Robin Bowes

I was writing some basic RSpec tests for a puppet module this morning, methodically adding in fixtures and hiera data items to get the module to compile under the spec tests. Then I hit this error: Failures:1) profile_puppet::master supported operating systems profile_puppet::master class without any parameters on redhat 6.4 should compile into a catalogue without dependency cyclesFailure/Error: it { should compile.with_all_deps }NoMethodError:undefined method `groups' for nil:NilClass# ./spec/classes/init_spec.rb:36:in `block (5 levels) in ' Uh oh, that doesn’t look good. I did what I always do in such circumstances and googled the error message: puppet NoMethodError: undefined method `groups' for nil:NilClass . The first hit was https://tickets.puppetlabs.com/browse/PUP-1547  which describes my situation completely (I am testing for RHEL 6.4 on OSX). What’s even better is that the ticket was updated 3 days ago with a pull request that fixes the issue. I applied the change...

In his talk at Puppetconf 2013 , James Fryman mentioned a blog post by James White which contains a list of guidelines for management which has come to be known as the jameswhite manifesto. Here’s the same list but unconstrained by a fixed-width text box so you can actually read it. 🙂 Rules On Infrastructure There is one system, not a collection of systems. The desired state of the system should be a known quantity. The “known quantity” must be machine parseable. The actual state of the system must self-correct to the desired state. The only authoritative source for the actual state of the system is the system. The entire system must be deployable using source media and text files. On Buying Software Keep the components in the infrastructure simple so it will be better understood. All products must authenticate and authorize from external, configurable sources. Use small tools that interoperate well, not one “do everything poorly” product. Do not implemen...