Puppet users - Sep 2006 - Examples, and what is the preferred version/release to use?

First of all, in the thread ''Using multiple values for source, for
platform/arch/host configs'' Jason said:

"I would really appreciate any examples, or further advise anyone
has."

-> I heartily second that. A good start would be to fill in the
cookbook, as Luke has been quietly whispering here and there. ;)

Then my other main question at the moment is: what version of puppet
should I be using to be able to meaningfully follow the discussions
here. Is that the subversion trunk, or the most recent source release
(or some other)?

Because at the moment I am using the packages that are in Ubuntu edgy
eft (I think 0.18.4) on a dapper drake install (actually multiple on a
Xen machine), and for example am wondering whether the advice on how
to propagate facter facts via puppet as Luke explained somewhere not
so long ago on this thread would work with my puppet version. Because
when I do a puppet --genconfig I don''t get any entries about facts.

If then it is advisable to use a more recent version, which do you
recommend? The latest source or direct from the trunk? (come to think
of it, I''m not even sure which are available). And the next question
then of course is: can I automate updating puppet and facter from
source using puppet? I bet I can, but I''m not clear on how (again the
examples problem)...



Thanks for your time,
Thijs

Thijs Oppermann wrote:
> Then my other main question at the moment is: what version of puppet
> should I be using to be able to meaningfully follow the discussions
> here. Is that the subversion trunk, or the most recent source release
> (or some other)?
I''d say wait until 0.19.2 comes out today, and barring any suddenly 
discovered catestrophic problems, use that.  There are known issues with 
the two current releases of 0.19, but there''s a lot of additional 
functionality in it that you can''t get in 0.18.
> Because at the moment I am using the packages that are in Ubuntu edgy
> eft (I think 0.18.4) on a dapper drake install (actually multiple on a
> Xen machine), and for example am wondering whether the advice on how
> to propagate facter facts via puppet as Luke explained somewhere not
> so long ago on this thread would work with my puppet version. Because
> when I do a puppet --genconfig I don''t get any entries about
facts.
This is only available in 0.19.
> If then it is advisable to use a more recent version, which do you
> recommend? The latest source or direct from the trunk? (come to think
> of it, I''m not even sure which are available). And the next
question
> then of course is: can I automate updating puppet and facter from
> source using puppet? I bet I can, but I''m not clear on how (again
the
> examples problem)...
You should be able to use Puppet to automate upgrades, although you''ll 
have to specify in your Puppet configuration that Puppet should get 
restarted if the package is upgraded.  Just treat Puppet like any other 
service and it should work.

-- 
Criminal: A person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient
capital to form a corporation.       --Howard Scott
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Luke Kanies | http://reductivelabs.com | http://madstop.com

On Thu, Sep 21, 2006 at 09:33:16PM +0200, Thijs Oppermann
wrote:
> Then my other main question at the moment is: what version of puppet
> should I be using to be able to meaningfully follow the discussions
> here. Is that the subversion trunk, or the most recent source release
> (or some other)?
I''d say the latest release is a pretty good bet.
> Because at the moment I am using the packages that are in Ubuntu edgy
> eft (I think 0.18.4) on a dapper drake install (actually multiple on a
Yes, 0.18.4.
> Xen machine), and for example am wondering whether the advice on how
> to propagate facter facts via puppet as Luke explained somewhere not
> so long ago on this thread would work with my puppet version. Because
> when I do a puppet --genconfig I don''t get any entries about
facts.
No, I think that was a 0.19 feature.
> If then it is advisable to use a more recent version, which do you
> recommend? The latest source or direct from the trunk? (come to think
> of it, I''m not even sure which are available). And the next
question
> then of course is: can I automate updating puppet and facter from
> source using puppet? I bet I can, but I''m not clear on how (again
the
> examples problem)...
In a perfect world, package { puppet: ensure => latest } would do the job
pretty well, but it''s predicated on the latest version being packaged
and
available.  I''ve been lax on packaging the 0.19 releases because of
problems
reported with the Debian support (which I''ve been working to fix in my
CFT,
and one of which is (I think) fixed in 0.19.1).  Then there''s the small
matter of getting the packages into a repository that your machines have
access to, but I solve that with a private repository of out-of-tree
packages, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who has a non-trivial
system to administer.

- Matt

-- 
"People aren''t smart enough to write thread-safe code."
		-- Rasmus Lehdorf, LCA 2004