Tag Archive for puppet

Puppetmaster XCVII: Getting your new server registered

by , March 4, 2012 puppet, ubuntu No comments

So, this post has nothing to do with low-rent horror movies. Sorry to disappoint.

What it’s really about is the Puppet server management system deployed to keep general server Linux settings synchronized–stuff like NTP servers and user accounts. Puppet is extremely powerful, but this will only be an introduction to what it can do, as I’m learning as I go.

It may seem a little backward to start with the client configuration, but this really seems like the easiest part to me: tell the client who the server is, sign some certificates, and wait for the updates. The puppet master server is where all the heavy lifting is done.

Once the puppet master server is created and configured with manifests and such (take for granted that they exist already), it’s time to configure your client and get it registered.
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A tip or two for VMware Fusion (OS X) guest networking

by , January 31, 2012 fusion, network, osx, puppet, tacacs, ubuntu, virtualization No comments

Before I get into this post too far, yes, I’m now a Mac user. Not exactly a fanboy yet, but my new employer let me choose between a Windows laptop and a MacBook for my work computer, so I chose–wisely. I’d been using Ubuntu on an HP laptop (ugh to HP) for a few years, so it seemed like a chance to try something new at no cost to me, which is my favorite cost.

As you can see from my other posts about virtualization, I’m a big fan of Virtualbox, but this post is about VMware Fusion, which was provided to me with my MacBook.

On to the tips…

I’ve been creating a testing environment for tacacs+ servers for a Cisco networking environment as well as Puppet server management, and I’m horrible with remembering IP addresses, unless there’s a very distinct pattern. When you use NAT in Fusion, addresses are assigned to guests VMs via DHCP in an automatically generated scope. The problem is, every time you boot your server you may get a new DHCP address! That sucks.

What to do?

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