Working with PuppetLabs Using Vagrant

While working as DevOps Engineer one of the tools by definition that we use more, often is Puppet. Guess most people will think that you are 100% expert, which is not always the case. So, I need to create this post and track record of my own experiments with Puppet and (PuppetLabs + Vagrant)

You might as what is Vagrant ?
==> "Vagrant is an open-source software product for building and maintaining portable virtual software development environments, e.g. for VirtualBox, Hyper-V, Docker, VMware, and AWS. ... Vagrant simplifies the necessary software configuration management in order to increase development productivity. " read more here: https://www.vagrantup.com/intro/index.html

The initial indentation was to gain better understanding puppet file structure. So, I decided to use Puppetlabs for this ...

So, basically. I did create installed

• Installed Vagrant
• Used the Vagrant init command to pull the puppetlabs ubuntu VM
• Which created a file "Vagrantfile"
• created a dir puppetlabs

And then started the Setup, so here are the Logs ..

Tdls-Air:puppetlabs psalms91$ vagrant up
Bringing machine 'default' up with 'virtualbox' provider...
==> default: Box 'puppetlabs/ubuntu-16.04-32-puppet' could not be found. Attempting to find and install...
    default: Box Provider: virtualbox
    default: Box Version: 1.0.0
==> default: Loading metadata for box 'puppetlabs/ubuntu-16.04-32-puppet'
    default: URL: https://vagrantcloud.com/puppetlabs/ubuntu-16.04-32-puppet
==> default: Adding box 'puppetlabs/ubuntu-16.04-32-puppet' (v1.0.0) for provider: virtualbox
    default: Downloading: https://vagrantcloud.com/puppetlabs/boxes/ubuntu-16.04-32-puppet/versions/1.0.0/providers/virtualbox.box
==> default: Successfully added box 'puppetlabs/ubuntu-16.04-32-puppet' (v1.0.0) for 'virtualbox'!
==> default: Importing base box 'puppetlabs/ubuntu-16.04-32-puppet'...
==> default: Matching MAC address for NAT networking...
==> default: Checking if box 'puppetlabs/ubuntu-16.04-32-puppet' is up to date...
==> default: Setting the name of the VM: puppetlabs_default_1506687306250_65705
==> default: Clearing any previously set network interfaces...
==> default: Preparing network interfaces based on configuration...
    default: Adapter 1: nat
==> default: Forwarding ports...
    default: 22 (guest) => 2222 (host) (adapter 1)
==> default: Booting VM...
==> default: Waiting for machine to boot. This may take a few minutes...
    default: SSH address: 127.0.0.1:2222
    default: SSH username: vagrant
    default: SSH auth method: private key
    default:
    default: Vagrant insecure key detected. Vagrant will automatically replace
    default: this with a newly generated keypair for better security.
    default:
    default: Inserting generated public key within guest...
    default: Removing insecure key from the guest if it's present...
    default: Key inserted! Disconnecting and reconnecting using new SSH key...
==> default: Machine booted and ready!
==> default: Checking for guest additions in VM...
    default: The guest additions on this VM do not match the installed version of
    default: VirtualBox! In most cases this is fine, but in rare cases it can
    default: prevent things such as shared folders from working properly. If you see
    default: shared folder errors, please make sure the guest additions within the
    default: virtual machine match the version of VirtualBox you have installed on
    default: your host and reload your VM.
    default:
    default: Guest Additions Version: 5.0.20
    default: VirtualBox Version: 5.1
==> default: Mounting shared folders...
    default: /vagrant => /Users/psalms91/Vagrant_VM/puppetlabs
Tdls-Air:puppetlabs psalms91$

Tdls-Air:puppetlabs psalms91$ vagrant ssh
Welcome to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.4.0-21-generic i686)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/
vagrant@localhost:~$

After this I have my Puppet Labs VM running ... After this point was easy, I just needed to goo into the puppet installation dir and look into the dir structure.

done.. :-)

Reset Your Forgotten Ubuntu Password in 2 Minutes or Less

If you’ve ever forgotten your password, you aren’t alone… it’s probably one of the most common tech support problems I’ve encountered over the years. Luckily if you are using Ubuntu they made it incredibly easy to reset your password.

All it takes is adjusting the boot parameters slightly and typing a command or two, but we’ll walk you through it.

Reset Your Ubuntu Password

Reboot your computer, and then as soon as you see the GRUB Loading screen, make sure to hit the ESC key so that you can get to the menu.

Root Shell – Easy Method

If you have the option, you can choose the “recovery mode” item on the menu, usually found right below your default kernel option.

Then choose “Drop to root shell prompt” from this menu.

This should give you a root shell prompt.

Alternate Root Shell Method

If you don’t have the recovery mode option, this is the alternate way to manually edit the grub options to allow for a root shell.

First you’ll want to make sure to choose the regular boot kernel that you use (typically just the default one), and then use the “e” key to choose to edit that boot option.

Now just hit the down arrow key over to the “kernel” option, and then use the “e” key to switch to edit mode for the kernel option.

You’ll first be presented with a screen that looks very similar to this one:

You’ll want to remove the “ro quiet splash” part with the backspace key, and then add this onto the end:

rw init=/bin/bash

Once you hit enter after adjusting the kernel line, you’ll need to use the B key to choose to boot with that option.

At this point the system should boot up very quickly to a command prompt.

Changing the Actual Password

You can use the following command to reset your password:

passwd <username>

For example my username being geek I used this command:

passwd geek

After changing your password, use the following commands to reboot your system. (The sync command makes sure to write out data to the disk before rebooting)

sync
reboot –f

I found that the –f parameter was necessary to get the reboot command to work for some reason. You could always hardware reset instead, but make sure to use the sync command first.

And now you should be able to login without any issues.

Having Problems to restart uBuntu 12.04 LTS workstation

Yesterday I have installed Ubuntu 12.04 on one of my testing workstations, orignally it came with Windows 7 pre-installed 2 SSD disks in a fake software Raid...

I have totatly removed Windows 7, deleted the partition and installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. But, after installing Ubuntu the machine boots but do not show any signal of ubuntu ..

Its just a dark screen .. I tried to use live CD to repair the grub but with not avail...

Here is what I have from Ubuntu Boot repair tool --- >> I have taken off the script and guide to troubleshoot the ubuntu bootup, instead, I have place them into a file and you can download from and read it locally

Its hosted on Google drive here please download it !!...