Install PuppetDB on Ubuntu Server

19 April 2021

This article is for those looking for a detailed and straightforward guide on installing PuppetDB on Ubuntu Server.

PuppetDB is a scalable and reliable data store for Puppet. PuppetDB collects data generated by Puppet and also provides advanced functionality based on a powerful API.

Zabbix is an open-source, enterprise-class distributed monitoring solution.

In this guide, we will consider the case when you already have a server with the Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS operating system installed on it.

You can read more about how to install Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS in my guide “Install Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS”.

Also, the Puppet Server must be installed on the server.

You can find out how to install Puppet on Ubuntu Server by reading “Install Puppet на Ubuntu Server”.

In addition, OpenSSH must be installed on the server, and port 22 must be open in order to be able to connect to the server using the SSH protocol.

To install OpenSSH on a server, you can use the command:

sudo apt install openssh-server

If you plan to connect to the server using the Windows operating system, you can use PuTTY or MobaXterm.

This guide describes how to connect to a server using the iTerm2 terminal emulator installed on the macOS operating system.

Please note that you will need to open the following TCP ports to access your server:

• TCP port 8081 - for Puppet Agent to work.

This tutorial uses “puppet.heyvaldemar.net” as the Puppet server name.

The server with the agent installed must resolve the Puppet server name not only by the base name puppet.heyvaldemar.net but also by the name puppetdb.heyvaldemar.net. Also, the Puppet server has to resolve the name of the client-server.

Make sure the Puppet server and client-server have the correct DNS records and update the “/etc/hosts” file if necessary.

Puppet binaries are located in the “/opt/puppetlabs/bin/” directory, which is not in the “PATH” environment variable by default and in the “secure_path” variable that is used for “sudo” operations.

By adding the path to executable files to variables, you can use:

sudo puppet agent -t

Instead:

sudo /opt/puppetlabs/bin/puppet agent -t

You can learn how to properly prepare the Puppet server to install PuppetDB and add the path to the Puppet executables to variables by reading “Install Puppet on Ubuntu Server”.

We connect to the Puppet server on which you plan to install PuppetDB.

Update the local package index to the latest changes in the repositories using the command:

sudo apt update

Now install PostgreSQL using the command:

sudo apt install -y postgresql

Please note that this tutorial will use PostgreSQL as a database management system.

Now you need to create a database that PuppetDB will use in the future, as well as a user with the necessary rights in this database.

Switch to the “postgres” user who has administrator rights in PostgreSQL using the command:

sudo su - postgres

We create a new user using the command:

createuser -DRSP puppetdb

In this tutorial, “puppetdb” will be used as the username, with the password “sqhrgX8G*RCaYURftzoG89b”.

Specify a strong password for the new user and press the “Enter” button.

Enter the password again and press the “Enter” button.

We create a new database and grant the rights to it to the previously created user using the command:

createdb -E UTF8 -O puppetdb puppetdb

Next, you need to install the “pg_trgm” index extension optimized for RegExp using the command:

psql puppetdb -c 'create extension pg_trgm'

Log out as user “postgres” using the command:

exit

Now install PuppetDB using the command:

sudo puppet resource package puppetdb ensure=latest

Next, install additional Ruby plugins to use PuppetDB using the command:

sudo puppet resource package puppetdb-termini ensure=latest

Now you need to make changes to the PuppetDB configuration file by opening it in a text editor using the command:

sudo vim /etc/puppetlabs/puppetdb/conf.d/database.ini

In this tutorial, the database for PuppetDB is on the same server as Puppet.

Press the “i” button to switch to edit mode, find the “subname” parameter and uncomment it by removing the “#” symbol.

This tutorial uses “puppetdb” as the database name for PuppetDB.

Next, add new parameters “classname” and “subprotocol” with the following values:

classname = org.postgresql.Driver
subprotocol = postgresql

This tutorial uses “puppetdb” as the database username for PuppetDB.

Find the “username” parameter and uncomment it by removing the “#” symbol. Then we set the parameter to “puppetdb”.

Find the “password” parameter and uncomment it by removing the “#” symbol. Then, as a value for the parameter, specify the password assigned to the “puppetdb” user.

Next, add a new parameter “log-slow-statements” with the following value:

log-slow-statements = 10

Now press the “Esc” button to exit edit mode, then type “:x” and press the “Enter” button to save your changes and exit the editor.

Check that the certificates that will be used by PuppetDB are generated and the configuration file “jetty.ini” contains the correct values using the command:

sudo puppetdb ssl-setup

Next, you need to create a configuration file for PuppetDB to work correctly using the command:

sudo vim /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/puppetdb.conf

Press the “i” button to switch to edit mode, and add a new section “[Main]” with the following parameters:

[Main]
server_urls = https://puppet.heyvaldemar.net:8081

In this tutorial, the Puppet Server is installed on the puppet.heyvaldemar.net server. You will need to specify your server through which your Puppet Server will be accessible from the Internet or on the local network of your organization.

Now press the “Esc” button to exit edit mode, then type “:x” and press the “Enter” button to save your changes and exit the editor.

By default, PuppetDB JVM is configured to use 192 MB of RAM. This value can be changed in the PuppetDB config file by opening it in a text editor using the command:

sudo vim /etc/default/puppetdb

Hit the “i” button to go into edit mode, find the line JAVA_ARGS=”-Xmx192m” and change the “Xmx” parameter in accordance with the requirements for your PuppetDB server.

Please note that in this tutorial the “Xmx” parameter will be 256 MB.

Now press the “Esc” button to exit edit mode, then type “:x” and press the “Enter” button to save your changes and exit the editor.

Next, you need to make changes to the Puppet configuration file by opening it in a text editor using the command:

sudo vim /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/puppet.conf

Hit the “i” button to go into edit mode, find the “[master]” section, and add new parameters for PuppetDB to work correctly:

storeconfigs = true
storeconfigs_backend = puppetdb
reports = store,puppetdb
reportstore = /var/log/puppetlabs/puppet

Now press the “Esc” button to exit edit mode, then type “:x” and press the “Enter” button to save your changes and exit the editor.

Now let’s create a configuration file “routes.yaml” so that information from PuppetDB can be used in Puppet using the command:

sudo vim /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/routes.yaml

Hit the “i” button to go into edit mode, then insert the following configuration:

---
master:
  facts:
    terminus: puppetdb
    cache: yaml

Now press the “Esc” button to exit edit mode, then type “:x” and press the “Enter” button to save your changes and exit the editor.

Assign the correct permissions to files and directories for Puppet to work correctly using the command:

sudo chown -R puppet:puppet `sudo puppet config print confdir`

Launch PuppetDB and enable it to autostart when the operating system starts up using the command:

sudo puppet resource service puppetdb ensure=running enable=true

Restart Puppet Server to apply the changes made using the command:

sudo systemctl restart puppetserver

Check that Puppet Server has started successfully using the command:

sudo systemctl status puppetserver

Next, we connect to the server on which the Puppet Agent is installed.

Now you need to make changes to the Puppet configuration file by opening it in a text editor using the command:

sudo vim /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/puppet.conf

Press the “i” button to switch to edit mode and add a new “[agent]” section with the following parameters:

[agent] 
report = true
pluginsync = true

Now press the “Esc” button to exit edit mode, then type “:x” and press the “Enter” button to save your changes and exit the editor.

Restart Puppet to apply the changes, using the command:

sudo systemctl restart puppet

Let’s check that Puppet has started successfully using the command:

sudo systemctl status puppet

Now you need to check that the Puppet Agent will receive the configuration from the Puppet server and correctly connect to PuppetDB using the command:

sudo puppet agent -t

The Puppet Agent ran without errors and successfully received the configuration from the Puppet server and also successfully connected to PuppetDB.

Now you can check that PuppetDB is actually receiving data from the client-server.

We return to the server with Puppet Server and PuppetDB installed.

Open the Puppet Server log to check the correctness of Puppet and PuppetDB using the command:

sudo less /var/log/puppetlabs/puppetserver/puppetserver.log

On the keyboard, press the “Shift” and “f” keys to start monitoring changes in the Puppet log in real-time.

The Puppet log should show a record that the information has been sent and saved.

Please note that in this tutorial Puppet Agent is installed on the puppet-agent.heyvaldemar.net server.

On the keyboard, press the key combination “Ctrl” and “c”, then “q” to close the Puppet log.

Next, open the PuppetDB log to check the correctness of Puppet and PuppetDB using the command:

sudo less /var/log/puppetlabs/puppetdb/puppetdb.log

On the keyboard, press the key combination “Shift” and “f” to start monitoring changes in the PuppetDB log in real-time.

The PuppetDB log should show a record that the information has been sent and saved.

Please note that in this tutorial Puppet Agent is installed on the puppet-agent.heyvaldemar.net server.

On the keyboard, press the key combination “Ctrl” and “c”, then “q” to close the PuppetDB log.

Now you can verify that the data from the client-server has been successfully transferred to the “puppetdb” database.

This tutorial uses “puppetdb” as the database username for PuppetDB.

This tutorial uses “puppetdb” as the database name for PuppetDB.

Connect to the “puppetdb” database using the command:

psql -h localhost puppetdb puppetdb

Specify the password assigned to the user “puppetdb” and press the “Enter” button.

Turn on the expanded table output mode using the command:

\x

Let’s extract data from the “catalogs” table to make sure that information about the client-server is present in the table using the command:

select * from catalogs;

The client-server information is indeed present in the database.

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