Some guides instruct the user to create a directory at /etc/puppet/manifests and to place .pp files in that directory. However, doing so results in a non-working puppet install since, by default, puppet has defined defaults.

The correct way is to determine the defaults and work with them. With Puppet installed, issue for instance:

puppet config print | grep manifest

and, at least on Debian, the output will be along the lines of:

default_manifest = ./manifests
disable_per_environment_manifest = false
genmanifest = false
manifest = /etc/puppet/code/environments/production/manifests
ordering = manifest

which means that .pp files should be placed in /etc/puppet/code/environments/production/manifests.

It is possible to edit /etc/puppet/puppet.conf and change the defaults, however doing so comes at the cost of maintainability as well as possible incompatibility with the distribution defaults.

• install Puppet using the distribution package manager
• to set up a master:
  • edit /etc/puppet/puppet.conf and:
    • add server = myserver.tld to the [main] section (where myserver.tld represents the hostname of the current machine; of the master),
    • add dns_alt_names = myserver.tld to the [master] section (where myserver.tld represents the hostname of the current machine; of the master),
  • issue puppet config print | grep "^manifest =" in order to determine where the .pp files should go,
    • add files to the directory, for instance site.pp
  • issue puppet apply -t --verbose site.pp inside the manifest directory
• to set up an agent:
  • edit /etc/puppet/puppet.conf and:
    • add server = myserver.tld to the [main] section (where, myserver.tld represents the hostname of the Puppet master),
  • issue puppet agent -t --verbose from anywhere to start provisioning the agent,
  • issue puppet cert list on the master to show all pending certificates waiting to be signed,
  • issue puppet cert sign AGENT on the master where AGENT is the configured agent,
  • issue puppet agent -t --verbose from anywhere once again to start provisioning the agent.