Installing and Testing the Puppet Agent Software – Linux

In my previous article I showed you how to install the puppet master server and test to ensure it installed correctly.  In this article I’m going to show you how to install the puppet agent software on a linux box and test to ensure it’s successfully talking to the puppet master.  I’ll assume you’ve already downloaded the puppet installation files and copied up to your server.  Log onto your agent server, browse to the installation directory and run the following command:

./puppet-enterprise-installer

Select No when asked if you wish to install the puppet master components:

Select No when prompted if you want to install the cloud provisioner:

Select No when asked if you want to install the console:

Select Yes when prompted if you want to install the agent:

When prompted for the unique name for the agent just accept the default name which should be the hostname:

When prompted enter the puppet master hostname:

Select Yes to import the puppet labs GPG key:

Select Yes to install the packages automatically:

Select Yes to create the symbolic links to the puppet executables:

Finally select Yes to perform the installation:

The installations starts and hopefully completes within a few minutes:

The puppet agent software is now installed.  We now need to approve the request on the puppet master server.  SSH into the box and run the following command:

puppet cert list

We can see that we have a request from the puppet agent server:

To accept the request run:

puppet cert sign <hostname>

This request should also be removed if you run the cert list command again.  To test the agent can communicate with the master simply run:

puppet agent –test

You agent has successfully communicated with the puppet master.  If we now log into the master GUI you should see both the agent and the master:

In the next article I will show you how to install the puppet agent software on a windows box.