Puppet Enterprise – Node Groups

There are two type of node groups

• Environment node groups, which assign environments to nodes.

The role of an environment node group is to set the environment, such as test, development, or production, for your nodes.

• Classification node groups, which assign classification data to nodes.
• The role of a classification node group is to assign classification data, such as classes, parameters, and variables, to nodes.A node group assigns either environment or classification data, not both.

Creating environment node groups

Create environment node groups so that your nodes aren’t all in the production environment.

1. In the PE console, click Nodes > Classification, then click Add group.
2. Specify options for the new node group:
   • Parent name – Select Production environment. Every environment node group you add must be a descendant of this group.
   • Group name – Enter a name that describes the role of this environment node group, for example, Test environment.
   • Environment – Select the environment that you want to assign to nodes that match this node group. If you haven’t created environments yet, you see only theproduction and agent-specified environments.
   • Environment group – Select this option.
3. Click Add.

Creating classification node groups

1. In the PE console, click Nodes > Classification, then click Add group.
2. Specify options for the new node group:
   • Parent name – Select the name of the classification node group that you want to set as the parent to this node group. Classification node groups inherit classes, parameters, and variables from their parent node group. By default, the parent node group is the All Nodes node group.
   • Group name – Enter a name that describes the role of this environment node group, for example, Web Servers.
   • Environment – Specify an environment for filtering the classes and parameters that are available for selection in this node group. This does not assign an environment to any nodes. For example, if you want to apply some classification data to your test environment web server nodes, select the test environment in the classification node group so that only nodes in your test environment are available for selection.
   • Environment group – Do not select this option.
3. Click Add.