PUPPET-AGENT(8) Puppet manual PUPPET-AGENT(8)NAMEpuppet-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 [MES‐
SAGE]] [--enable] [--fingerprint] [-h|--help] [-l|--logdest sys‐
log|eventlog|FILE|console] [--masterport PORT] [--noop] [-o|--onetime]
[-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 configu‐
ration 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´ or ´fingerprint´ are useful. ´test´ enables verbose log‐
ging, causes the daemon to stay in the foreground, exits if the
server´s configuration is invalid (this happens if, for instance,
you´ve left a syntax error on the server), and exits after running the
configuration once (rather than hanging around as a long-running
process).
´tags´ allows you to specify what portions of a configuration you want
to apply. Puppet elements are tagged with all of the class or defini‐
tion names that contain them, and you can use the ´tags´ flag to spec‐
ify 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 certifi‐
cate (or certificate request) fingerprint. Providing the ´--digest´
option allows to use a different digest algorithm to generate the fin‐
gerprint. 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-mid‐
dle 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 set‐
tings translate into ´--setting´ and ´--no-setting´ pairs.
See the configuration file documentation at http://docs.puppet‐
labs.com/references/stable/configuration.html for the full list of
acceptable settings. A commented list of all settings can also be gen‐
erated 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 configu‐
rations 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-´ pre‐
fix for boolean settings on the command line.)
--debug
Enable full debugging.
--detailed-exitcodes
Provide transaction information via exit codes. If this is
enabled, an exit code of ´2´ means there were changes, an exit
code of ´4´ means there were failures during the transaction,
and an exit code of ´6´ means there were both changes and fail‐
ures.
--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 over‐
ride 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
--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 ´]´ automati‐
cally 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 Pup‐
pet 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 set‐
ting, 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.)
--test Enable the most common options used for testing. These are ´one‐
time´, ´verbose´, ´ignorecache´, ´no-daemonize´, ´no-usecacheon‐
failure´, ´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 cer‐
tificates 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 Labs, LLC Licensed under the Apache 2.0
License
Puppet Labs, LLC May 2015 PUPPET-AGENT(8)
