Puppet users - Oct 2009 - Using the Puppet language to describe installation parameters.

Hi,

I would like to capture the description of a computer platform, either
physical or virtual, and use this description as the basis for machine
generating pre-configured appliances.  Puppet appears ideal for
maintaining the configuration of an appliance once it has been
created.  I''m wondering if the Puppet language could also be used to
describe the computer platform in sufficient detail to drive the image
creation process in a manner similar to livecd and Anaconda/
Kickstart.

Kickstart is too limited to describe a platform sufficiently and
livecd seems to be closely tied to the host platform running the
creation process.  If the Puppet is descriptive enough then a ruby-
based tool could be developed to generate a virtual images for various
platforms  based on a detailed machine description.  A tool could also
be created to generate a Kickstart file based on the description to
facilitate installation from media.

Thoughts?

Thanks much,
Cameron.

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2009/10/21 Cameron <cross@kojeware.com>:
> I would like to capture the description of a computer platform, either
> physical or virtual, and use this description as the basis for machine
> generating pre-configured appliances.  Puppet appears ideal for
> maintaining the configuration of an appliance once it has been
> created.  I''m wondering if the Puppet language could also be used
to
> describe the computer platform in sufficient detail to drive the image
> creation process in a manner similar to livecd and Anaconda/
> Kickstart.
>
> Kickstart is too limited to describe a platform sufficiently and
> livecd seems to be closely tied to the host platform running the
> creation process.  If the Puppet is descriptive enough then a ruby-
> based tool could be developed to generate a virtual images for various
> platforms  based on a detailed machine description.  A tool could also
> be created to generate a Kickstart file based on the description to
> facilitate installation from media.
>
I think this is feasible - have a look at the "ralsh" binary as an
example of how some of this might work to model an existing host.  I
am also sure that Ohad (who wrote The Foreman -
http://theforeman.org/) might have some ideas in this direction also.

Regards

James Turnbull

-- 
Author of:
* Pro Linux Systems Administration (http://tinyurl.com/linuxadmin)
* Pulling Strings with Puppet (http://tinyurl.com/pupbook)
* Pro Nagios 2.0 (http://tinyurl.com/pronagios)
* Hardening Linux (http://tinyurl.com/hardeninglinux)

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On Oct 20, 2009, at 3:05 PM, James Turnbull wrote:
>
> 2009/10/21 Cameron <cross@kojeware.com>:
>> I would like to capture the description of a computer platform,  
>> either
>> physical or virtual, and use this description as the basis for  
>> machine
>> generating pre-configured appliances.  Puppet appears ideal for
>> maintaining the configuration of an appliance once it has been
>> created.  I''m wondering if the Puppet language could also be
used to
>> describe the computer platform in sufficient detail to drive the  
>> image
>> creation process in a manner similar to livecd and Anaconda/
>> Kickstart.
>>
>> Kickstart is too limited to describe a platform sufficiently and
>> livecd seems to be closely tied to the host platform running the
>> creation process.  If the Puppet is descriptive enough then a ruby-
>> based tool could be developed to generate a virtual images for  
>> various
>> platforms  based on a detailed machine description.  A tool could  
>> also
>> be created to generate a Kickstart file based on the description to
>> facilitate installation from media.
>>
>
> I think this is feasible - have a look at the "ralsh" binary as
an
> example of how some of this might work to model an existing host.  I
> am also sure that Ohad (who wrote The Foreman -
> http://theforeman.org/) might have some ideas in this direction also.
As a further pointer, looking at the ''cft'' tool that David
Lutterkort
(I think) wrote, you should get an idea for what it looks like to do  
this.

-- 
Don''t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but
never hit soft! -- Theodore Roosevelt
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Luke Kanies | http://reductivelabs.com | http://madstop.com


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