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Install PE

Sections

Installing Puppet Enterprise (PE) sets up a standard installation, which you can use to try out PE with up to 10 nodes or to manage up to 4,000 nodes.

Ensure your system capacity can manage a PE installation by reviewing the Hardware requirements for standard installations.

A standard PE installation consists of these components installed on a single node:

  • The primary server: The central hub of activity, where Puppet code is compiled to create agent catalogs, and where SSL certificates are verified and signed.
  • The console: The graphical web interface, which has configuration and reporting tools.
  • PuppetDB: The data store for data generated throughout your Puppet infrastructure.
Important: The primary server runs only on *nix machines. Windows machines can run as Puppet agents, and you can manage them with your *nix primary server. If you want to operate a *nix primary server remotely from a Windows machine, before installing PE, configure an SSH client, such as PuTTY, with the hostname or IP address and port of the *nix machine that you want to install as your primary server. When you open an SSH session to install the *nix primary server, log in as the root user, or use sudo.

Install PE

Installation uses default settings to install PE infrastructure components on a single node. After installing, you can scale or customize your installation as needed.

Important: Perform these steps on your target primary server logged in as root. If you're installing on a system that doesn't enable root login, use the command sudo su - to switch to the root user.
  1. Download the tarball appropriate to your operating system and architecture.
    Tip: To download packages from the command line, run wget --content-disposition <URL> or curl -JLO <URL>, using the URL for the tarball you want to download.
  2. Unpack the installation tarball: 
    tar -xf <TARBALL_FILENAME>              Copied!
  3. From the installer directory, run the installer and follow the CLI instructions to complete your installation: 
    ./puppet-enterprise-installerCopied!
  4. Optional: Restart the shell in order to use client tool commands.

Log in to the PE console

The console is a graphical interface where you can manage your infrastructure without relying on the command line.

To log in for the first time:

  1. Open the console by entering the URL <PRIMARY_HOSTNAME> into your browser, where hostname is your primary server's trusted certificate name.
    Note: You'll receive a browser warning about an untrusted certificate because you were the signing authority for the console's certificate, and your Puppet Enterprise deployment is not known to your browser as a valid signing authority. Ignore the warning and accept the certificate.
  2. On the console login page, log in with the username admin and the password you created when installing. Keep track of this login because you need it later.
What to do next

Next, check the status of your primary server.

Check the status of your primary server

You can run a task to check the status of your primary server in the console.

A task is a single action that allows you to do ad-hoc things like upgrade packages and restart services on target machines. Puppet Enterprise (PE) comes with a few tasks installed, such as package, service, and puppet_conf, and you can download more tasks from the Forge or write your own.
  1. In the console, in the Orchestration section, click Tasks.
  2. Click Run a task in the upper right corner of the Tasks page.
  3. In the Task field, select service because you are checking the status of the primary server service.
  4. Optional: In the Job description field, provide a description. The text you enter here appears on the job list and job details pages.
  5. Under Task parameters, enter parameters and values for the task. The service task has two required parameters. For action, choose status. For name, enter puppet.
  6. Under Select targets, select Node list.
    1. In the Inventory nodes field, add the hostname of your primary server and select it.
  7. Click Run task or Schedule job.
    Your task run appears on the Tasks page. To rerun the task, click Run again and choose to rerun the task on all nodes or only on the nodes that failed during the initial run.
    Tip: Filter run results by task name to find specific task runs.
Results

View the task status and output in the Jobs page when it is finished running.

Your primary server's status should be “running” and “enabled”. To learn more about tasks, including how to install them from the Forge or how to write your own, visit the Installing tasks and Writing tasks sections of the docs.

What to do next

Next, use the console to Add nodes to the inventory.