Open Source For You — December 2017

Let's Try Admin

http://www.OpenSourceForU.com | OPEN SOURCE FOR YOU | DECEMBER 2017 | 51

1990s Today

Scale-Out

Scale-Up

App App

App

Server Server Server

Virtualization

Server

App

ControllerStorage ControllerStorage ControllerStorage ControllerStorage ControllerStorage ControllerStorage

Storage Storage

Figure 1: Overview of virtualisation (Source: VMware.com)

Custom Apps

App

1

Packaged Apps

Pay

roll

CRM ERP

Databases

Mainframe

Baremetal

App

Figure 2: Enterprise infrastructure through the ages (Source: itxbit.com)

Figure 3: Puppet: The server configuration management tool (Source: puppet.com)

Figure 4: Automation plays a vital role in DevOps (Source: puppet.com)

Figure 5: Puppet offered on the AWS Marketplace (Source: puppet.com)

computing services they access, while sharing the investment

in the underlying IT resources among consumers. When the

computing resources are provided by another organisation

over a wide area network, cloud computing is similar to an

electric power utility. The providers benefit from economies

of scale, which in turn enables them to lower individual usage

costs and centralise infrastructure costs.”

However, setting up new virtual machines at scale presents

a new challenge when the size of the organisation increases and

the use cases balloon. It becomes nearly impossible to manage

the customisation and configuration of each individual instance,

considering that an average time of a few minutes needs to be

spent per deployment. This raises questions about the switch

to the cloud itself, considering the overheads are now similar

in terms of the time spent in the case of physical infrastructure.

This is where Puppet enters the picture. It is a server

configuration management tool that automates the deployment

and modification of virtual machines and servers with a single

configuration script that can serve to deploy thousands of

virtual machines simultaneously.

Features of Puppet

A server configuration management tool, Puppet gives you

an automated way to inspect, deliver and operate software

regardless of its deployment. It provides control and

enforces consistency while allowing for any modifications

as dictated by business needs. It uses a Ruby-like easy-

to-read language in preparing the deployment of the

infrastructure. Working with both the cloud and the data

centre, it is platform-independent, and can enforce and

propagate all the necessary changes for the infrastructure.

It also allows for the monitoring of each stage to ensure

visibility and compliance.

Puppet supports DevOps by providing automation and

enabling faster releases without sacrificing on security or

stability. It allows for security policies to be set and monitored

for regulatory compliance so that the risk of misconfigurations

and failed audits is minimised. By treating the infrastructure

as code, Puppet ensures the deployments are faster and

continuous shipping of code results in lower risk of failure.

It streamlines heterogenous technologies and unifies them

under a singular configuration management interface. Puppet

supports containers and encourages analysis of what the

container is made of, at scale. Tools are provided to monitor

any discrepancies in functionality in order to gain deeper

insight into the deployments of a product.