Exported Configs == Better Puppet

The talk i gave at Puppet Camp Amsterdam about stored configs.

Transcript

1. Stephen Johnson – PSE (stephen@puppetlabs.com) Exported Resource = Better Puppet Monday, 8 April 13
2. About Me • Employed by Puppetlabs for One Year • Im Stephen (www.thatbytes.co.uk) • Using Puppet since 2007 • Deploy other peoples infrastructures for fun and Puppetlabs profit. Monday, 8 April 13
3. What i hate • Manual Deploys • Complex Deploys • Failures • To much typing • Not knowing about things Monday, 8 April 13
4. New Machine Processes • Gather new machine requirements • Machine built manually • Manually add the service • Manually add the monitoring Monday, 8 April 13
5. The new process • Automatic Build • PXE • Kickstart • Automatic Deployment of Application • Puppet • Mcollective • Manually add the monitoring checks • Manual Process ????????????? Monday, 8 April 13
6. Error Prone Process • Automatic Build the machine • Deploys everything using Puppet • Forget add the monitoring • Because someone else did it, didn’t they? • Machine fills up the disk • Kills the database • No alert was ever sent out Monday, 8 April 13
7. If its not monitored • Then it never failed • Until you get a call from the customer Monday, 8 April 13
8. Implement a process • Add a list requirements for monitoring • Qa the requirements • Forget a requirement • Or the requirements change Monday, 8 April 13
9. Inconsistent • Forget to monitor all the services on the machine • Easy to make mistakes • No base level of monitoring • Have to update all your old machines Monday, 8 April 13
10. Use a robot • People are flawed • Machines are good at remembering to do things • Are good at doing this over and over • With out making mistakes Monday, 8 April 13
11. How do we fix this • Take humans out of the equation • Don’t let them touch the monitoring system • Unless they really really really have to • Use Puppet / Puppetdb • Don't use the naginator type • Sorry luke Monday, 8 April 13
12. Goals • Standard base monitoring • Monitoring should be added automatically (not out of sync) • Do this configuration in the same place (obvious) • Should hide the implementation • Use configuration data fro monitoring config Monday, 8 April 13
13. Why Puppet • It knows about out services • As it configured them • Can generate config and share config out of the box (with Puppetdb) using Stored Configs Monday, 8 April 13
14. What are Stored Configs • The client exports the config to the puppetmaster • Its stored in Puppetdb • Later puppet runs on other machines can use this resources Monday, 8 April 13
15. Example client check • class  webserver  {        @@file  {  "/etc/nagios/conf.d/$::fqdn.apachecheck.conf":              content  =>  "nagios  check  stuff  \n",              tag  =>  "nagioscheck",                    }        #Install  all  our  webserver  stuff  as  well              } Monday, 8 April 13
16. Explanation • This resource isn’t realized on the current machine running puppet • Stored on the masted for use on other puppet runs • Tagged so we can search Monday, 8 April 13
17. Example server •  class  nagios::server  {                File  <<|  tag  ==  'nagioscheck'  |>>            } Monday, 8 April 13
18. Explanation • Every exported resource that is of type file and tag nagioscheck is created on the current machine • Configuration retrieved from the database (Puppetdb) Monday, 8 April 13
19. This gives us • Repeatable monitoring of services • Automated • Standardized base Nagios configuration • Automated • Add service checks to be added • Automated Monday, 8 April 13
20. Demo • Another way to watch me FAIL! Monday, 8 April 13
21. Query Puppetdb • We can do this another way • Query Puppetdb for the information • Using that to generated config Monday, 8 April 13
22. Example • $hosts = query_nodes(dc=uk and Class[Apache]') • Get all the hosts with a class of Apache with a model of 17* and are in the dc uk • Uses facts • file (‘ukmonitoringapache’: • ensure=>present, content=>(‘template/apachecheck.erb’) path => ‘/etc/nagios.d/check/apache.conf‘) Monday, 8 April 13