Is it possible to install actual OS using puppet?

[Rastio Hodul]

Hi,

ideally I would like to crate bootable USB stick with, say, Ubuntu + Puppet on it. I would then use this USB stick on a blank computer to boot to it and install new OS (Ubuntu+WhateverIWant) on that blank computer. I know I can do WhateverIWant part, but can I install actual OS?

Thanks.

[Rahul Khengare]

Hi Rastio,

   I dont think that puppet do operating system installation. Puppet is configuration management tool, 

you can use puppet to configure any software and operating system settings after puppet get install on your machine.

For automatic installation of operating system there is tools called kickstart, cobler, etc.

Refer following blog link about puppet and operating system installation relation,

http://puppetlabs.com/blog/your-os-installer-and-you 

Thanks and regards,

Rahul Khengare,

NTT DATA OSS Center, Pune, India.

[Stuart Cracraft]

One popular standard method is:

  + LDAP initial boot a box from Kickstart or equivalent deploying an appropriate basic OS image

  + Ensure the post-image-install script includes a puppet agent package and changes to let the box talk with a known puppet master

     and autostart the puppet agent at system boot

  + Write more and more and more Puppet patterns to customize the system for given uses

     NFS server, Database server, Mail server, Compute Server, etc.

  + Ensure no "touch-the-cloud" ideas ever appear in non-Puppet form. Nobody as superuser on boxes...

The point is to move more of the OS config and continuous drift-prevention into puppet patterns which run 7x24 during

production  or permit manual-only operation with post-mortem data capture (lsof, ps, top, sar, etc.) for security analysis, 

logging all changes either way to an audit trail to find out why change is happening, when, and to trace it down to root 

cause (busy/corrupted fingers, security compromises, phase-of-moon, gamma-rays, etc.)

Further, your "glove boxes" become puppet-applied patterns which must go through a repository-sourced-and-dr'ed

dev/test/limited-prod/extended-prod.

Additionals?

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[Steven Nemetz]

Take a look at razor
https://puppetlabs.com/solutions/next-generation-provisioning
https://github.com/puppetlabs/razor
http://www.slideshare.net/PuppetLabs/puppetandrazor
http://www.slideshare.net/PuppetLabs/razor-puppet

Steven

---

Subject: Re: [Puppet Users] Re: Is it possible to install actual OS using puppet?
From: smcra...@me.com
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 22:36:50 -0700
To: puppet...@googlegroups.com

[Daniel Pittman]

On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 4:03 AM, Steven Nemetz <sne...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Take a look at razor
> https://puppetlabs.com/solutions/next-generation-provisioning
> https://github.com/puppetlabs/razor
> http://www.slideshare.net/PuppetLabs/puppetandrazor
> http://www.slideshare.net/PuppetLabs/razor-puppet

You should probably also be aware that Razor is currently being
rewritten to provide a more stable base for future work; we hope to
have that out soon™, but I can't make promises about the schedule
there. There are more details on why in the first message of this
thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/puppet-razor/q4uCVMmUop0

Razor is awesome, but I would caution that you should expect to roll
up your sleeves, pull on your developer hat, and at least be ready to
diagnose and report bugs -- if not fix them -- if you plan on using
it.

--
Daniel Pittman
⎋ Puppet Labs Developer – http://puppetlabs.com
♲ Made with 100 percent post-consumer electrons

[Rich Siegel]

So I have done a full os install using baremetal on a seemingly harder platform- windows.

https://github.com/rismoney/puppet-baremetal-windows

Now windows has a lot of nuances so it should be easier in theory to do something similar starting from *nix.

In essence I use a linux pxe server to boot a live image of an os with puppet installed, and then all the config is deployed to get endpoint to make it as expected. Based on a facter fact I know my host is in build mode or not.

Its awesome and a build takes 20 min with no razor, only pure puppet, as all build config is backed in hiera. Most of the repo is dedicated to reproducability of the entire solution whereas the execution a puppet code is relatively small to make the os how I want it.

[jcbollinger]

Is it not true, though, that the Puppet code by which you achieve the OS installation is totally different from what you would use to maintain any part of the installed system post installation, via a client running on it?  Most built-in Puppet resource types are designed to manage resources belonging to the host OS, which during OS installation would be the PXE image.

I'm glad that what you have works well for you, but I'm not seeing where Puppet is bringing a big advantage to the OS install part.  I'm imagining that it must involve primarily a bunch of Execs, and if that's true then I wonder whether it would be as easy or easier to use ordinary scripts installed locally on the PXE image to do the work instead.  Or any of the various provisioning tools that are specifically designed for this sort of work.  Can you help me out here?


John

[Rich Siegel]

> the Puppet code by which you achieve the OS installation is totally different from what you would use to maintain any part of the installed system post installation, via a client running on it?

Yes but within our gitrepo, using the same tooling and contributions via the same workflow and peer review. This provides transparency and you can in a matter of minutes see how the system is built. Using other things like altiris, systemctr, standalone scripts,
Or wds doesn't allow a true source of truth at this time.

[jcbollinger]

Fair enough.  I just wanted to point out that the system you described might be very different in form and nature from what the OP (thought he) was asking about.


Best,

John

[Rastio Hodul]

Hi everybody,

thanks for all your responses. Sorry for coming back this late, I was out of commission for a while...

At the end I am going with the solution described here http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/tutorials/unattended-ubuntu-installations

The first commenter there created a script to do the work: http://www.utech.de/2013/05/shell-script-creating-a-cd-for-unattended-ubuntu-server-installations/

The reason is that we have somebody to manufacture a small kiosk that will have one USB at the back and only WiFi network, so at the time of install, there will be no network. This way I can prepare the OS image and just 'burn' it there.

So, at the and, my question was misplaced in Puppet forum :).

Thanks!

[Sing Do]

Hi Ratio,
Can you update the url.. all are not working now.

Thanks,
Sing

[Rastislav Hodul]

Hi Sing, that was 4 years ago, I don't know where to find valid links this time :(.

Sorry.

-- Rastio

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