Ryan Coleman, Puppet Forge product owner at Puppet Labs, talks about modules at Puppet Camp SF. Download puppet modules on the Puppet Forge: https://forge.puppetlabs.com/

1. Writing and Sharing Great Modules
with the Puppet Forge
@ryanycoleman - Product Owner - Puppet Forge
Tuesday, April 9, 13

2. About Me
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Ryan was a RedHat sysadmin for Penn State before joining Puppet Labs
as a professional services engineer. Now is product owner for the Forge.

3. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
The Puppet Forge is a community driven web service for contributing and finding Puppet
modules.

4. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
The following are examples of what you will find on the Forge.

5. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

6. Tuesday, April 9, 13

7. Tuesday, April 9, 13

8. Tuesday, April 9, 13

9. Tuesday, April 9, 13

10. Tuesday, April 9, 13

11. Tuesday, April 9, 13

12. Tuesday, April 9, 13

13. Tuesday, April 9, 13

14. Tuesday, April 9, 13

15. Tuesday, April 9, 13

16. Forge Module Count
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
End Q3 End Q4 ~End Q1 ~End Q2 ~End Q3 ~End Q4
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

17. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

18. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

19. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

20. Best Good Practices
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

21. PL Style Guide
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

22. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

23. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

24. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

25. #PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13

26. Code VS Data
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
As you get further along with your Puppet Deployments, separating your code (puppet
resources) from the data (what package, what version) becomes increasingly important.

27. Tuesday, April 9, 13
Imagine that you’re doing a research project in the library.

28. Tuesday, April 9, 13
You’ve got some books that help accomplish your goal.

29. Separate
Code
From
Data
Tuesday, April 9, 13
But you don’t write in those books. You keep your notes -- your data -- separate.

30. Tuesday, April 9, 13

31. Tuesday, April 9, 13
So where do you express your data and how does Puppet find it?

32. Automatic Data Lookup
Built into Puppet 3
Tuesday, April 9, 13

33. Tuesday, April 9, 13
The answer, use Hiera!
Seriously, these docs rock. Read them. http://docs.puppetlabs.com/hiera/1/index.html

34. It’s MAGIC
But also, it’s not...
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
But first, let’s take a closer look at a Puppet run.

35. Tuesday, April 9, 13

36. Tuesday, April 9, 13

37. Hello! I’m James_Bond
running the RedHat
license to kill downtime.
Tuesday, April 9, 13

38. Good to know!
Hmm, what does
James_Bond need to
enforce?.
Tuesday, April 9, 13

39. James_Bond?
Enforce External Node
Forge Classifier
OK, what do I
need for Forge?
Modules Modules
Modules Modules
Tuesday, April 9, 13

40. forge::package?
Data
Bindings
Hiera
Hiearchy
Backends
$clientcert
$operatingsystem
JSON YAML
MySQL Foreman
common
Tuesday, April 9, 13
The Puppet Master needs forge::package. To get this data...
- It consults its data bindings terminus (abstraction for looking up data)
- Default lookup to Hiera (key/value store for data)
- Hiera consults its back-end data stores (defaults to yaml)
- Hiera returns result of lookup to master (key/value or could not find)

41. forge::package?
Data
Bindings
It’s screen!
Hiera
Hiearchy
Backends
$clientcert
$operatingsystem
JSON YAML
MySQL Redis
common
Tuesday, April 9, 13
The Puppet Master needs forge::package. To get this data...
- It consults its data bindings terminus (abstraction for looking up data)
- Default lookup to Hiera (key/value store for data)
- Hiera consults its back-end data stores (defaults to yaml)
- Hiera returns result of lookup to master (key/value or could not find)

42. ? $forge::package
Hiearchy
$clientcert $james_bond
$operatingsystem $RedHat
common common
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Hiera will examine the lookup order of its data backends and its lookup hierarchy. If you
specified a variable lookup in your hierarchy, Hiera will use available facts when choosing the
backend file to lookup.

43. Expressing the configuration of hiera
data backends and lookup hierarchy
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Hiera lets you express data in some structured format (which is pluggable).
You then establish a hierarchy of lookup, however you like, usually based on facts.

44. Ok, so how do I use it
with my Puppet
classes?
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Thankfully, Puppet 3 has made implementing Hiera really simple.

45. In the early days...
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Please don’t use the hiera() function. Consider it legacy.

46. In the early days...
Tuesday, April 9, 13
This is better, as the user can override this default parameter value.
With this, you’re locked into hiera.

47. Here’s the magic!
Tuesday, April 9, 13
But really, just get yourself onto Puppet 3 and take advantage of automatic Hiera!

48. Data Lookup Order
• Use explicit class declaration
values
• Query Data Binding
• Use the default value from
class.
• Fail compilation with an error if
no value can be found.
Tuesday, April 9, 13
This slide could be more visual vs text-based

49. Data Bindings
don’t lock yourself in
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Additionally, protect yourself from a potential loss of Hiera.

50. Built into Puppet 3
Tuesday, April 9, 13
data_bindings were implemented to be an abstraction for data lookup, defaulting to hiera for
now

51. Tuesday, April 9, 13
There’s already an alternative out there, for consulting foreman as your data backend

52. Tuesday, April 9, 13
But really, just get yourself onto Puppet 3 and take advantage of automatic Hiera!

53. Tuesday, April 9, 13
Hiera backends are pluggable too. Here are two examples.

54. Tuesday, April 9, 13

55. Best Practices
• Confirm to the Style Guide
• Use Parameterized Classes
• Don’t use hiera() directly
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Re-cap.

56. The
Team
Tuesday, April 9, 13

57. What have we been
up to?
• Re-launch and Re-design
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Though we’re small, we’ve been really busy!

58. Tuesday, April 9, 13

59. Tuesday, April 9, 13
Lots of little features add up to a substantially nicer to use Forge.

60. Tuesday, April 9, 13
Download counts, now in your search results!

61. GitHub-based Module Publish
ryan@puppetlabs.com
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Edit your Modulefile, push your commit and we’ll do the publishing! Coming soon to a
repository near you.

62. What’s Next?
A Full & Public API
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Also coming soon, an actual API for doing all sorts of things with the Forge.

63. What’s Next?
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Just an experimental mock-up of search results. Actual feature will absolutely look and
behave differently.

64. On-Premise Forge?
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Private Forge has been a common request. The requests I get are two-fold.
A) How can I install public Forge content on a master that can’t reach the outside.
B) How can I contribute company-specific content to a Forge-like thing inside my firewall

65. On-Premise Forge?
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Private Forge has been a common request. The requests I get are two-fold.
A) How can I install public Forge content on a master that can’t reach the outside.
B) How can I contribute company-specific content to a Forge-like thing inside my firewall

66. On-Premise Forge?
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Private Forge has been a common request. The requests I get are two-fold.
A) How can I install public Forge content on a master that can’t reach the outside.
B) How can I contribute company-specific content to a Forge-like thing inside my firewall

67. On-Premise Forge?
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Private Forge has been a common request. The requests I get are two-fold.
A) How can I install public Forge content on a master that can’t reach the outside.
B) How can I contribute company-specific content to a Forge-like thing inside my firewall

68. On-Premise Forge?
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Private Forge has been a common request. The requests I get are two-fold.
A) How can I install public Forge content on a master that can’t reach the outside.
B) How can I contribute company-specific content to a Forge-like thing inside my firewall

69. On-Premise Forge?
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Private Forge has been a common request. The requests I get are two-fold.
A) How can I install public Forge content on a master that can’t reach the outside.
B) How can I contribute company-specific content to a Forge-like thing inside my firewall

70. PulpProject.org
Tuesday, April 9, 13
RedHat’s Pulp Project is repository management software that recently added support for
Puppet Modules.

71. • Manage Modules on-premise
• Mirror Public Forge
• BUT, please work with me on this
• Email me or comment on #5033
• ryan@puppetlabs.com
Tuesday, April 9, 13
If you’re interested in this, email ryan@puppetlabs.com or add your thoughts to https://
projects.puppetlabs.com/issues/5033.
We’re going to do something in this space, but want to hear more from you on what you
need.

72. Want to help?
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
If you want to add your influence to our products, join the Puppet Labs Test Pilots program!
https://puppetlabs.com/community/puppet-test-pilots-program/

73. • Sharpen your skills
• Get Certified
• Online learning on the way
• puppetlabs.com/education
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Our education courses are carefully crafted and delivered by our fabulous education team
and professional services team.
Advanced course coming to LA 3/19
Browse upcoming events at http://puppetlabs.eventbrite.com/

74. Tuesday, April 9, 13

75. Thank You!
Please email (or tweet) feedback and questions
ryan@puppetlabs.com - @ryanycoleman
forge.puppetlabs.com
puppetlabs.com/jobs
#PuppetCamp
Tuesday, April 9, 13
Seriously, join our team. It’ll be awesome.