How to Install Puppet on Ubuntu Linux

This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install and manage the Puppet automation server and agent on Ubuntu 20.04 | 18.04 LTS.

Puppet is an open-source, cross-platform, enterprise automation tool that allows IT admins to automate infrastructure and complex workflows, enabling continuous compliance in a simple yet powerful way.

By installing Puppet on Ubuntu Linux, IT admins can manage and automate their infrastructure more efficiently and effectively. This helps to reduce manual effort and minimize the risk of errors.

Additionally, installing Puppet on Ubuntu Linux provides a standardized approach to infrastructure management, which can lead to better security, compliance, and performance.

To get started with Puppet in Ubuntu, follow the steps below:

Prepare Ubuntu

For this tutorial, we will use Ubuntu as our Puppet master or Puppet server. In this case, you’ll want to prepare Ubuntu to get Puppet working correctly.

Run the commands below to open the Ubuntu hosts file.

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Then, define or add the Puppet server and client IP in the file. For this tutorial, our Puppet server IP is 192.168.1.1, and the Puppet client IP is 192.168.1.2.

192.168.1.1           puppetmaster      puppet
192.168.1.2           puppetclient

Save the file and exit.

Add Puppet Repository

Now that the Ubuntu server has IP defined run the commands below to add the Puppet 7 release repository.

cd /tmp
wget https://apt.puppetlabs.com/puppet7-release-focal.deb

After that, run the commands below to install the repository.

sudo apt install ./puppet7-release-focal.deb

Install Puppet Server

Now that the repository is installed, run the commands below to install Puppet Server.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install puppetserver

That should install the server on Ubuntu. After installation, the commands below can stop, start, and enable the server to start up automatically when the server boots up.

sudo systemctl stop puppetserver
sudo systemctl start puppetserver
sudo systemctl enable puppetserver

To validate that Puppet is installed and ready, run the commands below.

sudo systemctl status puppetserver

That should display similar lines to the ones below.

● puppetserver.service - puppetserver Service
      Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/puppetserver.service; enabled; vendor >
      Active: active (running) since Sun 2021-04-11 20:03:05 CDT; 21s ago
    Main PID: 5746 (java)
       Tasks: 44 (limit: 4915)
      Memory: 980.8M
      CGroup: /system.slice/puppetserver.service
              └─5746 /usr/bin/java -Xms2g -Xmx2g -Djruby.logger.class=com.puppet>
 Apr 11 20:02:19 ubuntu2004 systemd[1]: Starting puppetserver Service…
 Apr 11 20:03:05 ubuntu2004 systemd[1]: Started puppetserver Service.

If you enable the Ubuntu firewall, allow this port through the firewall.

sudo ufw allow 8140/tcp

Install Puppet Agent

Now that the server is installed, switch to the client node and install the Puppet client version on the node. We will use a Ubuntu machine as our client node for this tutorial.

Puppet agents and the master servers communicate over an encrypted tunnel (HTTPS) with client verification. To install the Puppet client on Ubuntu, use the commands below to download and install the Puppet client repository.

cd /tmp/
wget https://apt.puppetlabs.com/puppet7-release-focal.deb
sudo apt install ./puppet7-release-focal.deb

After installing the repository above, run the commands below to install the Puppet agent.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install puppet-agent

Run the commands below to open the Puppet configuration file on the client.

sudo nano /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/puppet.conf

Then, add the highlighted lines below to define the Puppet master server. You should ensure these hostnames are defined in the /etc/hosts file on the client.

# This file can be used to override the default puppet settings.
# See the following links for more details on what settings are available:
# - https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/config_important_settings.html
# - https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/config_about_settings.html
# - https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/config_file_main.html
# - https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/configuration.html

[main]
certname = puppetclient
server = puppetmaster

Save the exit.

After installation, the commands below can stop, start, and enable the Puppet agent to start when the client boots automatically.

sudo systemctl stop puppet
sudo systemctl start puppet
sudo systemctl enable puppet

To verify that the Puppet agent is installed and running, run the commands below:

sudo systemctl status puppet

That should display similar lines as shown below:

● puppet.service - Puppet agent
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/puppet.service; enabled; vendor preset>
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-04-12 08:41:39 CDT; 1min 22s ago
   Main PID: 2562 (puppet)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 4648)
     Memory: 78.2M
     CGroup: /system.slice/puppet.service
             └─2562 /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/ruby /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/>

Apr 12 08:41:39 Ubuntu2010 systemd[1]: Started Puppet agent.

Sign Puppet Agent Certificates

Now switch back to the back to the server node and run the commands below to list all available certificates on the server.

sudo /opt/puppetlabs/bin/puppetserver ca list --all

That should display lists of certificates found. Now run the commands below to sign all the certificates listed.

sudo /opt/puppetlabs/bin/puppetserver ca sign --all

That should do it!

Now, go back to the Puppet client node and run the commands below to test communication between client and server nodes.

sudo /opt/puppetlabs/bin/puppet agent --test

If communication is successful, then your job is done. You can now start configuring your server tasks.

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to install Ubuntu’s Puppet server and client nodes. If you find any error above, please use the form below to report.