Puppet - groupid (gid) for mysql group differs between prod and dev

Question

I just puppetized mysql and ran into a weird issue where the gid for the mysql group on dev differs from production. Apparently on production I have a user that doesn't exist on the dev environment and is currently claiming the gid I wish to use for the mysql group.

My question is, what is the best approach for ensuring users/groups line up regardless of the environment? I have read some articles where it's common practice to start uid/gid @ 1000. If I enforce this practice and change existing uid/gid, will that wreck havoc with my servers?

I was also considering changing the gid of the user who is claiming the gid I wish to use, but wanted to see if there was a best practice for resolving this situation.

-- Update --

Ugh, can tell it's a monday. It's not the gid that's colliding, it's uid:

class user::mysql inherits user {

    include group::logger
    include group::mysql

    user { 'mysql':
        gid         => 'mysql',
        groups      => [ 'logger' ],
        managehome  => false,
        membership  => 'inclusive',
        require     => Class['group::mysql'],
        shell       => '/sbin/nologin',
        uid         => '498'
    }

    Class['group::logger']->Class['user::mysql']
}

Aforementioned questions are still relevant:

"What is the best approach for ensuring users/groups line up regardless of the environment?"

"If I enforce this practice and change existing uid/gid, will that wreck havoc with my servers?"

Answer 1

My guess is you are doing something like

group => 500,

Where 500 is the group id of mysql? Well if you don't care that the group id's are a mis-match then just use the name

group => "mysql",

EDIT

Same goes for uid.. if you don't specify one for the user the OS will pick one for you. So if you don't care that uid's match up.. then remove the uid line