Installing RT via Puppet

So far we have the basic packages required to install RT, now I’m going
to begin working on configuration of the install. I’m open to
suggestions and comments, good or bad :slight_smile:

The aim is to get this working on RPM and DEB platforms. Any feedback
and input is welcome. In a few days, when some more progress has been made,
I’ll spread the word on the devel lists

I think you’ll find it easier to achieve cross-platform installation if
you abandon dist-specific packages of RT and install RT itself from
source (via puppet, of course).

I’d also suggest starting with version 4 not 3.8; 3.8 is approaching end
of life. [1]

[1] Release Scheduling — Best Practical Solutions

Darn!! Well, it still is good advice - My Puppet-Fu is about to be
stretched! - I’ll make a note on github, and start thinking about how
best to accomplish this - as always, advice and comments are welcome.

As a sysadmin who has also been using puppet for a few years now, I
would prefer native packages over an installation from source. Doing a
source package install with puppet would probably require a custom
install script or a bunch of ugly exec resources. Doing it with native
packages would just require configuring the appropriate package repo,
like EPEL for RedHat (since that is what we use here I don’t know what
the equivalent debian/ubuntu would be), then install the required
packages and configuration files. This is much cleaner from both a
sysadmin point of view and puppet, although you would have to account
for the different package repo locations, package names and possibly
config file locations for the different OSes. Also, EPEL is still
currently on 3.8, but hopefully they will upgrade soon.

~Jason

So far we have the basic packages required to install RT, now I’m going
to begin working on configuration of the install. I’m open to
suggestions and comments, good or bad :slight_smile:

The aim is to get this working on RPM and DEB platforms. Any feedback
and input is welcome. In a few days, when some more progress has been
made,
I’ll spread the word on the devel lists

I think you’ll find it easier to achieve cross-platform installation if
you abandon dist-specific packages of RT and install RT itself from
source (via puppet, of course).

I’d also suggest starting with version 4 not 3.8; 3.8 is approaching end
of life. [1]

[1] Release Scheduling — Best Practical Solutions

Darn!! Well, it still is good advice - My Puppet-Fu is about to be
stretched! - I’ll make a note on github, and start thinking about how
best to accomplish this - as always, advice and comments are welcome.

As a sysadmin who has also been using puppet for a few years now, I would
prefer native packages over an installation from source.

I am right behind you on this one!

Doing a source
package install with puppet would probably require a custom install script
or a bunch of ugly exec resources.

I’ve just discovered this during my research into the matter

Doing it with native packages would just
require configuring the appropriate package repo, like EPEL for RedHat
(since that is what we use here I don’t know what the equivalent
debian/ubuntu would be), then install the required packages and
configuration files. This is much cleaner from both a sysadmin point of view
and puppet, although you would have to account for the different package
repo locations, package names and possibly config file locations for the
different OSes. Also, EPEL is still currently on 3.8, but hopefully they
will upgrade soon.

~Jason

Thanks Jason for your input - I’m currently trying to get hold of the
ubuntu package maintainer for RT. I’m currently wading through
launchpad, trying to find who to kick to get this moving - I’ve
dropped a line to the ubuntu users list, so hopefully I’ll get some
assistance with this soon.

Thanks again.

As a sysadmin who has also been using puppet for a few years now, I
would prefer native packages over an installation from source.

I’m not familiar with the conventions puppet manifests use, but I
understand this desire. My suggestion is based on the knowledge of how
often the Ubuntu and EPEL repositories are painfully out of date.
(Debian, as I noted before, is kept up to date, especially if you pin
from testing.)

Thanks Jason for your input - I’m currently trying to get hold of the
ubuntu package maintainer for RT. I’m currently wading through
launchpad, trying to find who to kick to get this moving - I’ve
dropped a line to the ubuntu users list, so hopefully I’ll get some
assistance with this soon.

There isn’t one. request-tracker3.8 (and request-tracker4) in later
releases isn’t in Ubuntu main, only in Ubuntu universe. This means that
support in stable releases is someone limited (I think Ubuntu call it
“Community maintained” meaning… it’s up you).

(I’m the principle maintainer of the packages in Debian, which is
effectively Ubuntu’s upstream in this regards).

The best way to get the Ubuntu packages updated with those security fixes
is by testing the patches on the bug report Thomas mentioned.

I notice you asked about RT4 on ubuntu-users; packages for RT4 are
already available in later releases of Ubuntu:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=request-tracker4&searchon=sourcenames&suite=all&section=all

Dominic Hargreaves, Systems Development and Support Section
IT Services, University of Oxford

signature.asc (198 Bytes)

As a sysadmin who has also been using puppet for a few years now, I
would prefer native packages over an installation from source.

I’m not familiar with the conventions puppet manifests use, but I
understand this desire. My suggestion is based on the knowledge of how
often the Ubuntu and EPEL repositories are painfully out of date.
(Debian, as I noted before, is kept up to date, especially if you pin
from testing.)

(or use stable-backports).

Dominic Hargreaves, Systems Development and Support Section
IT Services, University of Oxford

signature.asc (198 Bytes)

pl remove us from yr mailing list----- Original Message -----
From: “Thomas Sibley” trs@bestpractical.com
To: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2012 07:44
Subject: Re: [rt-users] Installing RT via Puppet

On 09/19/2012 07:00 PM, Mister Guru wrote:

Darn!! Well, it still is good advice - My Puppet-Fu is about to be
stretched! - I’ll make a note on github, and start thinking about
how best to accomplish this - as always, advice and comments are
welcome.

A bit of soapbox, FYI:

All of the request-tracker3.8 packages in Ubuntu are old enough to
be missing security fixes [1]. (The Debian packages of the same name
are patched thanks very much to the RT maintainer for Debian.)

If you’d like this not to continue to be the case, visiting the bug
report [2] and marking it as affecting you (green link near the top left)
might help.

[1]
http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=request-tracker3.8&searchon=names&suite=all&section=all
[2]
Bug #1004834 “Multiple security vulnerabilities in request-track...” : Bugs : request-tracker3.8 package : Ubuntu


Final RT training for 2012 in Atlanta, GA - October 23 & 24
http://bestpractical.com/training

We’re hiring! Careers — Best Practical Solutions

pl remove us from yr mailing list----- Original Message -----
From: “Mister Guru” misteritguru@gmail.com
To: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Cc: trs@bestpractical.com
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2012 07:30
Subject: Re: [rt-users] Installing RT via Puppet

On 20 September 2012 01:46, Thomas Sibley trs@bestpractical.com wrote:

On 09/19/2012 04:59 PM, Mister Guru wrote:

So far we have the basic packages required to install RT, now I’m going
to begin working on configuration of the install. I’m open to
suggestions and comments, good or bad :slight_smile:

The aim is to get this working on RPM and DEB platforms. Any feedback
and input is welcome. In a few days, when some more progress has been
made,
I’ll spread the word on the devel lists

I think you’ll find it easier to achieve cross-platform installation if
you abandon dist-specific packages of RT and install RT itself from
source (via puppet, of course).

I’d also suggest starting with version 4 not 3.8; 3.8 is approaching end
of life. [1]

[1] Release Scheduling — Best Practical Solutions

Darn!! Well, it still is good advice - My Puppet-Fu is about to be
stretched! - I’ll make a note on github, and start thinking about how
best to accomplish this - as always, advice and comments are welcome.


Final RT training for 2012 in Atlanta, GA - October 23 & 24
http://bestpractical.com/training

We’re hiring! Careers — Best Practical Solutions

pl remove us from yr mailing list----- Original Message -----
From: “Thomas Sibley” trs@bestpractical.com
To: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2012 06:16
Subject: Re: [rt-users] Installing RT via Puppet

On 09/19/2012 04:59 PM, Mister Guru wrote:

So far we have the basic packages required to install RT, now I’m going
to begin working on configuration of the install. I’m open to
suggestions and comments, good or bad :slight_smile:

The aim is to get this working on RPM and DEB platforms. Any feedback
and input is welcome. In a few days, when some more progress has been
made,
I’ll spread the word on the devel lists

I think you’ll find it easier to achieve cross-platform installation if
you abandon dist-specific packages of RT and install RT itself from
source (via puppet, of course).

I’d also suggest starting with version 4 not 3.8; 3.8 is approaching end
of life. [1]

[1] Release Scheduling — Best Practical Solutions


Final RT training for 2012 in Atlanta, GA - October 23 & 24
http://bestpractical.com/training

We’re hiring! Careers — Best Practical Solutions

Sorry that I let this drop off - Almost vapourwared my own idea - not good!

Real life and work conspired against me to take me away from personal projects for a while - I’m going to look into picking this back up especially as there is now a new version of puppet that I’ve strapped to my test rig.

Hopefully we’ll see something in the next few days.

Thanks,On 20 Sep 2012, at 09:51, Dominic Hargreaves wrote:

On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 04:12:24AM +0100, Mister Guru wrote:

Thanks Jason for your input - I’m currently trying to get hold of the
ubuntu package maintainer for RT. I’m currently wading through
launchpad, trying to find who to kick to get this moving - I’ve
dropped a line to the ubuntu users list, so hopefully I’ll get some
assistance with this soon.

There isn’t one. request-tracker3.8 (and request-tracker4) in later
releases isn’t in Ubuntu main, only in Ubuntu universe. This means that
support in stable releases is someone limited (I think Ubuntu call it
“Community maintained” meaning… it’s up you).

(I’m the principle maintainer of the packages in Debian, which is
effectively Ubuntu’s upstream in this regards).

The best way to get the Ubuntu packages updated with those security fixes
is by testing the patches on the bug report Thomas mentioned.

I notice you asked about RT4 on ubuntu-users; packages for RT4 are
already available in later releases of Ubuntu:

Ubuntu – Package Search Results -- request-tracker4


Dominic Hargreaves, Systems Development and Support Section
IT Services, University of Oxford


Final RT training for 2012 in Atlanta, GA - October 23 & 24
http://bestpractical.com/training

We’re hiring! Careers — Best Practical Solutions