Puppet Module for Ruby Version Manager (RVM)

This module handles installing system RVM (also known as multi-user installation as root) and using it to install rubies and gems. Support for installing and configuring passenger is also included.

We are actively using this module. It works well, but does have some issues you should be aware of. Due to the way puppet works, puppet must run twice before all rubies and gems are installed. The first pass will install rvm. The second pass will install rubies and gems. If you are running manually, or running in standalone mode, make sure you run puppet twice to ensure everything is set up properly.

Please read the troubleshooting section below before opening an issue.

System Requirements

Puppet 2.6.7 or higher.

Add Puppet Module

Before you begin, you must add the RVM module to your Puppet installation. This can be done with:

$ git clone git://github.com/blt04/puppet-rvm.git /etc/puppet/modules/rvm

Add the following to manifests/site.pp or one of your manifest files:

import "rvm"

Enable plugin synchronization for custom types. In your puppet.conf (usually in /etc/puppet) on both the Master and Client ensure you have:

[main]
    pluginsync = true

You may now continue configuring RVM resources.

Install RVM with Puppet

Install RVM with:

include rvm::system

This will install RVM into /usr/local/rvm.

To use RVM without sudo, users need to be added to the rvm group. This can be easily done with:

rvm::system_user { bturner: ; jdoe: ; jsmith: ; }

NOTE: You must define a user elsewhere in your manifest to use rvm::system_user.

Installing Ruby

You can tell RVM to install one or more Ruby versions with:

if $rvm_installed == "true" {
  rvm_system_ruby {
    'ruby-1.9.2-p180':
      ensure => 'present',
      default_use => true;
    'ruby-1.8.7-p334':
      ensure => 'present',
      default_use => false;
  }
}

You should use the full version number. While the shorthand version may work (e.g. '1.9.2'), the provider will be unable to detect if the correct version is installed.

Installing Gems

Install a gem with:

if $rvm_installed == "true" {
  rvm_gem {
    'bundler':
      ruby_version => 'ruby-1.9.2-p180',
      ensure => '1.0.13',
      require => Rvm_system_ruby['ruby-1.9.2-p180'];
  }
}

Sometimes you need to install the same gem for multiple rubies:

if $rvm_installed == "true" {
  rvm_gem {
    'bundler192':
      name => 'bundler',
      ruby_version => 'ruby-1.9.2-p180',
      ensure => '1.0.13',
      require => Rvm_system_ruby['ruby-1.9.2-p180'];
    'bundler187':
      name => 'bundler',
      ruby_version => 'ruby-1.8.7-p334',
      ensure => '1.0.13',
      require => 'Rvm_system_ruby['ruby-1.8.7-p334'];
  }
}

Alternatively, you can use this less verbose, but slightly uglier syntax:

if $rvm_installed == "true" {
  rvm_gem {
    'ruby-1.9.2-p180/bundler':
      ensure => '1.0.13',
      require => Rvm_system_ruby['ruby-1.9.2-p180'];
    'ruby-1.8.7-p334/bundler':
      ensure => '1.0.13',
      require => Rvm_system_ruby['ruby-1.8.7-p334'];
  }
}

Creating Gemsets

Create a gemset with:

if $rvm_installed == "true" {
    rvm_gemset {
      "ruby-1.9.2-p290/myproject":
        ensure => present,
        require => Rvm_system_ruby['ruby-1.9.2-p290'];
    }
}

Installing Passenger

Install passenger with:

if $rvm_installed == "true" {
  class {
    'rvm::passenger::apache':
      version => '3.0.7',
      ruby_version => 'ruby-1.9.2-p180',
      mininstances => '3',
      maxinstancesperapp => '0',
      maxpoolsize => '30',
      spawnmethod => 'smart-lv2';
  }
}

Troubleshooting / FAQ

An error "Could not find a default provider for rvm_system_ruby" prevents puppet from running.

This means that puppet cannot find the /usr/local/rvm/bin/rvm command. Currently, Puppet does not support making a provider suitable using another resource (late-binding). You can avoid this error by surrounding your rvm configuration in an if block:

if $rvm_installed == "true" {
    rvm_system_ruby ...
}

Do not surround include rvm::system in the if block, as this is used to install RVM.

Note: When setting up a new box, the puppet agent will install RVM on it's first run and Ruby on its second run.

An error "Resource type rvm_gem does not support parameter false" prevents puppet from running.

The RVM module requires Puppet version 2.6.7 or higher.

Some packages/libraries I don't want or need are installed (e.g. build-essential, libc6-dev, libxml2-dev).

RVM works by compiling Ruby from source. This means you must have all the libraries and binaries required to compile Ruby installed on your system. I've tried to include these in manifests/classes/dependencies.rb.

It doesn't work on my operating system.

I've only tested this on Ubuntu 10.04 and Ubuntu 11.04. omarqureshi was kind enough to add CentOS support. Other operating systems may require different paths or dependencies. Feel free to send me a pull request ;)

Why didn't you just add an RVM provider for the existing package type?

The puppet package type seems like an obvious place for the RVM provider. It would be nice if the syntax for installing Ruby with RVM looked like:

# NOTE: This does not work
package {'ruby':
    provider => 'rvm',
    ensure => '1.9.2-p180';
}

While this may be possible, it becomes harder to manage multiple Ruby versions and nearly impossible to install gems for a specific Ruby version. For this reason, I decided it was best to create a completely new set of types for RVM.

TODO

• Allow upgrading the RVM version
• Install RVM and Ruby in one pass