---
description: Installing and using Puppet
keywords: puppet, installation, usage, docker, documentation
redirect_from:
- /engine/articles/puppet/
title: Use Puppet
---

> **Note**: Please note this is a community contributed installation path. The
> only `official` installation is using the
> [*Ubuntu*](../installation/linux/ubuntulinux.md) installation
> path. This version may sometimes be out of date.

## Requirements

To use this guide you'll need a working installation of Puppet from
[Puppet Labs](https://puppetlabs.com) .

The module also currently uses the official PPA so only works with
Ubuntu.

## Installation

The module is available on the [Puppet
Forge](https://forge.puppetlabs.com/garethr/docker/) and can be
installed using the built-in module tool.

    $ puppet module install garethr/docker

It can also be found on
[GitHub](https://github.com/garethr/garethr-docker) if you would rather
download the source.

## Usage

The module provides a puppet class for installing Docker and two defined
types for managing images and containers.

### Installation

    include 'docker'

### Images

The next step is probably to install a Docker image. For this, we have a
defined type which can be used like so:

    docker::image { 'ubuntu': }

This is equivalent to running:

    $ docker pull ubuntu

Note that it will only be downloaded if an image of that name does not
already exist. This is downloading a large binary so on first run can
take a while. For that reason this define turns off the default 5 minute
timeout for the exec type. Note that you can also remove images you no
longer need with:

    docker::image { 'ubuntu':
      ensure => 'absent',
    }

### Containers

Now you have an image where you can run commands within a container
managed by Docker.

    docker::run { 'helloworld':
      image   => 'ubuntu',
      command => '/bin/sh -c "while true; do echo hello world; sleep 1; done"',
    }

This is equivalent to running the following command, but under upstart:

    $ docker run -d ubuntu /bin/sh -c "while true; do echo hello world; sleep 1; done"

Run also contains a number of optional parameters:

    docker::run { 'helloworld':
      image        => 'ubuntu',
      command      => '/bin/sh -c "while true; do echo hello world; sleep 1; done"',
      ports        => ['4444', '4555'],
      volumes      => ['/var/lib/couchdb', '/var/log'],
      volumes_from => '6446ea52fbc9',
      memory_limit => 10485760, # bytes
      username     => 'example',
      hostname     => 'example.com',
      env          => ['FOO=BAR', 'FOO2=BAR2'],
      dns          => ['8.8.8.8', '8.8.4.4'],
    }

> **Note**:
> The `ports`, `env`, `dns`, and `volumes` attributes can be set with either a single
> string or as above with an array of values.
