Here are the slides from Kristen Crawford's PuppetConf 2016 presentation called Site Launch Automation: From Days to Minutes. Watch the videos at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV86BgbREluVjwwt-9UL8u2Uy8xnzpIqa

1. Site Launch Automation – From
Days to Minutes
Kristen Crawford – Sr. Lead Engineer – CenturyLink
kristencrawford78@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-hauk-crawford

2. Agenda
1. Introduction
2. Pre-Puppet Environment
3. Post-Puppet Environment
4. Basics of our Puppet setup
5. Site Launch Automation
6. Questions???
2Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes

3. Professional Intro!
What have I been up to the last 15 years??
Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes

4. Personal Intro!
My babies are cute
4

5. Pre-Puppet Environment
• Many Applications per set of Web/
Application servers
• Very little automated processes and no config
management
• Longer time to resolve incidents and requests
utilizing more people
• Patching and maintenance SUCKED
Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes 5

6. Post Puppet Environment
• Many Servers, Hosting only 1Application per App/DB pair
• Almost completely automated
• Quicker time to resolve Incidents and Requests
• Patching and Maintenance no longer dreaded
• Added Perks!
6Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes

7. Each item details information
about that individual server.
Making it easy to find exactly
what you need.
This automation is also good for
a quick inventory. Above is a
listing of all prod master mysql
databases
The script is very simple, but adds
a lot of value for us.
Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes 7
Perks!

8. Every linux server gets a puppet
agent and the base class.
Add site specific middleware
using Hiera to each web/app/
database server
Add site specific configs by
placing them in a custom mount
point specified in the
fileserver.conf
Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes 8
Our Basic Puppet Setup

9. Basic Setup continued..
Version all the things!
Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes 9

10. Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes 10

11. Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes 11

12. Site Launch Automation
Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes 12
Step 1:
Gather Site Info
Step 2:
Provision
Step 3:
Create API Key
and Password
Step 4:
Build &
Configure

13. Look at those nice stats!
Site Launch Automation – From Days to Minutes 13
Before
Automation
After
Automation
Manual Steps 40 – 50 based on
Tech Stack
4
Time ~12-24 hours ~4-5 hours
Engineers Required 1 ‘Tier 2’
3 ‘Tier 4’
1 ‘Tier 2’
Consistency No – varies
between engineers
Yes – Process the
same every time
Whoop Whoooop!

14. Questions??
Comments??
High Fives??
14Hit ‘em with the Hein!