---
description: |
    The masterless Puppet Packer provisioner configures Puppet to run on the
    machines by Packer from local modules and manifest files. Modules and manifests
    can be uploaded from your local machine to the remote machine or can simply use
    remote paths. Puppet is run in masterless mode, meaning it never communicates
    to a Puppet master.
layout: docs
page_title: 'Puppet Masterless - Provisioners'
sidebar_current: 'docs-provisioners-puppet-masterless'
---

# Puppet (Masterless) Provisioner

Type: `puppet-masterless`

The masterless Puppet Packer provisioner configures Puppet to run on the
machines by Packer from local modules and manifest files. Modules and manifests
can be uploaded from your local machine to the remote machine or can simply use
remote paths (perhaps obtained using something like the shell provisioner).
Puppet is run in masterless mode, meaning it never communicates to a Puppet
master.

-> **Note:** Puppet will *not* be installed automatically by this
provisioner. This provisioner expects that Puppet is already installed on the
machine. It is common practice to use the [shell
provisioner](/docs/provisioners/shell.html) before the Puppet provisioner to do
this.

## Basic Example

The example below is fully functional and expects the configured manifest file
to exist relative to your working directory.

``` json
{
  "type": "puppet-masterless",
  "manifest_file": "site.pp"
}
```

## Configuration Reference

The reference of available configuration options is listed below.

Required parameters:

-   `manifest_file` (string) - This is either a path to a puppet manifest
    (`.pp` file) *or* a directory containing multiple manifests that puppet
    will apply (the ["main
    manifest"](https://docs.puppetlabs.com/puppet/latest/reference/dirs_manifest.html)).
    These file(s) must exist on your local system and will be uploaded to the
    remote machine.

Optional parameters:

-   `execute_command` (string) - The command-line to execute Puppet. This also
    has various [configuration template variables](/docs/templates/engine.html)
    available.

-   `extra_arguments` (array of strings) - Additional options to pass to the
    Puppet command. This allows for customization of  
    `execute_command` without having to completely replace or subsume its
    contents, making forward-compatible customizations much easier to maintain.

    This string is lazy-evaluated so one can incorporate logic driven by
    template variables as well as private elements of ExecuteTemplate (see
    source: provisioner/puppet-masterless/provisioner.go).

        [
          {{if ne "{{user environment}}" ""}}--environment={{user environment}}{{end}},
          {{if ne ".ModulePath" ""}}--modulepath="{{.ModulePath}}{{.ModulePathJoiner}}$(puppet config print {{if ne "{{user `environment`}}" ""}}--environment={{user `environment`}}{{end}} modulepath)"{{end}}
        ]

-   `facter` (object of key:value strings) - Additional
    [facts](https://docs.puppet.com/facter/) to make available to the Puppet
    run.

-   `guest_os_type` (string) - The remote host's OS type ('windows' or 'unix')
    to tailor command-line and path separators. (default: unix).

-   `hiera_config_path` (string) - Local path to self-contained Hiera data to
    be uploaded. NOTE: If you need data directories they must be previously
    transferred with a File provisioner.

-   `ignore_exit_codes` (boolean) - If true, Packer will ignore failures.

-   `manifest_dir` (string) - Local directory with manifests to be uploaded.
    This is useful if your main manifest uses imports, but the directory might
    not contain the `manifest_file` itself.

\~> `manifest_dir` is passed to Puppet as `--manifestdir` option. This
option was deprecated in puppet 3.6, and removed in puppet 4.0. If you have
multiple manifests you should use `manifest_file` instead.

-   `module_paths` (array of strings) - Array of local module directories to be
    uploaded.

-   `prevent_sudo` (boolean) - On Unix platforms Puppet is typically invoked
    with `sudo`. If true, it will be omitted. (default: false)

-   `puppet_bin_dir` (string) - Path to the Puppet binary. Ideally the program
    should be on the system (unix: `$PATH`, windows: `%PATH%`), but some
    builders (eg. Docker) do not run profile-setup scripts and therefore PATH
    might be empty or minimal. On Windows, spaces should be `^`-escaped, i.e.
    `c:/program^ files/puppet^ labs/puppet/bin`.

-   `staging_directory` (string) - Directory to where uploaded files will be
    placed (unix: "/tmp/packer-puppet-masterless", windows:
    "%SYSTEMROOT%/Temp/packer-puppet-masterless"). It doesn't need to
    pre-exist, but the parent must have permissions sufficient for the account
    Packer connects as to create directories and write files. Use a Shell
    provisioner to prepare the way if needed.

-   `working_directory` (string) - Directory from which `execute_command` will
    be run. If using Hiera files with relative paths, this option can be
    helpful. (default: `staging_directory`)

-   `elevated_user` and `elevated_password` (string) - If specified, Puppet
    will be run with elevated privileges using the given Windows user. See the
    [powershell](/docs/provisioners/powershell.html) provisioner for the full
    details.

<%= partial "partials/provisioners/common-config" %>

## Execute Command

By default, Packer uses the following command (broken across multiple lines for
readability) to execute Puppet:

    cd {{.WorkingDir}} &&
        {{if ne .FacterVars ""}}{{.FacterVars}} {{end}}
        {{if .Sudo}}sudo -E {{end}}
        {{if ne .PuppetBinDir ""}}{{.PuppetBinDir}}/{{end}}
      puppet apply --detailed-exitcodes
        {{if .Debug}}--debug {{end}}
        {{if ne .ModulePath ""}}--modulepath='{{.ModulePath}}' {{end}}
        {{if ne .HieraConfigPath ""}}--hiera_config='{{.HieraConfigPath}}' {{end}}
        {{if ne .ManifestDir ""}}--manifestdir='{{.ManifestDir}}' {{end}}
        {{if ne .ExtraArguments ""}}{{.ExtraArguments}} {{end}}
        {{.ManifestFile}}

The following command is used if guest OS type is windows:

    cd {{.WorkingDir}} &&
        {{if ne .FacterVars ""}}{{.FacterVars}} && {{end}}
        {{if ne .PuppetBinDir ""}}{{.PuppetBinDir}}/{{end}}
      puppet apply --detailed-exitcodes
        {{if .Debug}}--debug {{end}}
        {{if ne .ModulePath ""}}--modulepath='{{.ModulePath}}' {{end}}
        {{if ne .HieraConfigPath ""}}--hiera_config='{{.HieraConfigPath}}' {{end}}
        {{if ne .ManifestDir ""}}--manifestdir='{{.ManifestDir}}' {{end}}
        {{if ne .ExtraArguments ""}}{{.ExtraArguments}} {{end}}
        {{.ManifestFile}}

## Default Facts

In addition to being able to specify custom Facter facts using the `facter`
configuration, the provisioner automatically defines certain commonly useful
facts:

-   `packer_build_name` is set to the name of the build that Packer is running.
    This is most useful when Packer is making multiple builds and you want to
    distinguish them in your Hiera hierarchy.

-   `packer_builder_type` is the type of the builder that was used to create
    the machine that Puppet is running on. This is useful if you want to run
    only certain parts of your Puppet code on systems built with certain
    builders.