Figure 15-4 Puppet Architecture
The central control server, the Puppet Master, provides
features such as reporting, web user interface, security,
and more. The software agents run on the target node
that will be monitored by Puppet. The agents connect to
the Master and retrieve the correct configuration for the
device they are running on. Puppet Forge is a
community-based central repository where people can
share their Puppet manifests and modules.
There are currently two separate versions of Puppet:
Open source: This community-driven version is a collection of
smaller projects and binaries, including the main Puppet agent
binaries, mcollective and facter. mcollective provides orchestration
capabilities, and facter is a separate binary that resides on the
monitored devices and gathers facts about them.
Enterprise: This version streamlines the installation process and the
use of the various software packages required. For example, a single
agent package that contains both the agent software and facter is
available with the Puppet Enterprise offering. Enterprise Console, a
single-pane-of-glass solution that presents a simplified view of all the
facts collected by the agents, is also available with the Enterprise
offering.For a system administrator or network administrator
using Puppet as a configuration management solution,