Time-Saving Tips for Using Puppet: Build, Run & Manage Your Infrastructure
We’re always rolling out new ways to make Puppet easier to use and maintain so you can run better infrastructure, ditch toil, save time, and increase ROI — fast. This guide will help you with a few need-to-know time saving tricks that can make starting with Puppet, or continuing to manage Puppet, easier and speedier.
Get Started Fast with Training That Works for Your Schedule
Whether you’ve worked with Puppet before or you’re just getting started, we have private, group, and on-demand lessons that can get you up to speed on Puppet best practices and provide you (or your team) with the need-to-know info on how to use Puppet.
As an example, our free “A Brief Intro to Puppet for (Very) Busy People” course is only 15 minutes long and can give you the “big picture” overview of Puppet. The Puppet ed team is constantly adding new courses, including advanced courses, all with the goal of making Puppet easy to get started with and continue to use.
Even better, our PE101 – PE301 courses are complimentary — great for onboarding team members to Puppet on an efficient schedule.
Back to topGet Building in the Forge
The Puppet Forge is where you’ll find all of Puppet’s ready-to-use modules to automate your infrastructure. From provisioning servers to scheduling tasks and running Puppet in Docker, the Forge has you covered. With clear documentation and tutorials, you can quickly learn and implement these modules, saving countless hours of work and reducing errors.
Here’s how the Puppet Forge can save you time:
Automate Common & Extend Capability with Pre-Built Modules
As mentioned, the Forge is a platform where the Puppet team and Puppet community share Puppet automation scripts (called modules). With thousands of modules on the Forge, including modules that are officially supported by Puppet, there’s a good chance that the automation task you’re looking for is pre-built and ready to go.
For example, modules on the Forge can help you automatically...
- Manage sudo configurations with Puppet
- Manage NGINX Install and manage Docker with Puppet
- Install the correct Java package on a variety of OSes
- And more!
Click here to browse 2000+ modules on the Forge.
Create a Personalized User Profiles
When you sign up for an account on the Forge, you automatically receive a personalized user profile that makes it easier to manage your Puppet modules. With these personalized profiles, you can:
- Track module updates to avoid manually searching for module updates to make sure you’re up to date.
- Gain visibility into your modules and see where your modules were downloaded and compare them against the latest versions.
- See a snapshot of your current state — all you have to do is upload a Puppetfile to get a better understanding of your infrastructure.
- Keep track of frequent searches and spend less time sorting through filters for platforms, supported versions, and more.
Create a Forge profile today to get started.
Collaborate and Stay Informed
It's easy to collaborate with your team and stay ahead of module updates in the Forge.
- Create an organizational identity to share modules across teams and contributors — no more sharing passwords.
- See, manage, and share modules across your organization from a central admin account.
- Track modules with the “follow” feature and get notifications when there are important updates.
Create an organizational identity to start collaborating with your Puppet team.
Map Module Dependencies in Five Minutes or Less
When you’re ready to upgrade Puppet, you don’t need to worry about the time-consuming task of mapping and identifying Puppet module dependencies — the Compatibility Report does the work for you.
- Reduce the time-consuming effort of manually mapping dependencies between Puppet modules.
- Prevent missed dependencies between Puppet modules.
- Craft a clear plan of action to ensure an easier upgrade.
Run a Compatibility Report to check dependencies and outdated modules.
With modules for instant automation, update notifications, organizational identities, and an instant map of module dependencies, the Forge is a great way to save time with Puppet.
Puppet modules are constantly being updated and uploaded by our enormous community in the Forge, so you can trust you’re getting the best module version every time. No matter what you’re trying to automate or accomplish, there is probably a module for it.
Back to topWrite Puppet Code Using AI
Puppet's domain-specific language (DSL), based in Ruby, lets you maintain the desired state of your infrastructure better than any other policy as code solution. But if you’re still learning (or re-learning) how to create Puppet code, you can still build and test scripts and modules with the help of AI. AI-developed code can help automate common tasks and translate your natural language into Puppet code.
With your end goal in mind, you can use GitHub Copilot along with the PDK and Puppet VSCode extension to write Puppet code faster than you ever thought possible. Check out this page for step-by-step instructions on how to use AI to write Puppet code fast.
Even better, you can hear directly from Puppet Software Engineer Jordan Breen on how to develop AI code using GitHub Copilot and the Puppet VSCode extension in this helpful tutorial:
We share this use case of AI as a means to augment your Puppet development processes — not as a replacement for thorough quality assurance. As with any AI-assisted code creation, always check your output.
Back to topGet Up to Speed with Help from the Puppet Pros
You don’t have to take on Puppet management and maintenance alone. From onboarding to ongoing maintenance to levelling up your Puppet practices, Puppet Professional Services can help. It’s the speediest way to get the support you need, get your questions answered, and make sure that you’re getting the most out of Puppet.
Puppet Professional Services includes options for every need and budget, including:
- Setup and Integration: When you’re just getting started, start here: offerings like our Puppet Enterprise Jumpstart ensure that you are up and running with Puppet as quickly as possible.
- Puppet Optimization Services: With options like an overall Health Check along with Upgrade Services, our optimization services can prepare you for success.
- Long Term Services: Add an on-demand Puppet expert to your roster without expanding your headcount. Options like Admin as a Service, or lengthier engagements like Technical Account Management Services, are value-adding resources that keep our Puppet customers coming back.
- Migration Support: Moving from Open Source Puppet to Puppet Enterprise? Or moving infrastructure into the cloud? Professional Services can help.
No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, we have training, support, and pre-built modules that can help you start collaborating and automating:
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