Patterns for extending Puppet coverage

Let's further analyze what to do when we face the daunting task of introducing Puppet on an existing infrastructure.

Some of these activities are needed also when working on a brand new project or when we want to refactor our existing Puppet configurations; consider them as a reference you can adapt to your own needs and scenario.

The obvious assumption is that Puppet deployment on something that is already working and serving services has to be gradual, we have to understand the current situation, the expected goals, what is quick or easy to do, where and what makes sense to manage with Puppet and our operational priorities.

Raising the bar, step by step

A gradual approach involves a step-by-step process that needs informed decisions, reiterations and verification of what is done, evaluating each case according to its uniqueness.

The Puppet coverage of our infrastructure can be seen in two dimensions, on one side the number of nodes managed by Puppet, and...