Puppet is a widely recognized tool renowned for its automation capabilities, which can significantly reduce costs and provide a competitive edge in today’s business landscape. Given its importance, Puppet expertise is in high demand across various organizations and industries.
If you’re skilled in Puppet management, you hold a distinct advantage over other candidates and stand a good chance of securing a job. However, to succeed in the interview process, you’ll need to impress recruiters with your knowledge and proficiency.
To prepare effectively, it’s essential to go beyond reading books and solving generic interview questions. Familiarizing yourself with frequently asked Puppet interview questions can give you a competitive edge and help you stay ahead of the curve.
In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the best and most commonly asked Puppet interview questions. Reviewing these questions will give you valuable insights into what to expect during the interview and help you prepare effectively. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the following Puppet Interview Questions.
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Also check- Second interview questions / ETL testing interview questions
Puppet Interview Questions
Q1.Define manifests in Puppet?
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Before we list the tricky questions for Puppet, let us describe the Puppet manifests first. Every node in puppet has certain configuration details that are defined in the native programming language. These details are termed as manifests in Puppet that are composed of code and file name extension etc. Instead of explaining everything, it is said by developers to write a manifest in Puppet and install apache on Puppet agents.Q2.Define Puppet Modules and how they are different from Puppet manifests?
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A puppet module is a combination of manifests, facts, and all other important data having a specific data structure. Modules are used to organize the puppet manifests as they divide the code logically and execute them one by one. At the same time, the details are termed as manifests in Puppet that are composed of code and file name extension like ‘. Pp’ etc.Q3.What is the role of Facter in Puppet?
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Facter is a library that reports and discovers the facts details and send them to the puppet master. The facts details may include the operating system, SSH keys, IP address, MAC addresses, either it is a virtual machine or not etc. Further, these facts are made available as variables in puppet manifest.Q4.Give a quick introduction to Puppet?
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Puppet is a wonderful configuration management tool that is generally required to automate the administration tasks. It is based on master-slave architecture. Let us see how master and slave communicate together. Slave first had to send signing request for the master certificate. Master will approve the request and it will send the master certificate to slave and also it will send the request for slave certificate too. In the next step, the slave will approve the request and it will send slave certificate to master. Once all authentication formalities are complete, data will be exchanged between two parties securely. The same structure is shown in the image as well how puppet slave and puppet master communicated together.Q5.Do puppet is suitable for large sized industries only?
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No, this is not true but every organization can be benefitted from Puppet instead of their sizes. The main objective of Puppet is to manage or configure a plenty of servers together. If there is some organization having multiple servers and they are almost impossible to manage manually then the role of Puppet comes into picture here.Q6.Is Puppet useful when you have installed all unique servers in your organization?
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Yes, the puppet is useful in that case too. All servers are unique and similar in some ways. You just have to analyze the details completely like operating system, configuration details, security setting etc. Note the similar things in one file and unique details into another file. Write Puppet manifests accordingly to automate the administration tasks together in a single pass. Each of the fact details is defined as the variables in the configuration file and they can be used further to handle the uniqueness.Q7.How to upgrade the Facter and Puppet? Share your personal experience for the same?
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The operating system package management system can be used to upgrade the Facter and Puppet. I have done in the same way for my past projects too. When you are updating Puppet then make sure old versions are deleted completely and they are replaced with the fresh ones.Q8.Do Puppet supports any version of Ruby programming language?
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A number of versions of Ruby have been tested with Puppet and reports are prepared by experts accordingly. Run ruby -version command on your system either a particular version is compatible with Puppet or not. You can enjoy certain plug-ins too to support the functionality of Ruby over Puppet.Q9.What is Facter in Puppet?
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You are expected to answer what exactly Facter does in Puppet so, according to me you should start by explaining:
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Facter is basically a library that discovers and reports the per-Agent facts to the Puppet Master such as hardware details, network settings, OS type and version, IP addresses, MAC addresses, SSH keys, and more. These facts are then made available in Puppet Master’s Manifests as variables.Q10.What is Puppet Catalog?
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I will suggest you to first, tell the uses of Puppet Catalog.
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When configuring a node, Puppet Agent uses a document called a catalog, which it downloads from a Puppet Master. The catalog describes the desired state for each resource that should be managed, and may specify dependency information for resources that should be managed in a certain order.
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If your interviewer wants to know more about it mention the below points:
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Puppet compiles a catalog using three main sources of configuration info:
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Agent-provided data
External data
Puppet manifestsRelated: Ebay Software Engineer Interview / GameStop Interview
Puppet Interview Questions And Answers
Q1.What size organizations should use Puppet?
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There is no minimum or maximum organization size that can benefit from Puppet, but there are sizes that are more likely to benefit. Organizations with only a handful of servers are unlikely to consider maintaining those servers to be a real problem, Organizations with many servers are more likely to find, difficult to manage those servers manually so using Puppet is more beneficial for those organizations.Q2.Which open source or community tools do you use to make Puppet more powerful?
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Explain about some tools that you have used along with Puppet to do a specific task. You can refer the below example:
Changes and requests are ticketed through Jira and we manage requests through an internal process. Then, we use Git and Puppet’s Code Manager app to manage Puppet code in accordance with best practices. Additionally, we run all of our Puppet changes through our continuous integration pipeline in Jenkins using the beaker testing framework.Q3.Tell me about a time when you used collaboration and Puppet to help resolve a conflict within a team?
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Explain them about your past experience of Puppet and how it was useful to resolve conflicts, you can refer the below mention example:
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The development team wanted root access on test machines managed by Puppet in order to make specific configuration changes. We responded by meeting with them weekly to agree on a process for developers to communicate configuration changes and to empower them to make many of the changes they needed. Through our joint efforts, we came up with a way for the developers to change specific configuration values themselves via data abstracted through Hiera. In fact, we even taught one of the developers how to write Puppet code in collaboration with us.Q4.Can I access environment variables with Facter in Puppet?
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I will suggest you to start this answer by saying:
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Not directly. However, Facter reads in custom facts from a special subset of environment variables. Any environment variable with a prefix of FACTER_ will be converted into a fact when Facter runs.Q5.How should I upgrade Puppet and Facter?
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The best way to install and upgrade Puppet and Facter is via your operating system’s package management system, using either your vendor’s repository or one of Puppet Labs’ public repositories.
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If you have installed Puppet from source, make sure you remove old versions entirely (including all application and library files) before upgrading. Configuration data (usually located in/etc/puppet or /var/lib/puppet, although the location can vary) can be left in place between installs.Q6.Is there any set of community tools or open source tools to support the functionalities of Puppet?
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Yes, Puppet can be made more powerful with the help of certain community or open source tools. For example, you can use Git, Jenkins or many other DevOps tools to support continuous integration or other features in Puppet.Q7.What is Puppet ?
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Puppet is a configuration Tool which is used to automate administration tasks. Puppet Agent(Client) sends a request to Puppet Master (Server) and Puppet Master Push Configuration on Agent.Q8.What is Manifests ?
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Manifests, in Puppet, are the files in which the client configuration is specified.Q9.What is Module and How it is different from Manifest ?
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Whatever the manifests we defined in modules, can call or include into other manifests. Which makes easier management of Manifests.It helps you to push specific manifests on specific Node or Agent.Q10.Who is Puppet Labs?
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Puppet Labs (formerly Reductive Labs) is a small, private company focused on re-framing the server automation problem.
Puppet MCQ Questions
Q1.How should I upgrade Puppet and Facter?
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The best way to install and upgrade Puppet and Facter is via your operating system’s package management system, using either your vendor’s repository or one of Puppet Labs’ public repositories.
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If you have installed Puppet from source, make sure you remove old versions entirely (including all application and library files) before upgrading. Configuration data (usually located in/etc/puppet or /var/lib/puppet, although the location can vary) can be left in place between installs.Q2.What characters are permitted in a class name? In a module name? In other identifiers?
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Class names can contain lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores, and should begin with a lowercase letter. “::” can be used as a namespace separator.
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The same rules should be used when naming defined resource types, modules, and parameters, although modules and parameters cannot use the namespace separator.
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Variable names can include alphanumeric characters and underscore, and are case-sensitive.Q3.What are the Commands to check requests of Certificates ?
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puppetca –list (2.6)
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puppet ca list (3.0)Q4.What are the Commands to sign Requested Certificates ?
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puppetca –sign hostname-of-agent (2.6)
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puppet ca sign hostname-of-agent (3.0)Q5.Where Puppet Master Stores Certificates
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/var/lib/puppet/ssl/ca/signedQ6.What is Facter ?
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Sometimes you need to write manifests on conditional expression based on agent specific data which is available through Facter. Facter provides information like Kernel version, Dist release, IP Address, CPU info, etc. You can defined your facter also.Q7.What is the use of etckeeper-commit-post and etckeeper-commit-pre on Puppet Agent ?
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etckeeper-commit-post: In this configuration file you can define command and scripts which execute after pushing configuration on Agente
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etckeeper-commit-pre: In this configuration file you can define command and scripts which execute before pushing configuration on AgentRelated: Director Of Special Education Interview / Aeropostale Interview
Puppet Exam Questions
Q8.What is Puppet Kick ?
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By default Puppet Agent request to Puppet Master after a periodic time which was known as “runinterval”. Puppet Kick is a utility which allows you to trigger Puppet Agent from Puppet Master.Q9.What is MCollective ?
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MCollective is a powerful orchestration framework. Run actions on thousands of servers simultaneously, using existing plugins or writing your own.Q10.Do you know the commands that are used to sign the request certificates?
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Yes, I know. Here are the commands that are used to sign the request certificates for master-slave authentication. These commands are used by the puppet slave.Q11.Why puppet has model-driven design and what is its significance?
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Traditionally, managing and configuring multiple computers together was a tedious task and it was done by administrator alone. With the technical advancements, the process was made little easier but still, the root problems were the same. This is the reason why puppet like tools came into existence to easy the configuration task.
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Puppet uses a unique approach where it models everything like the present state of the node, the configuration details, SSH keys, modules, Catalog etc. The major benefits of the tool are that complete configuration details are stored securely, even in case of failure, same system state would be generated again later. The task of the user is to parse the store data and add more significant details whenever needed.Q12.Explain the working theory of DevOps Puppet tool?
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The puppet slave sends the facts details to the puppet master and the facts details include mainly operating system, IP address, either it is a virtual machine or not etc. The Puppet Master would analyze the fact details and it will decide how slave machine should be configured.
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Also, there would be a well-defined document that will describe the state of each resource assigned to the slave by Puppet Master. As soon as the configuration is complete, the message will be displayed on the dashboard.
Conclusion:
These Puppet interview questions are among the most commonly asked, providing valuable insight into what you might encounter during your interview. While they may not cover every possible question, mastering these can greatly enhance your preparation.
That concludes our collection of Puppet Interview Questions. We trust you found them beneficial and wish you success in your interview preparations.
