By guiding puppetdb setup and configuration with a puppet master, the PuppetDB module provides fast, streamlined access to data on puppetized infrastructure.
The PuppetDB module provides a quick way to get started using PuppetDB, an open source inventory resource service that manages storage and retrieval of platform-generated data. The module will install PostgreSQL and PuppetDB if you don't have them, as well as set up the connection to puppet master. The module will also provide a dashboard you can use to view the current state of your system.
* **note**: Using the `database_host` class will cause your routes.yaml file to be overwritten entirely (see **Usage** below for options and more information )
* **note:** We suggest using the embedded database only for experimental environments rather than production, as it does not scale well and can cause difficulty in migrating to PostgreSQL.
This approach assumes you will use our default database (PostgreSQL) and run everything (PostgreSQL, PuppetDB, puppet master) all on the same node. This setup will be great for a testing or experimental environment. In this case, your manifest will look like:
You can provide some parameters for these classes if you’d like more control, but that is literally all that it will take to get you up and running with the default configuration.
This approach is for those who prefer not to install PuppetDB on the same node as the puppet master. Your environment will be easier to scale if you are able to dedicate hardware to the individual system components. You may even choose to run the puppetdb server on a different node from the PostgreSQL database that it uses to store its data. So let’s have a look at what a manifest for that scenario might look like:
**This is an example of a very basic 3-node setup for PuppetDB.**
This node is our puppet master:
node puppet {
# Here we configure the puppet master to use PuppetDB,
# and tell it that the hostname is ‘puppetdb’
class { 'puppetdb::master::config':
puppetdb_server => 'puppetdb',
}
}
This node is our postgres server:
node puppetdb-postgres {
# Here we install and configure postgres and the puppetdb
# database instance, and tell postgres that it should
# listen for connections to the hostname ‘puppetdb-postgres’
class { 'puppetdb::database::postgresql':
listen_addresses => 'puppetdb-postgres',
}
}
This node is our main puppetdb server:
node puppetdb {
# Here we install and configure PuppetDB, and tell it where to
This should be all it takes to get a 3-node, distributed installation of PuppetDB up and running. Note that, if you prefer, you could easily move two of these classes to a single node and end up with a 2-node setup instead.
Whether you choose a single node development setup or a multi-node setup, a basic setup of PuppetDB will cause: PostgreSQL to install on the node if it’s not already there; PuppetDB postgres database instance and user account to be created; the postgres connection to be validated and, if successful, PuppetDB to be installed and configured; PuppetDB connection to be validated and, if successful, the puppet master config files to be modified to use PuppetDB; and the puppet master to be restarted so that it will pick up the config changes.
If your logging level is set to INFO or finer, you should start seeing PuppetDB-related log messages appear in both your puppet master log and your puppetdb log as subsequent agent runs occur.
The embedded database can be useful for testing and very small production environments, but it is not recommended for production environments since it consumes a great deal of memory as your number of nodes increase.
It is worth noting that there are some cross-node dependencies, which means that the first time you add the module's configurations to your manifests, you may see a few failed puppet runs on the affected nodes.
PuppetDB handles cross-node dependencies by taking a sort of “eventual consistency” approach. There’s nothing that the module can do to control the order in which your nodes check in, but the module can check to verify that the services it depends on are up and running before it makes configuration changes--so that’s what it does.
When your puppet master node checks in, it will validate the connectivity to the puppetdb server before it applies its changes to the puppet master config files. If it can’t connect to puppetdb, then the puppet run will fail and the previous config files will be left intact. This prevents your master from getting into a broken state where all incoming puppet runs fail because the master is configured to use a puppetdb server that doesn’t exist yet. The same strategy is used to handle the dependency between the puppetdb server and the postgres server.
Hence the failed puppet runs. These failures should be limited to 1 failed run on the puppetdb node, and up to 2 failed runs on the puppet master node. After that, all of the dependencies should be satisfied and your puppet runs should start to succeed again.
The `puppetdb` class is intended as a high-level abstraction (sort of an 'all-in-one' class) to help simplify the process of getting your puppetdb server up and running. It wraps the slightly-lower-level classes `puppetdb::server` and `puppetdb::database::*`, and it'll get you up and running with everything you need (including database setup and management) on the server side. For maximum configurability, you may choose not to use this class. You may prefer to use the `puppetdb::server` class directly, or manage your puppetdb setup on your own.
The port on which the puppetdb web server should accept HTTPS requests (defaults to '8081').
####`open_ssl_listen_port`
If true, open the ssl_listen\_port on the firewall (defaults to true).
####`database`
Which database backend to use; legal values are `postgres` (default) or `embedded`. The `embedded` db can be used for very small installations or for testing, but is not recommended for use in production environments. For more info, see the [puppetdb docs](http://docs.puppetlabs.com/puppetdb/).
####`database_port`
The port that the database server listens on (defaults to `5432`; ignored for `embedded` db).
The length of time a node can go without receiving any new data before it's automatically deactivated. (defaults to '0', which disables auto-deactivation)
####`node_purge_ttl`
The length of time a node can be deactivated before it's deleted from the database. (defaults to '0', which disables purging)
####`report_ttl`
The length of time reports should be stored before being deleted. (defaults to '7d', which is a 7-day period)
The version of the `puppetdb` package that should be installed. You may specify an explicit version number, 'present', or 'latest' (defaults to 'present').
Supports a Boolean of true or false, indicating whether or not the module should open a port in the firewall on RedHat-based systems. Defaults to `false`. This parameter is likely to change in future versions. Possible changes include support for non-RedHat systems and finer-grained control over the firewall rule (currently, it simply opens up the postgres port to all TCP connections).
####`confdir`
The puppetdb configuration directory (defaults to `/etc/puppetdb/conf.d`).
The `puppetdb::server` class manages the puppetdb server independently of the underlying database that it depends on. It will manage the puppetdb package, service, config files, etc., but will still allow you to manage the database (e.g. postgresql) however you see fit.
The hostname or IP address of the database server (defaults to `localhost`; ignored for `embedded` db).
### puppetdb::master::config
The `puppetdb::master::config` class directs your puppet master to use PuppetDB, which means that this class should be used on your puppet master node. It’ll verify that it can successfully communicate with your puppetdb server, and then configure your master to use PuppetDB.
Using this class involves allowing the module to manipulate your puppet configuration files; in particular: puppet.conf and routes.yaml. The puppet.conf changes are supplemental and should not affect any of your existing settings, but the routes.yaml file will be overwritten entirely. If you have an existing routes.yaml file, you will want to take care to use the manage_routes parameter of this class to prevent the module from managing that file, and you’ll need to manage it yourself.
class { 'puppetdb::master::config':
puppetdb_server => 'my.host.name',
puppetdb_port => 8081,
}
**Parameters within `puppetdb::master::config`:**
####`puppetdb_server`
The dns name or ip of the puppetdb server (defaults to the certname of the current node).
####`puppetdb_port`
The port that the puppetdb server is running on (defaults to 8081).
The version of the `puppetdb` package that should be installed. You may specify an explicit version number, 'present', or 'latest' (defaults to 'present').
The maximum amount of time that the module should wait for PuppetDB to start up. This is most important during the initial install of PuppetDB (defaults to 15 seconds).
If true, the module will restart the puppet master when PuppetDB configuration files are changed by the module. The default is 'true'. If set to 'false', you must restart the service manually in order to pick up changes to the config files (other than `puppet.conf`).
The `puppetdb::database::postgresql` class manages a postgresql server for use by PuppetDB. It can manage the postgresql packages and service, as well as creating and managing the puppetdb database and database user accounts.
The `listen_address` is a comma-separated list of hostnames or IP addresses on which the postgres server should listen for incoming connections. This defaults to `localhost`. This parameter maps directly to postgresql's `listen_addresses` config option; use a '*' to allow connections on any accessible address.
Implementation
---------------
### Resource overview
In addition to the classes and variables mentioned above, PuppetDB includes:
Configures the puppet master to use PuppetDB as the facts terminus. *WARNING*: the current implementation simply overwrites your routes.yaml file; if you have an existing routes.yaml file that you are using for other purposes, you should *not* use this.
Validates that a successful database connection can be established between the node on which this resource is run and the specified puppetdb database instance (host/port/user/password/database name).
Verifies that a connection can be successfully established between a node and the puppetdb server. Its primary use is as a precondition to prevent configuration changes from being applied if the puppetdb server cannot be reached, but it could potentially be used for other purposes such as monitoring.
Puppet Labs modules on the Puppet Forge are open projects, and community contributions are essential for keeping them great. We can’t access the huge number of platforms and myriad of hardware, software, and deployment configurations that Puppet is intended to serve.
We want to keep it as easy as possible to contribute changes so that our modules work in your environment. There are a few guidelines that we need contributors to follow so that we can have a chance of keeping on top of things.
You can read the complete module contribution guide [on the Puppet Labs wiki.](http://projects.puppetlabs.com/projects/module-site/wiki/Module_contributing)
This is a bugfix release, mostly around fixing backward-compatibility for the deprecated manage_redhat_firewall parameter. It wasn’t actually entirely backwards-compatible in the 1.1.3 release.
**1.1.3**
This is mostly a maintenance release, to update the module dependencies to newer versions in preparation for some new features. This release does include some nice additions around the ability to set the listen address for the HTTP port on Jetty and manage the firewall for that port. Thanks very much to Drew Blessing for those submissions!
