Installing Open Source Puppet

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Installing Open Source Puppet

Puppet is a configuration management tool that allows us to enforce consistent configurations across multiple platforms, and Puppet open source even lets us do it for free. In this lab, we'll configure an open source Puppet master on a CentOS 7 server, then start bringing our infra under Puppet's control by installing the Puppet agent on a second node. We'll also make sure our certificate authority is up and running by accepting our node's cert on the master.

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Lab Info

Level

Beginner

Last updated

Sep 20, 2025

Duration

30m

Challenge

Install the Puppet Server on the CentOS 7 node

Update the /etc/hosts information:

$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1   puppet localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4

Add the Puppet 5 Platform repo:

$ sudo rpm -Uvh https://yum.puppet.com/puppet5-release-el-7.noarch.rpm

Install Puppet:

$ sudo yum install puppetserver

Start Puppet, making sure it uses no more than 1 GB of RAM:

$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/sysconfig/puppetserver

JAVA_ARGS="-Xms1g -Xmx1g -Djruby.logger.class=com.puppetlabs.jruby_utils.jruby.Slf4jLogger"

$ sudo systemctl start puppetserver
$ sudo systemctl enable puppetserver

Ensure any Puppet commands can be used with sudo:

$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/sudoers.d/99_extra

Defaults    secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/opt/puppetlabs/bin

$ bash

Challenge

Install the Puppet agent on the Ubuntu 18.04 node

Update the /etc/hosts file with the private IP and name of the master:

$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/hosts

10.0.1.100  puppet

Add the Puppet 5 Platform repository:

$ wget https://apt.puppetlabs.com/puppet5-release-bionic.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i puppet5-release-bionic.deb
$ sudo apt update

Install the Puppet agent:

$ sudo apt install puppet-agent

Start and enable Puppet:

$ sudo systemctl start puppet
$ sudo systemctl enable puppet

Update the secure path:

$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/sudoers.d/99_extra

Defaults    secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/opt/puppetlabs/bin

$ bash

Challenge

Sign the Ubuntu 18.04 node's cert on the master
On the Ubuntu 18.04 node, view the fingerprint of the node:
```
$ sudo puppet agent --fingerprint
```
One the master, list the pending certificates to sign:
```
$ sudo puppetserver ca list
```
If the fingerprints match (they should), sign the cert:
```
$ sudo puppetserver ca sign --certname node1.ec2.internal
```

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