05 August 2020

DevOps software provider Puppet has updated its Puppet Enterprise infrastructure automation platform, with capabilities including access to pre-built modules as well as patching task automation.

Version 2019.8 LTS lets customers use thou- sands of open source and Puppet-built mod- ules in the Puppet Forge catalogue to manage Plans, which enable running a series of tasks through a single command in the Puppet Enterprise console. Users can expand automation to more far-reaching infrastructure use cases, mixing and matching imperative tasks with declarative model-based automation.

Puppet now provides a path from the fast start of the Puppet Bolt orchestration tool and Puppet Forge content to orchestration workflows to provide continuous automation. For example, preparing infrastructure for an application release might include a task set for draining a load balancer, calling VMware to provision an Apache HTTP server, applying patch updates, configuring the database, and related tasks. 

“Application deployments are increasingly waiting on DevOps and platform teams to carry out complex sequences of infrastructure configuration, which, when done manually, also increases the risk of errors and disruption,” said Abby Kearns, Puppet CTO. “These teams start off making fast progress with basic automation tools, but hit a roadblock once requirements become more complex.”

To improve compliance and security, the Puppet Enterprise release also includes patching task automation content for Windows and Linux systems, along with an improved user experience in using patching automation in an enterprise. An OS Patching service is available to help standardise and scale patching processes. The new release also features an upgrade pre-check module that conducts a readiness assessment and finds potential risks and what changes are necessary before conducting an upgrade.