In this episode of the Puppet Labs Podcast, I was joined by Gareth Rushgrove, who works for the UK Government and is the person responsible for the DevOps Weekly Newsletter. He goes by garethr on the Puppet Forge. I was also joined by Ryan Coleman, product owner for the Forge at Puppet Labs.

We talked about quite a few module best practices, with a focus on reusability of modules.  One important thing to keep in mind when designing reusable modules is how you abstract the data associated with modules and how you design the entry points for others. Using other people's modules as dependencies is another way to improve reusability, but you also need to make sure that your dependencies are solid, reliable modules.

One of the most important aspects of module development is testing. Gareth and Ryan both talked about various ways to test your modules to improve reliability and check for unintended consequences when you make change to your module. Rspec-puppet is one good option for testing your modules if you are just getting started.

To learn more about module best practices and reliability, you will need to listen to the podcast! You can also check our many other recent podcasts by visiting our podcast page or subscribing in your favorite podcast tool.

Learn More

• Listen to our other podcasts.

• Join the Puppet Community.

• Watch Gareth's PuppetConf talk about Module Reusability or other great PuppetConf module talks.

• Visit the Puppet Forge to learn more about how to build great modules or use other people's modules.