New Puppet facts for Windows

by John O'Connor|4 June 2020

To manage your Windows desktops and servers based on the version / edition of Windows installed across your organisation, we’ve introduced Windows build-specific facts to Puppet.

If you have a mix of Windows servers (Core and ServerStandard) and Windows desktops with varying versions and editions Windows, using Windows build-specific facts allows you to:

Avoid installing GUI type tools (Notepad++) on Windows core servers
Ensure that new features (e.g. Windows Terminal) are only installed on versions of Windows that support them
Install VS Code with Puppet extensions on client desktops only

Let’s see what all this looks like in some Puppet code:

  if $facts['os']['windows']['release_id'] >= '1904' {
    # Ensure Build Version Supports Windows Terminal
    package { 'microsoft-windows-terminal':
      ensure   =>  installed,
      provider => 'chocolatey',
    }
  }

  if $facts['os']['windows']['installation_type'] != 'Server Core' {
    # Editors not permitted on Core Servers
    package { 'notepadplusplus':
      ensure   =>  installed,
      provider => 'chocolatey',
    }
  }

  if $facts['os']['windows']['installation_type'] == 'Client' {
    # VS Code to be installed on Desktops with Puppet Extensions
    package { 'vscode':
      ensure   =>  installed,
      provider => 'chocolatey',
    }
    package { 'vscode-puppet':
      ensure   =>  installed,
      provider => 'chocolatey',
    }
  }

What are the new facts and what do they do

The previous example uses a number of new facts which were added recently to Facter under the os.windows key:

C:> facter os.windows
{
  edition_id => "Professional",
  installation_type => "Client",
  product_name => "Windows 10 Pro",
  release_id => "2004",
  system32 => "C:\WINDOWS\system32"
}

All of these facts are derived from the Windows Registry Key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion as shown in the following table.

|Registry Value| Fact | Description | Syntax/Example | |---------| ------------- |-------------| -----| |ReleaseID| release_id |The 4 digit Windows Build Version |YYMM (e.g. 1904) | |InstallationType| installation_type | Differentiates Server, Server Core, and Client (Desktop) | Server | |EditionID | edition_id | Server or Desktop Edition variant | ServerStandard, Professional, Enterprise | |ProductName | product_name | Textual Product Name | Windows 2019 Standard Edition |

Note - release_id is returned for Windows 10/Server 2016 builds only (i.e. Windows 2012r2 doesn’t contain this registry entry).

These new facts also support:

Fact Collection to determine Windows 10 Build Versions (Feature releases)
Patching and ensuring supported versions are in use

John O’Connor is a senior engineer in developer services who has a passion for ensuring Windows remains a first-class Puppet citizen.

New Puppet facts for Windows

What are the new facts and what do they do

Learn more