Puppet platform lifecycle

The open source Puppet platform is made up of several packages: puppet-agent, puppetserver, and, optionally, puppetdb. Understanding what versions are maintained and which versions go together is important when upgrading and troubleshooting.

Puppet releases and lifecycle

Open source Puppet has two release tracks:
  • Update track: Puppet versions that are not associated with any PE version get updated minor (or "y") releases about once a month. Releases in this track include fixes and new features, but typically do not get patch (or "z") releases. Each update in this track supersedes the previous minor release. Documentation for the current release is available at Welcome to Puppet. The latest Release notes contain a history of all updates to this release track.
  • Long-term releases: Puppet versions associated with Puppet Enterprise LTS (long-term support) releases get patch (or "z") releases about quarterly. Each release contains bug and security fixes from several developmental releases, but does not get new features. Versioned documentation for long-term releases is available at puppet.com/docs/puppet/<X.Y> (for example, puppet.com/docs/puppet/7.3).
Important: To ensure that you have the most recent features, fixes, and security patches, update your Puppet version whenever there is a new version in your release track.
The following table lists the maintained Puppet, Puppet Server, and PuppetDB versions, with links to their respective documentation. Developmental releases (known as latest) are superseded by new versions about once a month. Open source releases that are associated with PE versions have projected End of Life (EOL) dates.
Puppet version Puppet Server version PuppetDB version Associated PE version Projected EOL date
8.8.1 8.6.2 8.7.0 2023.x Superseded by next developmental release.
7.32.1 7.17.2 7.19.1 2021.7.x Superseded by next developmental release.
6.28.0 6.20.0 6.22 2019.8.x February 2023
Tip: To access documentation for unmaintained Puppet versions, see Archived documentation.

For information about Puppet's operating system support, see System requirements.

Puppet platform packages

The Puppet platform bundles the components required for a successful deployment. Open source Puppet is distributed in the following packages:

Package Contents
puppet-agent

This package contains Puppet’s main code and all of the dependencies needed to run it, including Facter, Hiera, the PXP agent, root certificates, and bundled versions of Ruby and OpenSSL. After the package is installed, you have everything you need to run the Puppet agent service and the puppet apply command.

puppetserver Puppet Server is a JVM-based application that, among other things, runs instances of the primary Puppet server application and serves catalogs to nodes running the agent service. It has its own version number and might be compatible with more than one Puppet version. This package depends on puppet-agent. After it’s installed, Puppet Server can serve catalogs to nodes running the agent service.
puppetdb PuppetDB (optional) collects data generated by Puppet. It enables additional features such as Exported resources, advanced queries, and reports about your infrastructure.
puppetdb-termini Plugins to connect your primary server to PuppetDB

The puppetserver component of the Puppet platform is available only for Linux. The puppet-agent component is available independently for over 30 platforms and architectures, including Windows and macOS.

Restriction: As of Puppet agent 5.5.4, MCollective was deprecated. It was removed in Puppet 6.0. If you use Puppet Enterprise, consider Puppet orchestrator. If you use open source Puppet, migrate MCollective agents and filters using tools such as Bolt and PuppetDB’s Puppet Query Language (PQL). For details, see the Reference guide.

puppet-agent component version numbers

Each puppet-agent package contains several components. This table shows the components shipped in this release track, and contains links to available component release notes. Agent release notes are included on the same page as Puppet release notes.

Tip: Hiera 5 is a backward-compatible evolution of Hiera, which is built into Puppet. To provide some backward-compatible features, Hiera 5 uses the classic Hiera 3 codebase. This means that Hiera is still shown as version 3.x in the following table, even though this Puppet version uses Hiera 5.
puppet-agent Puppet Facter Hiera Resource API Ruby OpenSSL
8.8.1 8.8.1 4.8.0 None 1.9.0 3.2.4 3.0.14
8.7.0 8.7.0 4.7.1 None 1.9.0 3.2.4 3.0.13
8.6.0 8.6.0 4.7.0 None 1.9.0 3.2.3 3.0.13
8.5.1 8.5.1 4.6.1 None 1.9.0 3.2.3 3.0.12
8.5.0 8.5.0 4.6.0 None 1.9.0 3.2.3 3.0.12
8.4.0 8.4.0 4.5.2 None 1.9.0 3.2.2 3.0.12
8.3.1 8.3.1 4.5.1 None 1.9.0 3.2.2 3.0.11
8.2.0 8.2.0 4.4.2 None 1.9.0 3.2.2 3.0.10
8.1.0 8.1.0 4.4.1 None 1.8.16 3.2.2 3.0.8
8.0.0 8.0.0 4.4.0 None 1.8.16 3.2.2 3.0.8
7.32.1 7.32.1 4.8.0 3.12.0 1.9.0 2.7.8 1.1.1v
7.31.0 7.31.0 4.7.1 3.12.0 1.9.0 2.7.8 1.1.1v
7.30.0 7.30.0 4.7.0 3.12.0 1.9.0 2.7.8 1.1.1v
7.29.1 7.29.1 4.6.1 3.12.0 1.9.0 2.7.8 1.1.1v
7.29.0 7.29.0 4.6.0 3.12.0 1.9.0 2.7.8 1.1.1v
7.28.0 7.28.0 4.5.2 3.12.0 1.9.0 2.7.8 1.1.1v
7.27.0 7.27.0 4.5.1 3.12.0 1.9.0 2.7.8 1.1.1v
7.26.0 7.26.0 4.4.2 3.12.0 1.9.0 2.7.8 1.1.1v
7.25.0 7.25.0 4.4.1 3.12.0 1.8.16 2.7.7 1.1.1t
7.24.0 7.24.0 4.3.1 3.12.0 1.8.16 2.7.7 1.1.1t
7.23.0 7.23.0 4.3.0 3.11.0 1.8.16 2.7.7 1.1.1q
7.21.0 7.21.0 4.1.14 3.11.0 1.8.16 2.7.7 1.1.1q
7.20.0 7.20.0 4.2.13 3.10.0 1.8.16 2.7.6 1.1.1q
7.19.0 7.19.0 4.2.12 3.10.0 1.8.14 2.7.6 1.1.1q
7.18.0 7.18.0 4.2.11 3.10.0 1.8.14 2.7.6 1.1.1q
7.17.0 7.17.0 4.2.10 3.9.0 1.8.14 2.7.6 1.1.1n
7.16.0 7.16.0 4.2.8 3.8.1 1.8.14 2.7.6 1.1.1n
7.15.0 7.15.0 4.2.8 3.8.1 1.8.14 2.7.5 1.1.1l
7.14.0 7.14.0 4.2.7 3.8.0 1.8.14 2.7.5 1.1.1l
7.13.1 7.13.1 4.2.6 3.8.0 1.8.14 2.7.3 1.1.1l
7.21.1 7.21.1 4.2.5 3.7.0 1.8.14 2.7.3 1.1.1l
7.12.0 7.12.0 4.2.5 3.7.0 1.8.14 2.7.3 1.1.1l
7.11.0 7.11.0 4.2.4 3.7.0 1.8.14 2.7.3 1.1.1l
7.10.0 7.10.0 4.2.3 3.7.0 1.8.14 2.7.3 1.1.1k
7.9.0 7.9.0 4.2.2 3.7.0 1.8.14 2.7.3 1.1.1k
7.8.0 7.8.0 4.2.1 3.7.0 1.8.14 2.7.3 1.1.1k
7.7.0 7.7.0 4.2.0 3.7.0 1.8.13 2.7.0 1.1.1i
7.6.1 7.6.1 4.1.1 3.6.0 1.8.13 2.7.0 1.1.1i
7.5.0 7.5.0 4.0.52 3.6.0 1.8.13 2.7.0 1.1.1i
7.4.1 7.4.1 4.0.51 3.6.0 1.8.13 2.7.0 1.1.1i
7.4.0 7.4.0 4.0.50 3.6.0 1.8.13 2.7.0 1.1.1i
7.3.0 7.3.0 4.0.49 3.6.0 1.8.13 2.7.0 1.1.1i
7.1.0 7.1.0 4.0.47 3.6.0 1.8.13 2.7.0 1.1.1i
7.0.0 7.0.0 4.0.46 3.6.0 1.8.13 2.7.0 1.1.1g

Server and agent compatibility

Use this table to verify that you're using a compatible version of the agent for your PE or Puppet Server.

Restriction: Puppet Server 6.x is no longer developed or tested.
Agent Server
Puppet 6.x

PE 2019.1 through 2019.8

 Puppet 7.x

PE 2021.0 through 2023.2

 Puppet 8.x

PE 2023.4 and later
6.x ✓ ✓ ✓
7.x ✓ ✓
8.x ✓