Contributed by the Google Cloud community. Not official Google documentation.

• Set up the virtual machines
• Install and run Puppet master
• Install Puppet agent and request a certificate from the master
• Sign the certificate to establish communication between the Puppet master and Puppet agent
• Write a manifest for a simple web app and deploy it to the Puppet agent

1. Create a small(1 shared vCPU + 1.7 GB memory) Compute Engine instance with the OS Ubuntu 16.04 xenial and with 'Allow HTTP traffic' option checked under Firewall section and name is puppet-agent.

2. Create another Compute Engine instance but this time a with 1 vCPU + 3.75 GB memory with the same OS (Ubuntu 16.04 xenial). Keep the default firewall option. No need to check http or https. Name the instance as puppet-master.

1. SSH into the puppet-master instance, then run the following commands to install the Puppet server:

    wget https://apt.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs-release-pc1-xenial.deb
    sudo dpkg -i puppetlabs-release-pc1-xenial.deb
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install puppetserver
   

2. Start the Puppet server by running the following command:

    sudo systemctl start puppetserver
   

3. Make sure the Puppet server has started by running the following command:

    sudo systemctl status puppetserver
   

You should see a see a line that says "active (running)" in the result.

4. Configure the Puppet server to start at boot by running the following command:

    sudo systemctl enable puppetserver
   

1. SSH into the puppet-agent instance, then run the following commands to install the Puppet agent:

    wget https://apt.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs-release-pc1-xenial.deb
    sudo dpkg -i puppetlabs-release-pc1-xenial.deb
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install puppet-agent
   

2. Before starting Puppet agent, edit the /etc/hosts file to identify the Puppet master to use to request the certificate. At the end of the file, specify the internal IP address of the puppet-master Compute Engine instance, as shown following:

    [PUPPET_MASTER_COMPUTE_ENGINE_INSTANCE_INTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS]      Puppet
   

You can get the internal IP address of the puppet-master Compute Engine instance from the VM instances page in the Cloud Console. 3. Run the following commands to run the Puppet agent:

    sudo systemctl start puppet
    sudo systemctl enable puppet

1. The first time the Puppet agent runs, it sends a certificate signing request to the Puppet master. To list all unsigned certificate requests, run the following command on the puppet-master instance:

    sudo /opt/puppetlabs/bin/puppet cert list
   

2. We'll use the --all option to sign certificate:

    sudo /opt/puppetlabs/bin/puppet cert sign --all
   

You can also do a single sign by

    sudo /opt/puppetlabs/bin/puppet cert sign puppet-agent.c.YOUR_PROJECT_ID.internal

1. On the puppet-master instance, navigate to the folder /etc/puppetlabs/code/environments/production/manifests/, make a manifest file named site.pp, and copy the following code into it:

   node /agent/{
     include webserver
   }
   

2. Navigate to the /etc/puppetlabs/code/environments/production/modules directory and make a new directory by running the following command:

   sudo mkdir -p webserver/manifests
   

3. In the new manifests directory, create a file named init.pp, and copy the following code into it:

   class webserver {
     package { 'apache2':
      ensure => present
     }
     file {'/var/www/html/index.html': # resource type file and filename
       ensure => present, # make sure it exists
       content => "<h1>This page is installed from Puppet Master</h1>", # content of the file
     }
   }
   

4. Run the following command on the puppet-agent instance to get the catalog from the Puppet master and apply the manifest:

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

5. Copy the external IP address of the puppet-agent instance (you can get this from the VM instances page in the Cloud Console) and paste it into your browser. You should see a web page with the message "This page is installed from Puppet Master".