Foreman without puppet?

Question

We're a python shop, are using ansible, and are looking at integrating foreman with ansible to tackle bare-metal installs.

Is it possible at all to use foreman w/o puppet?

I found the documentation exhaustive but couldn't find a clear answer; the mention that "The Foreman installer uses Puppet to install Foreman." makes me think I will need to install puppet even though we don't intend to use it?

Solution

The installer does require Puppet and it will set up a Puppet master by default, but Foreman itself doesn't require Puppet. It's entirely possible to install Foreman either from packages or source without Puppet.

If you're unfamiliar with how Foreman works, or how you'd configure it from scratch, I'd strongly recommend sticking with the installer despite this, as you probably won't set it up correctly or optimally otherwise (e.g. it configures Passenger, SSL etc.). Get to know it in the "default" configuration before going further.

You could run the installer to set it up, then remove the Puppet master virtualhost, delete the installer and Puppet packages, and disable the Puppet module in the smart proxy (/etc/foreman-proxy/settings.d/puppet.yml). The installer would still use the Puppet certificates it generates for authentication and encryption between the main Foreman server and the smart proxy service.

You could also run the installer on a host to gain some familiarity with the application and then use the experience and existing host as a reference to set it up again without Puppet.

Comments

[Admin]

Maybe the following Ansible playbook covers your requirements: github.com/adfinis-sygroup/foreman-ansible It will install Foreman without any Puppet integration at all. Meaning it doesn't use the foreman-installer. Feel free to contribute if you're missing some features. :)

[tink]

Thanks mate ... do you have a link to a simple document that describes how things hang together, and about other ways of making foreman aware of "its domain", other than running puppet-agents calling home? I know my initial question was too broad, and this may end up a lengthy discussion no one really wants :}

[byoung]

I don't know of such a document, but the Foreman manual includes sections on integrating into DNS, DHCP, TFTP and other topics. Check theforeman.org/plugins too for plugins that help integration in other areas.

[eLobato]

You can register already existing hosts in Foreman and check out a history of your Ansible reports via Foreman Ansible (theforeman.org/plugins/foreman_ansible/0.x/index.html) too. It'd be the equivalent of 'puppet-agents calling home' as you said before