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Setting Up the Environment

Before configuring SSL certificates, ensure that both Puppet master and all Puppet clients are running on CentOS 7 and have Puppet installed. You can install Puppet using the Puppet Labs YUM repository. To install Puppet master on the server, use the following command:

sudo yum install puppetserver

On the clients, install the Puppet agent with:

sudo yum install puppet-agent

Generating and Signing Certificates

1. Initializing Puppet Master

   Start the Puppet master to automatically generate the primary SSL certificate and key. This step also initializes the certificate authority (CA) on the Puppet master.

   sudo systemctl start puppetserver
   sudo systemctl enable puppetserver
   

2. Generating Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs) on Clients

   On each Puppet client, run the Puppet agent to generate a new CSR and send it to the Puppet master.

   sudo puppet agent --test --waitforcert=60
   

   This command also configures the agent to wait for 60 seconds for the certificate to be signed.

3. Signing Certificates on Puppet Master

   After generating the CSRs on the clients, log in to the Puppet master and use the puppetserver tool to view the list of pending certificate signing requests:

   sudo puppetserver ca list
   

   To sign a certificate for a specific client, use:

   sudo puppetserver ca sign --certname client_hostname
   

   If you want to sign all pending requests, you can use:

   sudo puppetserver ca sign --all
   

Automating Certificate Signing Process

To automate the certificate signing process, you can configure the Puppet master to automatically sign certificate signing requests from known clients. This configuration is done by editing the autosign.conf file on the Puppet master:

sudo nano /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/autosign.conf

In this file, you can specify domains or specific hostnames of clients whose certificate signing requests will be automatically signed.

Securing Communication

Once certificates are successfully signed and distributed between Puppet master and clients, communication is secured using SSL. This security ensures that all transmitted information is encrypted and cannot be easily intercepted or tampered with.

By using SSL certificates to secure communication between Puppet master and clients, you can significantly enhance the security of your infrastructure. The above guide provides steps for generating, signing, and distributing SSL certificates, which are essential for secure and trustworthy configuration automation in a Puppet environment.