Setup Tomcat with Puppet (noob question)

Question

I have been learning Puppet (as in, the last 24 hours) and have come up with the following module to install Tomcat. It works great, but I can't help but feel like this is not the most optimal way to do this - particularly around the name[1-4] part and steps/dependencies. If a "Puppet Master" :) could take a look at what I am doing and suggest improvements, I would be most appreciative.

class tomcat {
  ####                                                                                
  # Tomcat                                                                            

  # Variables                                                                         
  $tomcatVersionedDir="/usr/local/apache-tomcat-6.0.29"
  $tomcatDir="/usr/local/tomcat"
  $tomcatBinDir="${tomcatDir}/bin"
  $tomcatDaemonSrcDir="${tomcatBinDir}/commons-daemon-1.0.2-native-src"

  # 1) Get the package                                                                
  file { "/root/tomcat6.tgz":
    ensure => "file",
    source => "puppet://puppet/tomcat/tomcat6.tgz",
  }

  # 2) Untar the package                                                              
  define tomcat_expand() {
    exec { "/bin/tar xzf /root/tomcat6.tgz":
      cwd => "/usr/local",
      creates => $tomcatVersionedDir,
    }
  }
  tomcat_expand { name1:
    require => File["/root/tomcat6.tgz"],
  }

  # 3) Create the symlink                                                             
  file { "${tomcatDir}":
    ensure => $tomcatVersionedDir,
    require => Tomcat_expand["name1"],
  }

  # 4) Daemon source expand                                                           
  define tomcat_daemon_expand() {
    exec { "/bin/tar xzf commons-daemon-native.tar.gz":
      cwd => "${tomcatDir}/bin",
      creates => "${tomcatDaemonSrcDir}",
    }
  }
  tomcat_daemon_expand { name2:
    require => File["${tomcatDir}"],
  }

  # 5) Configure daemon                                                               
  define tomcat_daemon_config() {
    exec { "./configure > puppet-config.out":
      path => "/bin:/usr/bin:.",
      cwd => "${tomcatDaemonSrcDir}/unix",
      creates => "${tomcatDaemonSrcDir}/unix/puppet-config.out",
    }
  }
  tomcat_daemon_config { name3:
    require => Tomcat_daemon_expand["name2"],
  }

  # 6) Compile daemon                                                                 
  define tomcat_daemon_compile() {
    exec { "make clean && make":
      path => "/bin:/usr/bin:.",
      cwd => "${tomcatDaemonSrcDir}/unix",
      creates => "${tomcatDaemonSrcDir}/unix/jsvc",
    }
  }
  tomcat_daemon_compile { name4:
    require => Tomcat_daemon_config["name3"],
  }

  # 7) Copy jsvc to bin directory                                                     
  file { "${tomcatBinDir}/jsvc":
    source => "${tomcatDaemonSrcDir}/unix/jsvc",
    require => Tomcat_daemon_compile["name4"],
  }
}

Is this style OK?

Another thing... since this is doing things like unpacking code for one task, is there a good way to do clean up, while still maintaining the flow through the steps? For example, deleting the commons-daemon-1.0.2-native-src directory after jsvc has been copied to bin?

Answer 1

It looks way too "procedural," IMO. You have to think in a "declarative" way. I would personally just create .rpm's or .deb's from those tarballs, and specify another repo to use so all you would have to do is something like this:

 class tomcat {
   Package { "tomcat":
      ensure => installed,
   }

   File { "/etc/init.d/tomcat":
      source => "puppet:///tomcat/tomcat.initd",
   }
 }

etc. Those multiple defines seem unnecessary as well, I'd go with just straight Exec clauses but with aliases for each Exec type.

Example:

 Exec { "/bin/tar xzf /root/tomcat6.tgz":
   name => "tomcat-extract",
   <rest of content here>
 }

 ...

 File { "${tomcatDir}":
   ...
   require => Exec["tomcat-extract"],
   ...
 }

Answer 2

Revisiting a very old thread for the sake of future visitors -- you can get tomcat6 rpms from http://www.jpackage.org/ and install from them (either straight from a repo mirror, or via your own local repo).

Not sure what the situation is like for debs though.