Pulling the Strings: Recent Episodes
Puppet
The Puppet Podcast features Puppet community members talking about the latest trends in configuration management & cloud automation as well as DevOps culture.
After several decades of use, should we consider open source software (OSS) a business model? In short: No! In this conversation, open source evangelist Javier Perez welcomes technology evangelist and CNCF ambassador Dotan Horovits to provide context for the biggest changes happening in OSS, discuss what a sustainable future looks like for open source, and explain what to do when companies choose to go not-so-open with their source code.
Highlights:
- Why open source shouldn’t be considered a business model
- The “disturbing trend” in OSS and why “nothing is written in stone” when it comes to open source
- How tools can differentiate themselves from the ‘open source-ness' of their projects
Speakers:
- Javier Perez, Open Source Evangelist
- Dotan Horovits, Cloud Native Ambassador at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and host of the OpenObservability Talks podcast
Links:
- Get the new State of Open Source Report from OpenLogic
- Find Dotan on LinkedIn and Twitter
- Read Dotan’s articles on ‘vendor-owned open source’ and ‘When Your Open Source Turns to the Dark Side’
- Read Javier’s articles on the State of Open Source in 2024 and concerns over the future of open source
- Listen to OpenObservability Talks on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Apple Podcasts
When Sean Atkinson says that “We’re on a trajectory to have the most vulnerabilities ever identified in a single year, starting this year,” take note: As Chief Information Security Officer for the Center for Internet Security, he knows what he’s talking about.
He’s referring to the ever-increasing tide of weaknesses and flaws that undermine the security of software used every single day by teams around the world. Between a more active threat landscape, demands for development velocity, and the rise of generative AI, the cat in this proverbial game of cat-and-mouse has their work cut out for them.
In this conversation, Robin Tatam, Puppet’s Evangelist and Certified Information Security Manager, talks with Sean about the role of a CISO, what’s behind the unprecedented rise in vulnerabilities, and how smart integrations turn automation into a first-line defense against threats, misconfiguration, errors, and software vulnerabilities.
Highlights:
- What a CISO actually does versus a CIO or a CTO
- The difference between “security” and “compliance”
- How compliance helps build the backbone of a long-term security posture
- Who really owns IT security and where IT operations fits into the security conversation
- What CIS Benchmarks are, what they do, and how CIS “wizards” keep them up-to-date on the latest vulnerabilities
- How Puppet’s partnership with CIS puts the power of automation behind CIS’s widely recognized frameworks
Speakers:
- Robin Tatam, Senior Technical Marketer and Evangelist, Puppet by Perforce
- Sean Atkinson, Chief Information Security Officer, Center for Internet Security
Links:
- Learn more about Security Compliance Enforcement, a premium feature for Open Source Puppet and Puppet Enterprise that automates secure configurations hardened against CIS Benchmarks and DISA STIGs
- Listen to Sean’s podcast with CIS, “Cybersecurity Where You Are,” wherever you get podcasts
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Apple Podcasts
It’s all good news, we promise! The Forge has always been the go-to spot for Puppet users to find, download, and update content and modules. On this episode, we're revealing a few of the exciting changes that are going to make the Forge even easier and more valuable for all Puppet users, like personalization, filters, and features to track module versions and updates against your Puppet file.
As of today, there are 7,508 modules on the Puppet Forge – some active, some deprecated, some created and supported by Puppet Labs, some by community groups like Vox Pupuli. While it’s become a hub for all Puppet users, we've heard feedback on ways it could be even better. We see a brighter future for the Forge – one built for and shaped by users like you! Join Ben Ford as he talks to Forge Product Manager Saurabh Karwa about what the Forge is today, the subtle changes that are already in the works, the near-term roadmap, and the long-term vision for the Forge.
Speakers:
- Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by Perforce
- Saurabh Karwa, Product Manager at Puppet by Perforce
Highlights:
- Introducing Saurabh, the Product Manager for the Puppet Forge
- What the Forge is today and what it needs to become THE place for Puppet users
- The role of the Puppet Community in shaping the future of the Forge
- Adding personalization, new filters, and features to track module versions and updates
- Why you should join our new Ecosystem Advisory Board
Links:
- Join the Puppet Community Slack
- Tell us what you think of the Forge and PDK with the Ecosystem Advisory Board survey
- Email Saurabh at skarwa@perforce.com
The 2024 State of DevOps Report: The Evolution of Platform Engineering is live! In this episode, we’re taking you behind the scenes with the authors of the report and one of the people who helped run the survey.
Download the 2024 report for free here!
On this episode, join us as host Ben Ford, report authors Margaret Lee and David Sandilands, and project manager Stephanie Fairchild pull back the curtain on the 2024 State of DevOps Report.
What are the characteristics of successful platforms? Why is the new practice driving a surge in security? Where is platform engineering going next? Learn more in this episode!
Highlights:
- Why the State of DevOps Report pivoted to cover platform engineering last year
- What we wanted to find out this year
- The big takeaways from the 2024 report
- Our predictions for the next year of platform engineering
Speakers:
- Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by Perforce
- Margaret Lee, Manager of Product Management at Puppet by Perforce
- David Sandilands, Principal Solutions Architect at Puppet by Perforce
- Stephanie Fairchild, Senior Manager at ClearPath Strategies
Links:
- Download the 2024 State of DevOps Report: The Evolution of Platform Engineering
- Email Margaret at Margaret.Lee@perforce.com
- Find Ben on Mastodon, Twitter, and in the Puppet Community Slack as binford2k
- Find David on Mastodon and Twitter
Check out another episode with Ben, Margaret, and David about how return-to-office plans are shaping platform strategies
Read the episode transcript
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Apple Podcasts
Platform engineering is all about giving devs the tools they need to work independently. Work-from-home policies give people flexibility in where and how they work. It should be a match made in heaven, right? Well... it’s more complicated than that.
Research, feedback, and evangelizing are critical to building an internal developer platform (IDP). But WFH can make that communication tough. And that's before you’ve even considered compliance and security (ugh, the 2FA). A human-focused IT strategy was crucial in supporting a shift to remote work during the pandemic, and it's going to be equally as important as we shift to a platform paradigm.
In this roundtable discussion, Ben leads a roundtable discussion of how return-to-office plans can impact platform engineering, joined by Margaret Lee and David Sandilands, authors of Puppet's 2024 State of DevOps Report: Platform Engineering Edition.
Speakers:
- Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by Perforce
- Margaret Lee, Manager of Product Management at Puppet by Perforce
- David Sandilands, Senior Solutions Architect at Puppet by Perforce
Highlights:
- The remote/in-office flexibility your platform needs to consider
- Hardening measures essential to a secure IDP in the hybrid era
- What we learned about accommodating a workforce during the pandemic
- Evangelizing a platform without the in-person connection
Links:
- Email Margaret at Margaret.Lee@perforce.com
- Find Ben on Mastodon, Twitter, and in the Puppet Community Slack as binford2k
- David Sandilands on Twitter
- Get the 2023 Platform Engineering Report and sign up to receive 2024’s when it releases
- Read the episode transcript
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Apple Podcasts
Politics is everywhere in your organization. No, not THAT kind of politics – the kind that happens when you need something and can’t get it, or when you get good at something and people start noticing. Actually, politics happens just about whenever decisions get made. Joshua Zimmerman says that kind of politics is rooted in people, and with the right mindset, you can use politics to make things better in your organization – for you and your entire team.
Joshua is a DevOps manager and organizer who thinks you could benefit from understanding and navigating the political landscape of your organization so you can help shape it. In fact, his presentation at DevOpsDays Chicago 2023 was all about that, and we were so impressed, we invited him on the podcast.
After listening to this episode, we hope you’ll be able to figure out how decisions get made where you work, define your political structure, and leave with a few tools you can use to gain leverage with your team to make better decisions together.
Highlights:
- Helping unpack the term “politics” in the context of your job
- Why org charts aren’t great for determining the real structure of your org
- Why trust matters more than authority (and how to sniff out both in your org)
- How to build lasting trust in your team and org
- How to subvert hierarchy to get what you need (without making anyone mad)
Speakers:
- Ben Ford, Developer Relations Director at Puppet
- Joshua Zimmerman, SRE/DevOps Manager
Links:
- Find Josh on LinkedIn, Mastodon, and Twitter
- Watch Joshua’s talk at DevOpsDays Chicago 2023 (2:26:00 – 2:54:30)
- Find Ben in the Puppet Community Slack as binford2k and on Mastodon
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Pulling the Strings on Apple Podcasts
- Read the episode transcript
Great things – tools, spaces, companies, brands – are supported by great communities. The Vox Pupuli are perhaps the most prominent, active group in the Puppet community. Here’s what they're up to lately, what it’s like being one of them, and what Puppet (the community) means to Puppet (the company).
The Vox Pupuli are 200+ strong; they maintain dozens of modules on the Forge; even executive leadership knows their name. On this episode of Pulling the Strings, join Puppet community members Gene Liverman, Tim Meusel, and Ben Ford for a casual discussion on what what Vox Pupuli actually do, the role of community in shaping a company like Puppet, what Vox Pupuli is focused on now, and what drives the highly engaged group. As Tim puts it, “There is no excuse to not participate.”
Highlights:
- How Vox Pupuli works
- The relationship of Puppet (the company) to the Vox Pupuli
- The power of independence
- The time Vox Pupuli helped Puppet avoid disaster in a new release
- What Vox Pupuli is working on now
Speakers:
- Gene Liverman, SRE at LTN Global and former SRE at Puppet by Perforce
- Tim Meusel, Vox Pupuli PMC Community Member
- Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by Perforce
Links:
- Find out more about the Vox Pupuli at https://voxpupuli.org/
- Find Tim on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BastelsBlog
- Find Gene in the Puppet Community Slack as genebean https://puppetcommunity.slack.com/team/U3DCRQQKA
- Find Ben in the Puppet Community Slack as binford2k and on Mastodon at https://hachyderm.io/@binford2k
- Follow the Puppet Community Team on Mastodon https://fosstodon.org/@puppet
- Listen to Tim’s previous episode discussing how to build an awesome open source community https://www.puppet.com/resources/podcasts/awesome-open-source-community
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Pulling the Strings on Apple Podcasts
- Read the episode transcript
Open source has always moved fast. Today, it moves faster than ever, driven by both community demand and corporate interest. On this episode, Perforce’s Javier Perez and OSI’s Stefano Maffulli discuss the impact of recent license changes and the historical push-and-pull between consumers and providers in the world of open source.
Highlights:
- Reflecting on 25 years of OSI and its widening scope
- The historical changes that set the stage for open source
- What’s shaping Linux distributions today (CentOS, RHEL restrictions, HashiCorp’s switch to BSL, and more)
- The “social contract” between companies and communities
- The pros and cons of single companies driving open-source communities
- The commercialized future of open source
Speakers:
- Javier Perez, Chief Open Source Evangelist and Senior Director of Product Management at Perforce
- Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director at the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Links:
- Learn about Puppet’s commitment to open source projects like Bolt and Open Source Puppet (OSP): https://www.puppet.com/community/open-source
- Find Stefano at https://www.maffulli.net/
- Follow Javier on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jperezp_bos
- OSI’s programs (including a new Advocacy and Outreach program) https://opensource.org/programs/
- “Defining an open source AI for the greater good”: How OSI is approaching AI https://opensource.com/article/22/10/defining-open-source-ai
- “Friend or Foe? ChatGPT’s Impact on Open Source Software” by Javier Perez for DevOps.com https://devops.com/friend-or-foe-chatgpts-impact-on-open-source-software/
- Read the episode transcript
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Pulling the Strings on Apple Podcasts
In the past few years, developer experience has become one of the biggest concerns at the C-level. Gartner found it’s the top value factor for adopting IDPs, performance engineering, CI/CD, and more core aspects of platform engineering. In 2021, McKinsey said it should be “the cornerstone of talent strategy” – and still, it’s a sticking point for a lot of software orgs. Turnover, burnout, skill gaps – symptoms abound that can often be contributed to bad DevX.
Justin Reock is Field CTO at Gradle, makers of Gradle Enterprise and Gradle Build Tool. He’s focused on the developer experience at an intersectional level – where right-brain creativity, left-brain productivity, and ‘joyful activity’ combine to make development better for the people who do it. In conversation with David Sandilands, Senior Solutions Architect at Puppet, Justin shares his perspective on where platform engineering is headed and how the future of platform engineering – up, down, or flat – depends on using tools to engineer the developer experience.
Speakers:
- David Sandilands, Senior Solutions Architect at Puppet by Perforce
- Justin Roeck, Field CTO at Gradle
Highlights:
- Justin’s career to date and starting a year of living out of an RV
- Why the future of platform engineering depends on a developer experience focus
- Instructions for organizations to adopt real practices, not just hype
- The personalities needed to make stuff like platform engineering actually work
Links:
- Download Puppet’s 2023 State of Platform Engineering Report
- Organizational Physics by Lex Sisney
- Find your nearest devopsdays event
- Justin Reock on Twitter
- Justin Reock on LinkedIn
- David Sandilands on LinkedIn
- David Sandilands on Twitter
- Read the episode transcript
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Apple Podcasts
The opportunity to write a Puppet 8 book landed in David Sandilands’s lap when he had just started at Puppet and with a child on the way. About a year and a half later in mid-2023, “Puppet 8 for DevOps Engineers” launched via Packt. This is the story of everything that happened in the middle.
Speakers:
- Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by Perforce
- David Sandilands, Senior Solutions Architect at Puppet by Perforce
Learn More About Puppet + DevOps
[10+ YEARS OF DEVOPS REPORTS]
Highlights:
- What other Puppet books didn’t have
- The joy of creating a book that doesn’t have to cater to one audience or another
- What it's like to work with a publisher
- Learning to lean on your community for support
- Hard-learned tips for writing your own book
Links:
- Check out David's book, “Puppet 8 for DevOps Engineers,” via Packt
- “Puppet Best Practices” by Chris Barbour and Jo Rhett
- Ben Ford on Twitter
- David Sandilands on Twitter
So your organization failed a compliance audit and got slapped with fines and penalties. Bummer! You pay the fine, spend a few days fixing your configurations, run a scan, and get ready to do it again come the next audit. But that approach doesn’t work anymore: The risks are too high, and fixing months of configuration drift at the drop of a hat (let alone hunting down all the paperwork for auditors) certainly isn’t your team’s favorite thing to do.
Demo Puppet Comply + CEM for cross-department visibility and automated compliance
The broad scope of today’s compliance management requires a coordinated effort from more than just the security team. In this episode of Pulling the Strings, two Puppet compliance experts make the case for cooperation among security, compliance, ops, and just about everyone else in your organization. They discuss the crumbling walls between security, compliance, and ops, as well as tools organizations use to ensure continuous compliance.
Highlights:
- Why organizations always wait until something goes wrong to pay attention to compliance + security
- The simple micro-adjustments that prevent massive corrections come audit time
- Working toward better alignment between teams so that they’re making compliance easier
- The point and benefits of continuous compliance – and why ‘cowboy compliance’ isn’t enough
- Why compliance frameworks matter across security, compliance, and ops
Speakers:
- Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by Perforce
- Claire McDyre, Senior Product Manager at Puppet by Perforce
- Robin Tatam, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Puppet by Perforce
Links:
- Try Puppet Comply + CEM to give your whole team the power to tackle compliance
- Read Claire’s content on the Puppet blog
- Read Robin’s content on the Puppet blog
- Read the episode transcript
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Apple Podcasts
Modules are the basic building blocks of Puppet. They're made to solve common challenges, extend functionality, and optimize your use of Puppet. They're also reusable and shareable – you can find thousands on the Puppet Forge – and best of all, anyone can make them. But what does that really mean?
On this episode of Pulling the Strings, Ben Ford sits down with Yeshua Hall to talk about Yeshua’s experience building the Puppet module known as zend_common, initially released in December 2022.
Highlights:
- How to build a Puppet module
- What zend_common does
- What to know before you start building
Highlights:
- How to build a Puppet module
- What zend_common does
- What to know before you start building
Speakers:
- Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by Perforce
- Yeshua Hall, Senior Solutions Architect at Perforce
Links:
- Download the free guide, “How to Start Automating in a Few Steps with Bolt”
- Download zend_common on the Puppet Forge
- Follow Yeshua Hall on Twitter
- Follow Ben Ford on Twitter
- Read the episode transcript
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Apple Podcasts
Supposedly, Albert Einstein once said, “If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, then you don't understand it yourself.” That might be a bit harsh, but it holds true for teaching just about anything: You’ve got to meet learners where they are. That’s why Puppet recently launched new on-demand training courses and more. There’s a new, engaging way to learn how to do things with Puppet without going down too many rabbit holes.
On this episode of Pulling the Strings, Ben Ford interviews Principal Training Solutions Engineers Jain Waldrip and Tom Chisholm about designing training with “highly calibrated visuals,” the exciting new avenues for Puppet learners, and much more.
Highlights:
- What’s led Jain and Tom to their roles in Puppet training
- What you can expect from Puppet’s new on-demand training courses
- Introducing Puppet Console Overview, an interactive, guided tour of the Puppet Console
Speakers:
- Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by Perforce
- Jain Waldrip, Principal Training Solutions Engineer at Puppet by Perforce
- Tom Chisholm, Principal Training Solutions Engineer at Puppet by Perforce
Links:
- Take new on-demand Puppet training courses
- Check out the PE Console Overview
- Get in touch with the Puppet education team at education@puppet.com
- Join Jain and Tom in the Puppet Community Slack
- Read the episode transcript
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Apple Podcasts
“It doesn't matter how small the contribution is – I think everyone benefits from the different environment, the different culture, of open source communities.” From ‘free software’ to the Mars Rover, the scope of open source is expansive, growing, and offering new challenges to organizations and practitioners alike. Now, Perforce Director of Product Management Javier Perez is excited to share the latest findings from the 2023 State of Open Source Report with the context of his 26+ years in the software industry. Look into the past and peer into the future with this exciting discussion between two open source evangelists.
Join Javier and host Ben Ford, Developer Relations Director at Puppet by Perforce, as they discuss the history of open source, examples of open source software dating back to the 1950s, the communities that have formed around open source, where open source software is headed, and highlights from the highly anticipated 2023 State of Open Source Report, which asked ~900 global respondents about their use of open source software.
Highlights:
- AI and machine learning took the number one spot as a technology that most survey respondents were interested in.
- The number-one reason organizations use open source software is access to innovation — not cost savings.
- How initiatives intra-organization methodologies like InnerSource are breaking down silos between companies.
- Why AI and Web3 are trends worth watching in the open source space.
Speakers:
- Ben Ford, Developer Relations Director at Puppet by Perforce
- Javier Perez, Director of Product Management at Perforce
Links:
- Get the 2023 State of Open Source Report
- Follow Javier on Twitter
- Read the episode transcript
Find Us Online:
- puppet.com
- Apple Podcasts
In this episode, join special guests Nigel Kersten, KasparvonGrünberg, Fatih Degirmenci, and Ronan Keenan as they discuss the recent surge in popularity of platform engineering and how these teams are fast becoming vital to enterprise success.
In this panel discussion they explore:
- The history and advent of platform engineering
- What platform engineering looks like today
- Where to get started in platform teams
- 3 key fallacies to avoid to ensure success
Creating and maintaining community is hard, especially when you don't bump into each other in the hallways on the regular. And community is vital, especially when it advocates for you and helps create a safe space to bring your whole self to work. Todd and Melissa share their experiences with Puppet's Pride ERG and how they're using it to work towards systemic change.
Learn More:
- Join our community at https://slack.puppet.com
- Find Melissa on Twitter as @mcasburn or on LinkedIn
- Find Todd on Twitter as @ShawnTErvin or on LinkedIn
Managing the configuration of an entire ecosystem is not an easy thing to do, and bootstrapping the system that manages that configuration is even more challenging. Edwin from Puppet’s Solutions Architects team shows us a tool they've built that aims to simplify that task.
Learn more:
- Join our community at https://slack.puppet.com and chat with Edwin.
- Try out the module from its Forge page and file any issues on the linked source repository.
- Using Process Mapping to target your automation efforts.
- Find Edwin on Twitter here.
CentOS has become the de facto standard operating system for many organizations since it’s basically the same thing as RHEL, rebranded and without commercial support.
CentOS was originally a community project, but over time Red Hat has become more influential in its direction and has shifted it to a "Stream" model, effectively moving CentOS 8 from being a downstream release (built after RHEL) to an upstream release (built before RHEL). This isn't exactly suitable for production use and thus many users are looking for alternatives.
Paul joins us today to share insights and give some advice on how you can evaluate your options and migrate your infrastructure as painlessly as possible.
Learn more:
- Join our community at https://slack.puppet.com.
- Read the blog post this podcast references.
- Try out Paul's module.
Cortez worked his way up through the ranks as a cloud security and compliance engineer, managing hundreds of production applications. Now he's taking those grueling lessons and teaching the team at Relay how to automate away tedium and toil. Join us as Cortez shares stories from the field and some of the motivation behind Relay's cloud compliance enforcement capabilities.
Learn more:
- Join our community at https://slack.puppet.com
- Find more about Relay at https://relay.sh
- Let us know about new integration ideas at https://pup.pt/ideas
- Find Cortez on LinkedIn
The recent log4j fiasco reminded us that not only is it important to stay updated and current with security news, but it's also critical to have safe ways to deploy configuration updates or orchestrate reporting/remediation scripts across your infrastructure as quickly as possible. Jeremy and Nick join us today to share best practices and automation suggestions.
Learn more:
- Join our community at https://slack.puppet.com
- Contribute to the module at https://github.com/puppetlabs/log4jscanner
- Download the module from its Forge page: http://forge.puppet.com/puppetlabs/log4jscanner
- Read about Puppet's security response policies https://puppet.com/security/
- Reach Jeremy Mill on Twitter at @living_syn
Update: the GI Joe quote our hapless host massacred was – "Now you know; and knowing is half the battle."
Puppet has been open source since day one and our success has largely been built on community contributions. One could even say that it's part of our DNA. Now the question is where do we take it from here? Puppet CTO Abby Kearns and Chief Architect Chip Childers have a long and storied history with open source. Join us to hear their thoughts on how Puppet will map out the open source roadmap ahead.
Learn more:
- Join the Puppet Community Slack, we'd love to hear your ideas.
- Take a look at the Puppet Toy Chest for some projects that we're inviting you to adopt.
- Get involved by contributing written content or to one of our modules.
- Read about open source at Puppet.
- Read as Chip introduces himself to the community.
- Read more of Abby’s ideas on her Medium page
- Follow Abby and Chip on Twitter.
The DSC configuration engine is the standard way to manage Windows systems, and it’s incredibly powerful. Now it's easier to use too, because all the PowerShell Gallery DSC resources are only a puppet module install away. Mike and Bill are here to tell you the whole story, from building the integration and the publication pipeline to deploying DSC Resources for customers and debugging them in the field.
Learn more:
- Using PowerShell DSC Resources with Puppet
- Puppet & DSC: Puppetizing and Debugging
- Picaroons by Michael T Lombardi
- Join our community at https://slack.puppet.com
User research shows that a huge number of our customers were using ServiceNow alongside Puppet Enterprise. It only made sense to teach the tools how to integrate with each other so that users didn't have to switch between them. Molly and Milad join us from Puppet's Integrations team to tell us how they put user experience front and center when building the new extensions.
Learn more:
- Join our community at https://slack.puppet.com
- Find more about the integration at http://puppet.com/integrations/servicenow/
- Let us know about new integration ideas at https://pup.pt/ideast/ideas
Learning new tools is hard enough on its own. But then you often have to install software, set up a working environment, download a dev kit, or more. Our Education team recently released the new Puppet Practice Labs, which let you learn the Puppet ecosystem at your own pace and remove all these impediments from your progress.
The labs run right in your browser and require no extra downloads. And best of all, they're free and you can access them any time. Many are even short enough that you could run through one over your lunch hour. Join us to chat with the team about how they built the platform and how you can best use it.
Learn more:
- Boost your skills with Puppet Practice Labs
- Looking for more ways to learn Puppet? Check out Puppet Compass.
- Have more ideas? Take a look at the Puppet Idea Portal.
Pride is a celebration of our true selves -- of loving yourself for who you are, and of accepting and loving others for who they are.
It can be a challenge to feel safe being out and proud without role models providing guidance and showing the way. Listen to Melissa Casburn share her personal and professional journey.
Learn More:
- To go more in depth, read Melissa’s post on Medium
Abby Kearns and Deepak Giridharagopal share their unique experience of being co-CTOs and where Puppet is headed in the near future on this episode of Pulling the Strings.
Learn more:
- Stay up to date with Abby’s Medium or follow her on Twitter.
- Follow Deepak on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Ben Ford explains the importance of content and why developer insights help to build stronger communities on this episode of Pulling the Strings podcast. He also provides details on a better Puppet Developer Kit (PDK) and improvements to the Puppet Forge.
Learn More:
- Learn more about the Puppet Developer Experience.
- Make your voice heard
Acceptance testing is fun, I know! In this episode of Pulling the Strings, Lucy Wyman, Gene Liverman, and Trevor Vaughan explain multi-node testing with Beaker, how Beaker is different from Litmus, and future plans for Beaker.
Learn More:
- Install Beaker here.
- Watch the presentation of Beaker with PDK.
- Join the Puppet Community on Slack.
- Learn more about Vox Pupuli.
I had virtualization… Then you gave me Kubernetes on top of virtualization. I thought Kubernetes was supposed to be the answer, and now you’re telling me it’s not the answer and I need something else on top of Kubernetes?! The conundrum is solved on this episode of Pulling the Strings with Martez Reed and Bruno Andrade.
Learn More
- The Puppet Kubernetes module
- Watch how you can install and bootstrap a Kubernetes cluster with the Puppet Kubernetes module.
Hear about the behind-the-scenes process of creating the 2020 State of DevOps Report. Nigel Kersten and Michael Stahnke dive deep into the data that drives the narrative of the report and take us on a journey dissecting numerous conversations with IT DevOps practitioners and decision makers alike in this episode.
Learn more
- Download the 2020 State of DevOps Report.
- Read the 2020 DevOps Salary Report to discover how salaries changed during the pandemic.
What is Onceover testing you may ask? A tool to automatically run basic tests on an entire Puppet controlrepo, it was written mostly while sipping inflight cocktails on airplanes. Dylan Ratcliffe explains Onceover testing and addresses some of the reasons it exists in the first place. Tune in to gain the clarity you need for your automation woes.
Learn More
- Get started with Onceover.
- Learn how to use Onceover to start testing your Puppet Control repository.
Alex Hin shares his expertise from years in the cybersecurity industry on compliance and the importance behind adhering to CIS benchmarks.
Learn More
- Learn more about Puppet Comply.
- See a demo of Puppet Comply in this session from Puppetize Digital.
- Learn more about Puppet’s journey into Continuous Compliance.
Martin Alfke from example42 drills down into the unique value of Hiera Data Manager and how it heavily reduces time needed for data analysis and setting.
Learn More
- Hiera Data Manager
We know Halloween is over; however, these #DevOps stories are still mentally wreaking havoc on all that was involved. Ben Ford, Rob Nelson, and Mike Smith bravely share their experiences that were close to creating resume generating events in this episode. Tune in for how they recovered and the timeless lessons learned.
What has 2020 brought us besides cultural and operational change? Hopefully, it has pushed you to appreciate the aesthetically pleasing design of Puppet’s User Interface. Rick Monro is one of the wizards behind the architecture curtain of the Puppet UX. Rick explains why IT Directors should care about UX Design, some of the ethics around the new Puppet code terminology, and how he designs the Puppet Way in this episode.
Learn More
- Puppet Test Pilots: https://puppet.com/community/puppet-test-pilots/
- Find out why Puppet is moving toward a more diverse culture and also removing harmful language from its code and the correlation to the #blacklivesmatter movement.
Have you hit a wall with your Open Source automation platform? Are you frustrated that your support has been limited? Well, Jesse Brennan and Claire Hernandez will calm your nerves with four words: Open Source Puppet Assist. They share how you can gain access to exclusive tools and content on Puppet, and help you make sure that you don’t take your Open Source journey alone.
Visit the OSP Assist Portal: https://ospassist.puppet.com/hc/en-us
As the new normal continues, the evolution of open-source software thrives. Lucy Wyman runs down the evolution and importance of Puppet’s Open Source Stewards on this episode.
Learn more* Find out why Puppet is moving toward a more diverse culture and also removing harmful language from its code and the correlation to #blacklivesmatter movement * SeaGL: https://seagl.org/
Are you using Slack to do cool things (other than chatting about Netflix episodes at the virtual water cooler)? In today’s episode, Martez Reed and Demetrius Malbrough discuss how Hydra integrates with Slack to create and scale virtual environments. If you are interested in how your environment can be automatically created and spun up behind the scenes, this episode is for you!
What do you get when you mix DevOps Engineers, BBQ, and uncontrollable fits of throwing yourself off of mountains? You get Tim Meusel and Robert Müller dropping science around Vox Pupuli and how to build an awesome open source community. They also share some valuable insights around how they got started with Ruby, some lessons learned from a few mistakes they’ve made, and most importantly how to get involved with Vox Pupuli in this episode of Pulling the Strings Podcast.
Learn more* Documentation for vox-pupuli-tasks * Reviewing a module pull request
Have you considered putting your backups on auto-pilot? Rebecca Fitzhugh, Director of Developer Relations at Rubrik, discusses the modules that leverage Puppet on Pulling the Strings. Learn how to automate your Service Level Agreements and a simple way to install Backup Connectors across a fleet of servers simultaneously. After listening to this episode and grabbing the module off of GitHub, your boss might consider giving you an extra vacation day. Be sure to stay until the end to learn about a recent Ransomware attack and how immutability gives you control to recover quickly.
What does cross-team collaboration, git murder mysteries, and role-playing games have in common? The incredible DevOps superpowers of Ben Ford and Garrett Rowell answer those questions for you in this Pulling the Strings episode. Their collaboration resulted in an engaging game that debuted during Puppet Camp for attendees to play. The rocking, virtual scavenger hunt allows you to use your technical skills to solve problems while also having fun at the same time. Put your headphones on and crank up the treadmill!
Cloud teams are drowning in an increasing, unsustainable volume of external events: cloud events, git events, monitoring alerts, tickets, incidents, and others. In response, engineers manually perform a disparate set of actions across various cloud providers, container platforms, CI/CD tools, config mgmt tools, and hundreds of other APIs. To make this better, some developers try to create their one-off automation tools or integration hubs, usually per team or project. Eric Sorenson and Melissa Sussmann discuss Puppet’s event-driven automation, Relay, and how it helps clean up the “DevOps Dumping Ground” in your environment
Learn more* We’re building the future of DevOps automation with Relay. Join the launch here Relay Launch
Puppet's developer experience has been through a lot of growing pains. Many of us learned Puppet before the PDK existed, when the state of the art was SSHing into a Puppet master, manually making a module's directory structure, and cracking open Vim to edit our manifests. Some of us still do that; old habits die hard. But the point is that the barrier to entry used to be really high, and it didn't have to be. James Pogran is a Puppet developer on a mission to change that and simplify the experience for practitioners of all levels. He's here to talk with us today about his work on the Puppet VS Code Extension.
Learn more* Install the Puppet VS Code Extension today! * See more about the Puppet VS Code extension * Get started with the PDK today
In this podcast, Eric Sorenson and Melissa Sussmann will be exploring the challenges that DevOps engineers face in using cloud-native infrastructure and how Puppet can help with your deployments.
Continuous deployment is essential to the growing cloud-native space, especially in the case of containerization. Everyone we’ve interviewed is looking to adopt cloud-native technologies, but they face significant challenges in adopting containers, microservices, and serverless infrastructure for even simple cloud-native applications.
Project Nebula provides automation that helps customers easily work on provisioning, rollbacks, application deployment, and notifications all through one tool. Nebula also provides teams with a platform for sharing workflows and best practices to build consistent and coherent deployments. It's our latest offering for teams that are adopting various cloud-native and serverless technologies and need to unify this heterogeneous toolset into a single, end-to-end deployment workflow.
Sign up for Project Nebula here: https://puppet.com/project-nebula
We are offering a free bluetooth wireless speaker and welcome kit to the first 100 active users who provide product feedback for Project Nebula. To be an active user, customers must actively use the app for a couple of weeks and create and run custom workflows. To give product feedback, customers must schedule 1:1 time with the Nebula product team.
Learn more* Watch Kenaz’s Puppetize PDX talk on Project Nebula * Watch Eric Sorenson’s Puppetize PDX talk to learn about cloud-native configuration management * Attend Eric’s Panel at KubeCon * Read "Cloud Native Infrastructure" by Kris Nova and Justin Garrison * Read 6 Best Practices for Creating a Container Platform Strategy from Gartner
Puppet’s Nigel Kersten and CircleCI’s Mike Stahnke go behind-the-scenes of the 2019 report to talk about the shift to a security-focused report and where they see these challenges heading and evolving.
Learn more
• Download the 2019 State of DevOps Report
• Listen to: Doing the DevOps with Yasmin Rajabi and Nick Maludy
In today’s episode, we talk to Nick Maludy DevOps Manager at Encore Technologies. He shares his career journey going from a developer to managing teams and applying DevOps at scale.
Doing the DevOps can be hard and transformation takes time, Nick shares insight on how his team has implemented changes and continues to improve over time. Learn what tools they used and what advice he has to help introduce DevOps into your teams.
Mentioned in the episode:
• Nick's twitter: @NickMaludy
• Puppet's slack channel: http://slack.puppet.com
• Blogs resources: https://puppet.com/docs/bolt/latest/bolt.html
• encore tech blog: https://encore.tech/blog/
• S**t Gary Says: http://garylarizza.com/
• Rob Nelson's blog: https://rnelson0.com/
• Bolt hands-on lab: https://puppetlabs.github.io/bolt/
We’re covering a few DevOps parallels, data-driven diaper changing, and, apparently, Baby Shark.
Taking care of a newborn is a gargantuan task for everyone involved. We invite one of our technologists to tell us more about how he and his partner are automating the rough manual tasks away to make more time for rest and peace of mind.
Automating chunks of the newborn/baby experience is beyond software. It’s about taking out manual tasks to make more time for important things… like sleep.
Screenshots mentioned in episode
• Example of data collected via Snoo bassinet
• A closer look at a data-delivering changing table and feedings
• A screenshot of baby room monitoring and controls via Amazon Alexa
* Andrew Nhem is the managing editor at Puppet
Learn more
• Check out Dad Verb's YouTube Channel
• Here's an overview of Dr. Karp's "Five S's for Soothing Babies"
• If somehow you've made it through most of 2019 without listening to "Baby Shark"... (you're welcome)
Last month, we spent two and a half days in Budapest with some of our best community friends. I think the summary of Contributor Summit was the one common complaint I heard:
"There was too much good content and it was really hard to decide between workshops!" said everybody.
That's a really good problem to have and is the hallmark of a great experience. The key was in how the event was organized. Rather than tightly control the messaging, we simply asked our facilitators to build workshops that spoke to them and to just bring their best selves to the table ready to collaborate.
This was part of our new focus on the community contributor experience. The whole Summit practically crackled with electricity and what felt like every attendee came up to tell me how productive it was for them.
What are we covering?
In this podcast, we talk about what made Contributor Summit special and some of the lessons we learned. We spoke with Tim Meusel, better known as bastelfreak, about the critical role that Vox Pupuli plays in our ecosystem. We even talked about marathon training, dispelled some misconceptions that Ben had about his mom's cooking, and established a clear winner in the German vs. Hungarian goulash rivalry.
What else? Well, you'll just have to listen to find out!
Learn more
• Have opinions about the best goulash recipes
• Help review Vox Pupuli pull requests
• Join the Portland Marathon training plan
• See Portland's premiere pinball venue
• Register for PuppetizePDX
• Puppet Open Source projects (including Litmus)
Sometimes big challenges need to be tested and solved for at a much smaller scale. In this case, it’s the 1:87 model train scale with an interesting experiment coming out of Puppet. Learn more about a new way to bring people together and automate with Bolt.
On this episode, Engineers Cas, Ken, Jacob, and Managing Editor Andrew chat about “bolting” remote task orchestration and automation onto a HO-scale model train set. The vision: sending Bolt plans to operate a model train at Puppet’s Portland headquarters.
Hear how this cross-functional team solves for the automation of remote devices, navigating network security requirements, possibly provisioning containers, and (most importantly) building a fun project that brings people together.
You've probably heard that we've got a conference coming up soon. But have you also heard about the exciting additional events going on around Puppetize PDX? We're coming back home to Portland, and are super excited to show you some of our favorite parts of our city.
We've added a few extra events into the Puppetize PDX agenda and in this podcast, we'll talk with a small handful of Puppet employees who're helping facilitate some of those experiences for you. They range from integral parts of the conference, like the Birds of a Feather discussion sessions that Gene is facilitating, to the technical extras, like the Bolt workshop and the Hackday, all the way to the unrelated-but-still-fun Puppet-sponsored Portland Marathon team and the informal pinball tournament at Ground Kontrol.
Come along; we hope you enjoy the listen!
Ben Ford is a software engineer and developer advocate at Puppet.
Learn more
• See the Ground Kontrol facilities.
• Read about Portland Marathon training plan
• See the Puppetize PDX agenda
• Check out Puppet's guide to Portland
• Read about the Birds of a Feather format
• Play with the self-paced version of the Bolt workshop
In this podcast, Eric talks with Bryan Belanger from Fervid about working with Puppet in highly regulated compute environments. As a consultant for US Government agencies, Bryan's been working to get "Authority to Operate" for governmental cloud services, to speed up time to delivery and reduce compliance risk. The Puppet modules for STIG hardening, especially for Windows servers, let them build a baseline from existing systems and enforce that across the environment. We talk about the Forge, about Cloud, and about... Canada!
Windows hardening module: https://forge.puppet.com/autostructure/harden_windows_server
Eric is a technical product manager at Puppet.
I hope to see you in Budapest, 4-5 June.
Contributor Summit is just around the corner and we can't wait to catch up with you. Budapest will be beautiful in June and we've got two days of workshops, collaboration, hacking, and discussions on the present and future of Puppet projects lined up for you. For some of you, this will be the first time we've met face to face, and that's pretty exciting!
And don't forget, Project Month is going on right now, and you'll have the opportunity to present your work at Summit. Maybe you'll even attract some contributors to help you out!
We realize that international travel might sound like it requires sacks of cash, but since hotel and food are so affordable in Budapest, the total cost of the trip might be far less than you expect. Try a few searches on your favorite travel website to see for yourself!
Don't forget to show up the evening before for the Vox Pupuli pinball party!
More Info:
• Contributor Summit
• CS Project Month
• Vox Pupuli pinball party
Ben Ford is a developer advocate, principal software engineer at Puppet.
Vox Pupuli has long been the backbone of the open source Puppet community. But as often happens when a group is so capable and ubiquitous, sometimes the work done by individuals in the group goes unsung. In this episode, Eric and Hunter tell the story of their own involvement in the group and share some fun historical stories.
Today's musical intro was recorded by Eric Putnam.
Ben Ford is a developer advocate at Puppet.
One of Puppet’s big strengths is declarative automation – you model the desired end state of your infrastructure and Puppet does the hard work of enforcing it. This concept is quite powerful and has become the industry standard for configuration management. But sometimes your workflow doesn't quite fit into that pattern. Sometimes you really do need to deploy point-in-time changes, or mix imperative and declarative approaches together in a single workflow.
With Bolt, we've learned from the lessons of Puppet and used those to design the next generation of infrastructure automation. Listen as Eric Sorenson and Yasmin Rajabi explain the tools of the future.
The music in this episode is part of a live performance Eric Sorenson, Puppet Director of Product, prepared for Volt Divers. The full track is available here
Ben Ford is a developer advocate at Puppet.
It seems like every day is another paradigm shift anymore. SaaS, PaaS, configuration management, cloud native, immutable infrastructure, serverless, and so on. But one has to ask, what do we lose by always chasing the bleeding edge? Information hiding, API contracts, and other ways of abstracting away implementation details are all part of solid system architecture. Are there patterns from yesterday that we should continue applying towards the new ways of working today and tomorrow?
George Pandzik (@DevOpsFables) thinks so, and he's here to talk about patterns that he doesn't think should be lost to the sands of time.
Ben Ford is a developer advocate at Puppet.
We're all familiar with Puppet's main forte; that of managing configuration for computers, servers, cloud instances, etc. But as with any tool, community members often… color outside the lines.
Carrying on with our community spotlight series, this episode highlights one of those unusual usages. Corey Osman started this project by using Puppet to manage tiny IoT devices but ended up building a whole management framework out of Puppet and Bolt technologies. Let's get started and hear his story.
Today's musical intro was recorded by Manny, a software engineer on our hosted services team.
Ben Ford is a developer advocate at Puppet.
We're kicking off 2019 with a bang and a series of spotlights on notable community members and their achievements. We've got some great shows lined up for you, from useful development tools, to community experiences, to lessons we could learn from the history of computing. Let's get started today with Corey Osman of Portland, Oregon who's built a command line REPL.
This quick screencast shows some of the capabilities of the tool:
A REPL, or command-line shell, allows you to interactively work within Puppet and see what effect each line of code you write will have. Rather than trying to understand an entire system at once, you can drop into the shell and try out a language construct or see how a variable will be interpolated. For even greater understanding, you can add breakpoints to your Puppet code so you can stop compilation at a known spot and inspect your variables or see what classes have been declared.
Today's musical intro was recorded by Michelle on our SRE team and her band, Great Niece.
Learn more
• https://www.puppet-debugger.com
• https://github.com/nwops/puppet-debugger
• http://logicminds.github.io/categories/debugger
Ben Ford is a developer advocate at Puppet.