Puppet Module to Install StackStorm – Announcing Release Candidate

January 4, 2018
By Nick Maludy of Encore Technologies

So far StackStorm has multiple installation methods: deb/rpm packages, curl|bash installer used for simple deployments, Docker, Ansible, Chef.

Now it’s Puppet time!

Starting in July of 2017 a major effort has been underway to modernize the Puppet module to install/deploy StackStorm. In August of 2017 v1.0.0-beta was released with completely re-worked internals to support the new StackStorm deb/rpm package installation method and fix a large number of bugs. Since the beta we’ve continued development of new features like supporting all 4 StackStorm OSes, Puppet 4 and 5 compatibility, ChatOps installation and configuration, modernized pack management, full integration testing in Docker containers along with a slew of Puppet best practices improvements.

Today we’re proud to announce the Release Candidate version v1.0.0-rc of the stackstorm-st2 Puppet module which is available on Forge.


https://forge.puppet.com/stackstorm/st2

Our plan is to release v1.0.0 stable in the coming weeks, but in order to do this we need your help. We ask everyone who is interested in Puppet-based deployment to give the module a try and provide your feedback!

Keep reading to find out more details about what’s changed and where the project is heading.

Modernization Improvements

• Support latest versions of StackStorm. Prior to 1.0.0-beta the module was designed around the legacy deployment system. This has been upgraded to the modern package deployment methodology. These changes were ported over.
• Support all StackStorm OSes (Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.06, CentOS/RHEL 6, CentOS/RHEL 7). Previously the module was not running properly on several of the distributions. A great deal of work has gone into making the module cross-platform compatible.
• Puppet linting and best practices. Upgraded the style of a majority of the code to validate against modern puppet-lint tests.
• Integration testing. New in 1.0.0-rc, we’ve gone and completely rewritten the build system to run in an several isolated Docker environments. This means that every time a build is triggered, stackstorm/st2 is used to install StackStorm on every supported OS version.
• Support for Puppet 4.x and Puppet 5.x. New in 1.0.0-rc. Tied into the integration testing effort, we’ve also introduced tests for running the module with modern versions of Puppet.

What Else Has Changed

Some highlights of changes since v1.0.0-beta:

• Migrated to voxpupuli puppet/rabbitmq module and puppet/mongodb modules.
• Upgraded NodeJS to 6.x when installing StackStorm >= 2.4.0.
• Upgraded MongoDB to 3.4 when installing StackStorm >= 2.4.0.
• New type and provider for managing st2 packs: st2_pack.
• Added new parameter index_url to ::st2 allowing custom st2 Exchange
• Added a new class st2::profie::chatops to manage the chatops package, service and configuration.
• Added new parameters mongodb_manage_repo and nginx_manage_repo to ::st2 so that the repository can be managed by an external system and not the stackstorm-st2 module.
• Added Slack notifications to munity.slack.com #puppet for Travis build failures.

Future Ideas

That’s where we’ve been, here’s some ideas of where we’re going:

• Support for all auth backends (MongoDB, PAM, LDAP, etc).
• Improve unit testing coverage.
• Integration testing verification using InSpec or Serverspec.
• Splitting ::st2::profile::server into component services.
• High Availability support.

How Can You Get Started?

We’ve focused on making getting started with the stackstorm-st2 module as simple as possible. Just include the full install class in your manifest for a node and you’re on your way!

include ::st2::profile::fullinstall

This will install StackStorm and all it dependencies!

If you’re using r10k or librarian-puppet to manage your module dependencies, you can reference our Puppetfile for your distribution:

• RHEL/CentOS 6
• RHEL/CentOS 7
• Puppet 4.0
• Puppet 5.0
• Ubuntu 14.04
• Ubuntu 16.06

For more info, checkout the README.

Participation

The stackstorm-st2 module welcomes any and all contributions (including bug reports)!

If you’re curious how you can help, check out our issues list, or drop by the #puppet channel questions in our public Slack workspace. We’re always looking for new and exciting ideas for how we can make StackStorm and its supporting projects like the stackstorm/st2 Puppet module better, so don’t be shy!

Thanks

A very big thank you goes out to all those who’ve contributed code to this release!

• Nick Maludy @nmaludy
• Rurik Ylä-Onnenvuori @ruriky
• @bdandoy
• Eugen

P.S.
From the StackStorm side, we want to thank our partners from Encore Technologies, particularly Nick Maludy for taking the lead with the Puppet Module github.com/StackStorm/puppet-st2. As an advanced user, you know best what’s needed from StackStorm deployment & configuration and contribute to that.
That’s the power of Open Source!