Ubuntu Manpage: puppet-agent - The puppet agent daemon

NAME

       puppet-agent - The puppet agent daemon

SYNOPSIS

       Retrieves  the  client  configuration  from  the puppet master and applies it to the local
       host.

       This service may be run as a daemon, run periodically using cron (or  something  similar),
       or run interactively for testing purposes.

USAGE

       puppet    agent    [--certname    NAME]    [-D|--daemonize|--no-daemonize]    [-d|--debug]
       [--detailed-exitcodes] [--digest DIGEST] [--disable [MESSAGE]] [--enable]  [--fingerprint]
       [-h|--help]   [-l|--logdest   syslog|eventlog|ABS  FILEPATH|console]  [--masterport  PORT]
       [--noop]   [-o|--onetime]   [--sourceaddress   IP_ADDRESS]   [-t|--test]    [-v|--verbose]
       [-V|--version] [-w|--waitforcert SECONDS]

DESCRIPTION

       This  is  the main puppet client. Its job is to retrieve the local machine´s configuration
       from a remote server and apply it. In order to successfully communicate  with  the  remote
       server,  the  client  must  have  a certificate signed by a certificate authority that the
       server trusts; the recommended method for this, at the moment, is  to  run  a  certificate
       authority as part of the puppet server (which is the default). The client will connect and
       request a signed certificate, and will continue connecting until it receives one.

       Once the client has a signed certificate, it will retrieve its configuration and apply it.

USAGE NOTES

´puppet agent´ does its best to find a compromise between interactive use and daemon use.
Run with no arguments and no configuration, it will go into the background, attempt to get
a signed certificate, and retrieve and apply its configuration every 30 minutes.

Some flags are meant specifically for interactive use -- in particular, ´test´, ´tags´ and
´fingerprint´ are useful.

´--test´ does a single run in the foreground with verbose logging, then exits. It will
also exit if it can´t get a valid catalog. The exit code after running with ´--test´ is 0
if the catalog was successfully applied, and 1 if the run either failed or wasn´t
attempted (due to another run already in progress).

´--tags´ allows you to specify what portions of a configuration you want to apply. Puppet
elements are tagged with all of the class or definition names that contain them, and you
can use the ´tags´ flag to specify one of these names, causing only configuration elements
contained within that class or definition to be applied. This is very useful when you are
testing new configurations -- for instance, if you are just starting to manage ´ntpd´, you
would put all of the new elements into an ´ntpd´ class, and call puppet with ´--tags
ntpd´, which would only apply that small portion of the configuration during your testing,
rather than applying the whole thing.

´--fingerprint´ is a one-time flag. In this mode ´puppet agent´ will run once and display
on the console (and in the log) the current certificate (or certificate request)
fingerprint. Providing the ´--digest´ option allows to use a different digest algorithm to
generate the fingerprint. The main use is to verify that before signing a certificate
request on the master, the certificate request the master received is the same as the one
the client sent (to prevent against man-in-the-middle attacks when signing certificates).

OPTIONS

Note that any Puppet setting that´s valid in the configuration file is also a valid long
argument. For example, ´server´ is a valid setting, so you can specify ´--server
servername´ as an argument. Boolean settings translate into ´--setting´ and ´--no-setting´
pairs.

See the configuration file documentation at
https://docs.puppetlabs.com/puppet/latest/reference/configuration.html for the full list
of acceptable settings. A commented list of all settings can also be generated by running
puppet agent with ´--genconfig´.

--certname
Set the certname (unique ID) of the client. The master reads this unique
identifying string, which is usually set to the node´s fully-qualified domain name,
to determine which configurations the node will receive. Use this option to debug
setup problems or implement unusual node identification schemes. (This is a Puppet
setting, and can go in puppet.conf.)

--daemonize
Send the process into the background. This is the default. (This is a Puppet
setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´ prefix for boolean
settings on the command line.)

--no-daemonize
Do not send the process into the background. (This is a Puppet setting, and can go
in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´ prefix for boolean settings on the command
line.)

--debug
Enable full debugging.

--detailed-exitcodes
Provide extra information about the run via exit codes; only works if ´--test´ or
´--onetime´ is also specified. If enabled, ´puppet agent´ will use the following
exit codes:

0: The run succeeded with no changes or failures; the system was already in the
desired state.

1: The run failed, or wasn´t attempted due to another run already in progress.

2: The run succeeded, and some resources were changed.

4: The run succeeded, and some resources failed.

6: The run succeeded, and included both changes and failures.

--digest
Change the certificate fingerprinting digest algorithm. The default is SHA256.
Valid values depends on the version of OpenSSL installed, but will likely contain
MD5, MD2, SHA1 and SHA256.

--disable
Disable working on the local system. This puts a lock file in place, causing
´puppet agent´ not to work on the system until the lock file is removed. This is
useful if you are testing a configuration and do not want the central configuration
to override the local state until everything is tested and committed.

Disable can also take an optional message that will be reported by the ´puppet
agent´ at the next disabled run.

´puppet agent´ uses the same lock file while it is running, so no more than one
´puppet agent´ process is working at a time.

´puppet agent´ exits after executing this.

--enable
Enable working on the local system. This removes any lock file, causing ´puppet
agent´ to start managing the local system again (although it will continue to use
its normal scheduling, so it might not start for another half hour).

´puppet agent´ exits after executing this.

--fingerprint
Display the current certificate or certificate signing request fingerprint and then
exit. Use the ´--digest´ option to change the digest algorithm used.

--help Print this help message

--job-id
Attach the specified job id to the catalog request and the report used for this
agent run. This option only works when ´--onetime´ is used.

--logdest
Where to send log messages. Choose between ´syslog´ (the POSIX syslog service),
´eventlog´ (the Windows Event Log), ´console´, or the path to a log file. If
debugging or verbosity is enabled, this defaults to ´console´. Otherwise, it
defaults to ´syslog´ on POSIX systems and ´eventlog´ on Windows.

A path ending with ´.json´ will receive structured output in JSON format. The log
file will not have an ending ´]´ automatically written to it due to the appending
nature of logging. It must be appended manually to make the content valid JSON.

--masterport
The port on which to contact the puppet master. (This is a Puppet setting, and can
go in puppet.conf.)

--noop Use ´noop´ mode where the daemon runs in a no-op or dry-run mode. This is useful
for seeing what changes Puppet will make without actually executing the changes.
(This is a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´ prefix
for boolean settings on the command line.)

--onetime
Run the configuration once. Runs a single (normally daemonized) Puppet run. Useful
for interactively running puppet agent when used in conjunction with the
--no-daemonize option. (This is a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note
the special ´no-´ prefix for boolean settings on the command line.)

--sourceaddress
Set the source IP address for transactions. This defaults to automatically
selected. (This is a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf.)

--test Enable the most common options used for testing. These are ´onetime´, ´verbose´,
´no-daemonize´, ´no-usecacheonfailure´, ´detailed-exitcodes´, ´no-splay´, and
´show_diff´.

--verbose
Turn on verbose reporting.

--version
Print the puppet version number and exit.

--waitforcert
This option only matters for daemons that do not yet have certificates and it is
enabled by default, with a value of 120 (seconds). This causes ´puppet agent´ to
connect to the server every 2 minutes and ask it to sign a certificate request.
This is useful for the initial setup of a puppet client. You can turn off waiting
for certificates by specifying a time of 0. (This is a Puppet setting, and can go
in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´ prefix for boolean settings on the command
line.)

EXAMPLE

       $ puppet agent --server puppet.domain.com

DIAGNOSTICS

       Puppet agent accepts the following signals:

       SIGHUP Restart the puppet agent daemon.

       SIGINT and SIGTERM
              Shut down the puppet agent daemon.

       SIGUSR1
              Immediately retrieve and apply configurations from the puppet master.

       SIGUSR2
              Close file descriptors for log files and reopen them. Used with logrotate.

AUTHOR

       Luke Kanies

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 2011 Puppet Inc., LLC Licensed under the Apache 2.0 License