Adding a resource to a node

This recipe will introduce the language and show you the basics of writing Puppet code. A beginner may wish to reference Puppet 3: Beginner's Guide, John Arundel, Packt Publishing in addition to this section. Puppet code files are called manifests; manifests declare resources. A resource in Puppet may be a type, class, or node. A type is something like a file or package or anything that has a type declared in the language. The current list of standard types is available on puppetlabs website at https://docs.puppetlabs.com/references/latest/type.html. I find myself referencing this site very often. You may define your own types, either using a mechanism, similar to a subroutine, named defined types, or you can extend the language using a custom type. Types are the heart of the language; they describe the things that make up a node (node is the word Puppet uses for client computers/devices). Puppet uses resources to describe the state of a node; for example, we will declare the following package resource for a node using a site manifest (site.pp).

  node default {
    package { 'httpd':
      ensure => 'installed'
    }
  }