Advanced Concept of Puppet Development Kit

Customising your module configuration

PDK uses a default template to configure modules. This configuration can be changed by specifying a unique custom template or altering particular template settings.

Specifying custom templates

When creating a new module or converting an existing module, you can specify a custom template.

Make any necessary changes to the default template by forking the pdk-template project on GitHub. If you must modify the Gemfile or Rakefile, be sure to test your modifications first. Errors with PDK can result from significant changes to the default template's Gemfile or Rakefile.

Run the —template-url option with the pdk convert or pdk new module commands.

Command

pdk convert --template-url https://github.com/myrepo/custom-module-template

Customising the default templates

🍂 Whether you created the module with PDK or are converting it to PDK, you can alter the default template on an existing module. To modify a new module, first, build it using PDK and then make the desired changes to the template.

 

🍂 Make a.sync.yml file in your module if you want to change the default template. This file must be in a valid YAML format and be located in the module's top directory. PDK reads the.sync.yml file and applies the changes to the appropriate files when you convert or update a module.

 

🍂 Use a top-level key, such as appveyor.yml, to identify the file you want to manage in the sync.yml file. Then add keys to the file to alter its configuration, indenting them by two spaces. For instance:

🎯Setting deletes: if it is provided by the module template, true deletes the name file.

🎯 Setting unmanaged: if it is supplied through the module template, true ignores the named file.

🎯 See the pdk-template README for a completely updated list of sync.yml settings.

 

🍂 For example, this.sync.yml file removes the module's appveyor.yml file. Additionally, it modifies the Travis CI configuration to run the test script in the module using the bundle exec rake rubocop command and Ruby version 2.1.9.

Command

appveyor.yml:
  delete: true
.travis.yml:
  extras:
  -rvm: 2.1.9
   script: bundle exec rake rubocop

 

Update a module with template Changes

With PDK or custom module template updates, update your module to keep it current.

🍂 Before starting, Ensure the module you're updating works with PDK version 1.3.0 or later. Use the pdk convert command to convert a module to the current template if it was built using an earlier version of PDK than 1.3.0. For more details, visit the page about converting modules.

 

🍂 Based on the template you used to create or convert your module, the pdk update function updates your module. PDK updates your module to reflect those changes if that template has undergone any modifications.

 

🍂 Run an update with the —noop option if you only want to check for template updates without making any changes. This option executes the command in "no operation" mode, which displays the proposed changes but doesn't carry them out.

1️⃣ Change to the module's directory using the command line's cd MODULE NAME>.

2️⃣ Activate the update command: update to pdk

3️⃣ Follow PDK prompts to provide metadata information if any module metadata is missing.

4️⃣ Verify the change summary that the PDK displays before choosing to continue or stop the update.

Result:

PDK creates a thorough change report, update report.txt, in the top directory of the module whether you approve or reject changes. Each time you issue the update command, this report is updated.

Validating and testing modules

You can validate your module's metadata, syntax, and style using the Puppet Development Kit (PDK) tools.

The PDK module template, by default, consists of instruments that can:

✔️ Validate the metadata.json file.

✔️ Validate Puppet syntax.

✔️ Validate Puppet code style.

✔️ Validate Ruby code style.

✔️ Run unit tests.

 

🍂 Before you start, make sure the appropriate environment variables have been added if you are working behind a proxy.

 

🍂 Validate and unit test your modules against particular Puppet and Puppet Enterprise versions to ensure they are compatible with Puppet. This enables you to identify and address module problems before an upgrade.

 

🍂 You can specify major or minor versions with command line options, such as Puppet 5 or PE 2017.3.2. When a major version is specified, PDK runs tests against the most recent major version release that is still readily accessible. The PE or Puppet version that PDK is running checks against is reported. 

 

🍂 Any Puppet or PE version currently being maintained can be used to validate code or run tests against. Details can be found on the lifecycle pages for Puppet Enterprise and open source Puppet.

Building Module Packages

✅ Create an uploadable module package before you upload and publish your module to the Forge.

 

✅ In order to upload your module to the Forge, the pdk build command runs a number of checks on your module and creates a tar.gz package. 

 

✅ The PDK checks your module metadata when you run the pdk build command, looks for any symlinks, and removes any files from the package that are listed in the.gitignore or.pdkignore files. You are prompted to correct any problems with the metadata or symlinks that PDK discovers.

 

✅ A list of frequently ignored files, including temporary files, is included by default in the.pdkignore file. The main directory for the module contains this file. By defining them in the module's.sync.yml file and then running pdk update on your module, you can add or remove files from this list.

 

✅ Before building the package, PDK asks for your confirmation. You can specify a different directory if you'd rather, but it writes module packages to the module's pkg directory by default. The naming scheme used by PDK for module packages is forgeusername-modulename-version.tar.gz..

Build a module

To upload your module to the Forge, use the pdk build command to create a module package.

1️⃣ Change to the module's directory using the command line's cd MODULE NAME>.

2️⃣ Start pdk build and follow any instructions.

Add option flags to the command to modify the build command's behaviour. For instance, use the command pdk build —target-dir=PATH> to create the package in a specific location. Please refer to the PDK command reference for a complete list of command options and usage details.

Result:

To the module's pkg directory, PDK creates a package with the naming scheme forgeusername-modulename-version.tar.gz.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a node definition in puppet?

A block of Puppet code, known as a node definition, also called a node statement, is only present in the catalogues of matching nodes. You can do this to assign particular configurations to particular nodes.

What ports does Puppet use?

Port 8140 is the default for HTTPS traffic in Puppet. The OS and firewall must permit the JVM process inside the Puppet Server to accept incoming connections on this port. The web server's port can be changed.

What kind of architecture does Puppet adhere to?

Puppet employs a client-server or master-slave architecture. SSL, or secure socket layer, connects the puppet client and the puppet server. The system is model-driven.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed details of the puppet development kit and how to customise your module configuration, validate and test modules, and build module packages.

We hope this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge of the Advanced Concept of Puppet Development Kit. If you'd like to learn more, Check out the following links:

🔥 Ansible vs. Puppet

🔥 Overview of Puppet Server

🔥 Overview of Puppet database

 

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