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PE 3.3 » Installing » Automated Installation with an Answer File
Automated Installation with an Answer File
/pe/latest/install_automated.html

You can run the Puppet Enterprise installer while logged into the target server in an automated mode that requires minimal user interaction. The installer will read pre-selected answers to the install configuration questions from an "answer file." There are two steps to the process:

  1. Create an answer file or obtain the answer file created by the web-based installer. You can find the latter at /opt/puppet/share/installer/answers on the machine from which you ran the installer.
  2. Run the installer with the -a or -A flag pointed at the answer file.

The flag will cause the installer to read your choices from the answer file and act on them immediately instead of interviewing a user to customize the installation.

Automated installation can greatly speed up large deployments and is crucial when installing PE with the cloud provisioning tools.

However, please note that an automated installation requires you to run the installer with an answer file on each node on which you are installing a PE component. In other words, a monolithic installation will require you to run the installer with an answer file on one node, but a split installation will require you to run the installer with an answer file on three nodes.

Warning: If you're performing a split installation of PE using the automated installation process, install the components in the following order:

  1. Puppet master
  2. Puppet DB and database support (which includes the console database)
  3. The PE console

Obtaining an Answer File

Answer files are simply shell scripts that declare variables used by the installer, such as:

q_install=y
q_puppet_cloud_install=n
q_puppet_enterpriseconsole_install=n
q_puppet_symlinks_install=y
q_puppetagent_certname=webmirror1.example.com
q_puppetagent_install=y
q_puppetagent_server=puppet
q_puppetmaster_install=n
q_vendor_packages_install=y

(A full list of these variables is available in the answer file reference.)

To obtain an answer file, you can:

  • Use one of the example files provided in the installer's answers directory.
  • Retrieve the answers.lastrun file from a node on which you've already installed PE.
  • Write one by hand.

Tip: If you want to use the answer file created from the web-based installer, you can find it at /opt/puppet/share/installer/answers on the machine from which you’re running the installer, but note that these answers are overwritten each time you run the installer.

You must hand edit any pre-made answer file before using it, as new nodes will need, at a minimum, a unique agent certname.

Editing Answer Files

Although you can use literal strings in an answer file for one-off installations, you should fill certain variables dynamically with bash subshells if you want your answer files to be reusable.

To run a subshell that will return the output of its command, use either the $() notation...

q_puppetagent_certname=$(hostname -f)

...or backticks:

q_puppetagent_certname=`uuidgen`

Answer files can also contain arbitrary shell code and control logic, but you will probably be able to get by with a few simple name-discovery commands.

See the answer file reference for a complete list of variables and the conditions where they're needed, or simply start editing one of the example files in answers/.

Running the Installer in Automated Mode

Once you have your answer file, simply run the installer with the -a or -A option, providing your answer file as an argument:

$ sudo ./puppet-enterprise-installer -a ~/my_answers.txt
  • Installing with the -a option will fail if any required question variables are not set.
  • Installing with the -A option will prompt the user for any missing answers to question variables.