Puppet users - Apr 2011 - Evaluating Puppet for Tomcat Deployment

I just recently learned about Puppet and was wondering if someone
could tell me if this would be a good fit for our environment.

We have 3 web servers (and will soon have 4).  Here''s the steps I
currently use to deploy:

# log on to production web server 1
> service httpd stop
> service tomcat5 stop
# log on to QA server
> scp ROOT.war user@server1.example.com:/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/
Sometimes it is more complex, though, and I may need to copy any of
the following:
/etc/httpd/conf.d/mod_jk.conf
/etc/tomcat5/context.xml

But I can''t just copy over context.xml from QA, since the connection
strings are different in QA and production.

# restart everything (after ROOT.war has transferred)
> service tomcat5 start
> service httpd start
Usually, I deploy to server1, test, and then deploy to server2 and
server3.  I like to wait until server 2 is completed ready before I
start deploying to server 3 -- can Puppet do this (check for the HTTP
status of /)?

So, can I have Puppet deploy server1 and then have it do the deploy
and wait to server2, server3, and soon to be server4?

Thanks,
Bradford

-- 
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+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/puppet-users?hl=en.

Hi,

coordinating distributed actions is not puppet''s strong suit (you may
want to look at MCollective).

On 04/14/2011 03:35 PM, bradford wrote:
> I just recently learned about Puppet and was wondering if someone
> could tell me if this would be a good fit for our environment.
> 
> We have 3 web servers (and will soon have 4).  Here''s the steps I
> currently use to deploy:
> 
> # log on to production web server 1
>> service httpd stop
>> service tomcat5 stop
> 
> # log on to QA server
>> scp ROOT.war user@server1.example.com:/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/
You don''t want puppet to perform lots of actions, puppet is more about
*state*.
Puppet would be most comfortable if you rolled your application into a
package with suitable per-/post-inst hooks, I think.
> Sometimes it is more complex, though, and I may need to copy any of
> the following:
> /etc/httpd/conf.d/mod_jk.conf
> /etc/tomcat5/context.xml
Deploying single configuration files works quite well within the puppet
paradigm.
> But I can''t just copy over context.xml from QA, since the
connection
> strings are different in QA and production.
Have a look at ERB templates for puppet. This works well.
> # restart everything (after ROOT.war has transferred)
>> service tomcat5 start
>> service httpd start
Again, this should be scripted, either in a package or a custom script
(which puppet can deploy and run for you).
> Usually, I deploy to server1, test, and then deploy to server2 and
> server3.  I like to wait until server 2 is completed ready before I
> start deploying to server 3 -- can Puppet do this (check for the HTTP
> status of /)?
> 
> So, can I have Puppet deploy server1 and then have it do the deploy
> and wait to server2, server3, and soon to be server4?
I call MCollective, but maybe someone has more ideas on this one.

Cheers,
Felix

-- 
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+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/puppet-users?hl=en.