4.8. Installing and Configurating the Puppetmaster

4.8. Installing and Configurating the Puppetmaster

This chapter is about setting up a single puppet master using the mongrel server type as described in the Chapter 2, Configuration Management Standard .

4.8.1. Setting up the Puppet Master

In order for your environment to be able to scale properly, you will need to go with the mongrel server type. The default webrick server type does not scale beyond ~30 managed clients, because it is a single threaded webserver whereas the mongrel server type is multithreaded. Having a multi-threaded server type is a MUST.

To install the puppetmaster, issue the command: 

# yum install puppet-server rubygem-mongrel httpd

which will give you the puppetmaster, the mongrel servertype and httpd which is to be configured as a proxy load balancer.

You will then need to edit or supply the following files:

These files can all conform to a standard, and be managed bySection 4.8.3, “Configuring Puppet” for example files.

Enable the mongrel server type by adding to /etc/sysconfig/puppetmaster's PUPPETMASTER_EXTRA_OPTS setting: 

--servertype=mongrel --masterport=8141

Make sure the PUPPETMASTER_MANIFEST in /etc/sysconfig/puppetmaster is set to /etc/puppet/manifests/site.pp

You should set the following DNS aliases to resolve to the host or group of hosts running the puppetmaster service, and be listed as a certdnsalias :

  • puppet

    This means that no matter what the search domain or DNS suffixes of your clients are, a so-called "IN A" DNS request for the hostname puppet should resolve to the puppetmaster.

  • puppet.$domain

    Although this seems doubling the aforementioned puppet "IN A" DNS alias requirement, adding the puppet host to /etc/hosts is not enough. The full FQDN of puppet.$domain, where $domain is the search domain(s) or DNS suffix(es) of any client.

  • $fqdn

    Stating the obvious, the hostname of the server running the puppetmaster service must resolve, and must also be listed as a certdnsalias .

To generate the CA and puppetmaster certificates, you must run puppetmasterd once without the mongrel server type.