@puppet.com @glennsarti Go write some modules!
49. Links Source Control • The Release Pipeline Module http://aka.ms/thereleasepipelinemodelpdf • Ruby Installation http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/ • Ruby DevKit https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/wiki/Development-Kit • What is the BOM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark • Chocolatey https://chocolatey.org/ • Puppet Extension for Visual Studio Code https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Borke.Puppet Modules • Puppet Enterprise quick start guide for Windows users https://docs.puppet.com/pe/latest/quick_start_windows_intro.html • Beginner’s Guide to Modules https://docs.puppet.com/guides/module_guides/bgtm.html • Module fundamentals https://docs.puppet.com/puppet/latest/reference/modules_fundamentals.html • Ruby Bundler http://bundler.io/ • puppet module generate https://docs.puppet.com/puppet/latest/reference/modules_fundamentals.html#writing-modules
50. Links Debugging • Pry http://pryrepl.org/ https://www.sitepoint.com/rubyists-time-pry-irb/ • pry-byebug https://github.com/deivid-rodriguez/pry-byebug • pry-stack_explorer https://github.com/pry/pry-stack_explorer Testing • Rspec http://rspec.info/ • rspec-puppet http://rspec-puppet.com/ • rspec-mocks https://github.com/rspec/rspec-mocks • mocha http://gofreerange.com/mocha/docs/ • beaker https://github.com/puppetlabs/beaker/blob/master/docs/README.md • beaker-rspec https://github.com/puppetlabs/beaker-rspec
51. Links Publishing • puppet-blacksmith https://github.com/voxpupuli/puppet-blacksmith • Publishing modules on the forge https://docs.puppet.com/puppet/4.7/reference/modules_publishing.html • The metadata.json file https://docs.puppet.com/puppet/4.7/reference/modules_metadata.html Other • Puppet REPL A REPL for the puppet language https://github.com/nwops/puppet-repl • Puppet Skeleton Module Generator https://github.com/garethr/puppet-module-skeleton • Puppet Strings The next generation Puppet documentation extraction and presentation tool https://github.com/puppetlabs/puppet-strings