Get started with Puppet, and learn how this popular configuration management framework helps you automate your servers. This concise introduction shows you how to use Puppet’s tools and templates to organize and execute configuration plans on Linux, Unix, and Windows servers. Through code samples and real-world examples, you’ll learn how to manage pools of servers and virtual instances, and how to administer access control. If you’re new to Puppet, but familiar with systems administration and Ruby language basics, this book is the ideal way to start using this open source framework.

Learn Puppet fundamentals, including its manifest syntax and built-in functions

Store configurations in a central location with PuppetMaster, and define which configurations apply to which nodes

Build a framework to create user accounts in place of LDAP or Kerberos KDC

Apply techniques to execute and manage server configurations with MCollective

Use Puppet as an auditing tool to ensure that configurations are correct

Gather information on the nodes you manage with the Facter library

James Loope is the Operations Lead at Janrain. He is a specialist in scalable infrastructure, virtualization, cloud infrastructure and computer security.