Hardware requirements

These hardware requirements are based on internal testing at Puppet and are provided as minimum guidelines to help you determine your hardware needs.

Your configuration and code base can significantly affect performance. Use PE tuning and metrics tools to further customize and refine your installation.

Tip:

If possible, address performance limitations by maximizing your hardware first, then scaling up to the next size architecture as needed. It's often easier to upgrade your hardware than to add additional infrastructure nodes.

Hardware requirements for standard installations

These are the minimum hardware requirements for the primary server in a standard architecture with up to 2,500 nodes.

Node volume Cores RAM /opt/ /var/
Trial use 2 8 GB 20 GB 24 GB
11–100 6 10 GB 50 GB 24 GB
101–500 8 12 GB 50 GB 24 GB
501–1,000 10 16 GB 50 GB 24 GB
1,000–2,500 12 24 GB 50 GB 24 GB
  • Trial mode: Although the m5.large instance type is sufficient for trial use, it is not supported. A minimum of four cores is required for production workloads.
  • /opt/ storage requirements: The database should not exceed 50% of /opt/ to allow for future upgrades.
  • /var/ storage requirements: There are roughly 20 log files stored in /var/ which are limited in size to 1 GB each. We recommend allocating 24 GB to avoid issues, however log retention settings generally prevent reaching the maximum capacity.

Hardware requirements for large installations

These are the minimum hardware requirements for the primary server and compilers in a large architecture with 2,500–20,000 nodes.

Each compiler increases capacity by approximately 1,500–3,000 nodes, until you exhaust the capacity of PuppetDB or the console, which run on the primary server.

Node volume Node Cores RAM /opt/ /var/ EC2
2,500–20,000 Primary node 16 32 GB 150 GB 10 GB c5.4xlarge
Each compiler (1,500 - 3,000 nodes) 6 12 GB 30 GB 2 GB m5.xlarge

Hardware requirements for extra-large installations

These are the minimum hardware requirements for the primary server, compilers, and PE-PostgreSQL nodes in an extra-large architecture with 20,000+ nodes.

Node volume Node Cores RAM /opt/ /var/ EC2
20,000+ Primary node 16 32 GB 150 GB 10 GB c5.4xlarge
Each compiler (1,500 - 3,000 nodes) 6 12 GB 30 GB 2 GB m5.xlarge
PE-PostgreSQL node 16 128 GB 300 GB 4 GB r5.4xlarge

If you manage more than 20,000 nodes, contact your technical account manager or Puppet Professional Services to talk about optimizing your setup for your specific requirements.

Hardware requirements for cloud deployments

Ensure that your primary server meets the minimum hardware requirements for cloud deployments. Cloud deployments use a standard architecture with up to 2,500 nodes.

Node volume Amazon Web Services (AWS) Azure
Trial use m5.large D2 v4
11–100 c5.2xlarge F8s v2
101–500 c5.2xlarge F8s v2
501–1,000 c5.2xlarge F8s v2
1,000–2,500 c5.4xlarge F16s v2

Azure requirements are not currently tested by Puppet, but are presented here as best guidance based on comparable AWS testing.