Configuration Reference

This page is autogenerated; any changes will get overwritten (last generated on Thu Feb 24 17:21:34 -0800 2011)

Specifying Configuration Parameters

On The Command-Line

Every Puppet executable (with the exception of puppetdoc) accepts all of the parameters below, but not all of the arguments make sense for every executable.

I have tried to be as thorough as possible in the descriptions of the arguments, so it should be obvious whether an argument is appropriate or not.

These parameters can be supplied to the executables either as command-line options or in the configuration file. For instance, the command-line invocation below would set the configuration directory to /private/puppet:

$ puppetd --confdir=/private/puppet

Note that boolean options are turned on and off with a slightly different syntax on the command line:

$ puppetd --storeconfigs

$ puppetd --no-storeconfigs

The invocations above will enable and disable, respectively, the storage of the client configuration.

Configuration Files

As mentioned above, the configuration parameters can also be stored in a configuration file, located in the configuration directory. As root, the default configuration directory is /etc/puppet, and as a regular user, the default configuration directory is ~user/.puppet. As of 0.23.0, all executables look for puppet.conf in their configuration directory (although they previously looked for separate files). For example, puppet.conf is located at /etc/puppet/puppet.conf as root and ~user/.puppet/puppet.conf as a regular user by default.

All executables will set any parameters set within the main section, while each executable will also look for a section named for the executable and load those parameters. For example, puppetd will look for a section named puppetd, and puppetmasterd looks for a section named puppetmasterd. This allows you to use a single configuration file to customize the settings for all of your executables.

File Format

The file follows INI-style formatting. Here is an example of a very simple puppet.conf file:

[main]
    confdir = /private/puppet
    storeconfigs = true

Note that boolean parameters must be explicitly specified as true or false as seen above.

If you need to change file parameters (e.g., reset the mode or owner), do so within curly braces on the same line:

[main]
    myfile = /tmp/whatever {owner = root, mode = 644}

If you're starting out with a fresh configuration, you may wish to let the executable generate a template configuration file for you by invoking the executable in question with the --genconfig command. The executable will print a template configuration to standard output, which can be redirected to a file like so:

$ puppetd --genconfig > /etc/puppet/puppet.conf

Note that this invocation will replace the contents of any pre-existing puppet.conf file, so make a backup of your present config if it contains valuable information.

Like the --genconfig argument, the executables also accept a --genmanifest argument, which will generate a manifest that can be used to manage all of Puppet's directories and files and prints it to standard output. This can likewise be redirected to a file:

$ puppetd --genmanifest > /etc/puppet/manifests/site.pp

Puppet can also create user and group accounts for itself (one puppet group and one puppet user) if it is invoked as root with the --mkusers argument:

$ puppetd --mkusers

Signals

The puppetd and puppetmasterd executables catch some signals for special handling. Both daemons catch (SIGHUP), which forces the server to restart tself. Predictably, interrupt and terminate (SIGINT and SIGTERM) will shut down the server, whether it be an instance of puppetd or puppetmasterd.

Sending the SIGUSR1 signal to an instance of puppetd will cause it to immediately begin a new configuration transaction with the server. This signal has no effect on puppetmasterd.

Configuration Parameter Reference

Below is a list of all documented parameters. Not all of them are valid with all Puppet executables, but the executables will ignore any inappropriate values.

async_storeconfigs

Whether to use a queueing system to provide asynchronous database integration. Requires that puppetqd be running and that 'PSON' support for ruby be installed.

• Default: false

authconfig

The configuration file that defines the rights to the different namespaces and methods. This can be used as a coarse-grained authorization system for both puppetd and puppetmasterd.

• Default: $confdir/namespaceauth.conf

autoflush

Whether log files should always flush to disk.

• Default: false

autosign

Whether to enable autosign. Valid values are true (which autosigns any key request, and is a very bad idea), false (which never autosigns any key request), and the path to a file, which uses that configuration file to determine which keys to sign.

• Default: $confdir/autosign.conf

bindaddress

The address a listening server should bind to. Mongrel servers default to 127.0.0.1 and WEBrick defaults to 0.0.0.0.

bucketdir

Where FileBucket files are stored.

• Default: $vardir/bucket

ca

Wether the master should function as a certificate authority.

• Default: true

ca_days

How long a certificate should be valid. This parameter is deprecated, use ca_ttl instead

ca_md

The type of hash used in certificates.

• Default: md5

ca_port

The port to use for the certificate authority.

• Default: $masterport

ca_server

The server to use for certificate authority requests. It's a separate server because it cannot and does not need to horizontally scale.

• Default: $server

ca_ttl

The default TTL for new certificates; valid values must be an integer, optionally followed by one of the units 'y' (years of 365 days), 'd' (days), 'h' (hours), or 's' (seconds). The unit defaults to seconds. If this parameter is set, ca_days is ignored. Examples are '3600' (one hour) and '1825d', which is the same as '5y' (5 years)

• Default: 5y

cacert

The CA certificate.

• Default: $cadir/ca_crt.pem

cacrl

The certificate revocation list (CRL) for the CA. Will be used if present but otherwise ignored.

• Default: $cadir/ca_crl.pem

cadir

The root directory for the certificate authority.

• Default: $ssldir/ca

cakey

The CA private key.

• Default: $cadir/ca_key.pem

capass

Where the CA stores the password for the private key

• Default: $caprivatedir/ca.pass

caprivatedir

Where the CA stores private certificate information.

• Default: $cadir/private

capub

The CA public key.

• Default: $cadir/ca_pub.pem

casesensitive

Whether matching in case statements and selectors should be case-sensitive. Case insensitivity is handled by downcasing all values before comparison.

• Default: false

catalog_format

(Deprecated for 'preferred_serialization_format') What format to use to dump the catalog. Only supports 'marshal' and 'yaml'. Only matters on the client, since it asks the server for a specific format.

catalog_terminus

Where to get node catalogs. This is useful to change if, for instance, you'd like to pre-compile catalogs and store them in memcached or some other easily-accessed store.

• Default: compiler

cert_inventory

A Complete listing of all certificates

• Default: $cadir/inventory.txt

certdir

The certificate directory.

• Default: $ssldir/certs

certdnsnames

The DNS names on the Server certificate as a colon-separated list. If it's anything other than an empty string, it will be used as an alias in the created certificate. By default, only the server gets an alias set up, and only for 'puppet'.

certificate_revocation

Whether certificate revocation should be supported by downloading a Certificate Revocation List (CRL) to all clients. If enabled, CA chaining will almost definitely not work.

• Default: true

certname

The name to use when handling certificates. Defaults to the fully qualified domain name.

• Default: (the system's fully qualified domain name)

classfile

The file in which puppetd stores a list of the classes associated with the retrieved configuration. Can be loaded in the separate puppet executable using the --loadclasses option.

• Default: $statedir/classes.txt

clientbucketdir

Where FileBucket files are stored locally.

• Default: $vardir/clientbucket

clientyamldir

The directory in which client-side YAML data is stored.

• Default: $vardir/client_yaml

code

Code to parse directly. This is essentially only used by puppet, and should only be set if you're writing your own Puppet executable

color

Whether to use colors when logging to the console. Valid values are ansi (equivalent to true), html (mostly used during testing with TextMate), and false, which produces no color.

• Default: ansi

confdir

The main Puppet configuration directory. The default for this parameter is calculated based on the user. If the process is runnig as root or the user that puppetmasterd is supposed to run as, it defaults to a system directory, but if it's running as any other user, it defaults to being in ~.

• Default: /etc/puppet

config

The configuration file for puppetdoc.

• Default: $confdir/puppet.conf

config_version

How to determine the configuration version. By default, it will be the time that the configuration is parsed, but you can provide a shell script to override how the version is determined. The output of this script will be added to every log message in the reports, allowing you to correlate changes on your hosts to the source version on the server.

configprint

Print the value of a specific configuration parameter. If a parameter is provided for this, then the value is printed and puppet exits. Comma-separate multiple values. For a list of all values, specify 'all'. This feature is only available in Puppet versions higher than 0.18.4.

configtimeout

How long the client should wait for the configuration to be retrieved before considering it a failure. This can help reduce flapping if too many clients contact the server at one time.

• Default: 120

csrdir

Where the CA stores certificate requests

• Default: $cadir/requests

daemonize

Send the process into the background. This is the default.

• Default: true

dbadapter

The type of database to use.

• Default: sqlite3

dblocation

The database cache for client configurations. Used for querying within the language.

• Default: $statedir/clientconfigs.sqlite3

dbmigrate

Whether to automatically migrate the database.

• Default: false

dbname

The name of the database to use.

• Default: puppet

dbpassword

The database password for caching. Only used when networked databases are used.

• Default: puppet

dbserver

The database server for caching. Only used when networked databases are used.

• Default: localhost

dbsocket

The database socket location. Only used when networked databases are used. Will be ignored if the value is an empty string.

dbuser

The database user for caching. Only used when networked databases are used.

• Default: puppet

diff

Which diff command to use when printing differences between files.

• Default: diff

diff_args

Which arguments to pass to the diff command when printing differences between files.

• Default: -u

downcasefacts

Whether facts should be made all lowercase when sent to the server.

• Default: false

dynamicfacts

Facts that are dynamic; these facts will be ignored when deciding whether changed facts should result in a recompile. Multiple facts should be comma-separated.

• Default: memorysize,memoryfree,swapsize,swapfree

environment

The environment Puppet is running in. For clients (e.g., puppetd) this determines the environment itself, which is used to find modules and much more. For servers (i.e., puppetmasterd) this provides the default environment for nodes we know nothing about.

• Default: production

evaltrace

Whether each resource should log when it is being evaluated. This allows you to interactively see exactly what is being done.

• Default: false

external_nodes

An external command that can produce node information. The output must be a YAML dump of a hash, and that hash must have one or both of classes and parameters, where classes is an array and parameters is a hash. For unknown nodes, the commands should exit with a non-zero exit code. This command makes it straightforward to store your node mapping information in other data sources like databases.

• Default: none

factdest

Where Puppet should store facts that it pulls down from the central server.

• Default: $vardir/facts/

factpath

Where Puppet should look for facts. Multiple directories should be colon-separated, like normal PATH variables.

• Default: $vardir/lib/facter/:$vardir/facts

factsignore

What files to ignore when pulling down facts.

• Default: .svn CVS

factsource

From where to retrieve facts. The standard Puppet file type is used for retrieval, so anything that is a valid file source can be used here.

• Default: puppet://$server/facts/

factsync

Whether facts should be synced with the central server.

• Default: false

fileserverconfig

Where the fileserver configuration is stored.

• Default: $confdir/fileserver.conf

filetimeout

The minimum time to wait (in seconds) between checking for updates in configuration files. This timeout determines how quickly Puppet checks whether a file (such as manifests or templates) has changed on disk.

• Default: 15

genconfig

Whether to just print a configuration to stdout and exit. Only makes sense when used interactively. Takes into account arguments specified on the CLI.

• Default: false

genmanifest

Whether to just print a manifest to stdout and exit. Only makes sense when used interactively. Takes into account arguments specified on the CLI.

• Default: false

graph

Whether to create dot graph files for the different configuration graphs. These dot files can be interpreted by tools like OmniGraffle or dot (which is part of ImageMagick).

• Default: false

graphdir

Where to store dot-outputted graphs.

• Default: $statedir/graphs

group

The group puppetmasterd should run as.

• Default: puppet

hostcert

Where individual hosts store and look for their certificates.

• Default: $certdir/$certname.pem

hostcrl

Where the host's certificate revocation list can be found. This is distinct from the certificate authority's CRL.

• Default: $ssldir/crl.pem

hostcsr

Where individual hosts store and look for their certificate requests.

• Default: $ssldir/csr_$certname.pem

hostprivkey

Where individual hosts store and look for their private key.

• Default: $privatekeydir/$certname.pem

hostpubkey

Where individual hosts store and look for their public key.

• Default: $publickeydir/$certname.pem

http_proxy_host

The HTTP proxy host to use for outgoing connections. Note: You may need to use a FQDN for the server hostname when using a proxy.

• Default: none

http_proxy_port

The HTTP proxy port to use for outgoing connections

• Default: 3128

httplog

Where the puppetd web server logs.

• Default: $logdir/http.log

ignorecache

Ignore cache and always recompile the configuration. This is useful for testing new configurations, where the local cache may in fact be stale even if the timestamps are up to date - if the facts change or if the server changes.

• Default: false

ignoreimport

A parameter that can be used in commit hooks, since it enables you to parse-check a single file rather than requiring that all files exist.

• Default: false

ignoreschedules

Boolean; whether puppetd should ignore schedules. This is useful for initial puppetd runs.

• Default: false

keylength

The bit length of keys.

• Default: 1024

ldapattrs

The LDAP attributes to include when querying LDAP for nodes. All returned attributes are set as variables in the top-level scope. Multiple values should be comma-separated. The value 'all' returns all attributes.

• Default: all

ldapbase

The search base for LDAP searches. It's impossible to provide a meaningful default here, although the LDAP libraries might have one already set. Generally, it should be the 'ou=Hosts' branch under your main directory.

ldapclassattrs

The LDAP attributes to use to define Puppet classes. Values should be comma-separated.

• Default: puppetclass

ldapnodes

Whether to search for node configurations in LDAP. See http://projects.puppetlabs.com/projects/puppet/wiki/Ldap_Nodes for more information.

• Default: false

ldapparentattr

The attribute to use to define the parent node.

• Default: parentnode

ldappassword

The password to use to connect to LDAP.

ldapport

The LDAP port. Only used if ldapnodes is enabled.

• Default: 389

ldapserver

The LDAP server. Only used if ldapnodes is enabled.

• Default: ldap

ldapssl

Whether SSL should be used when searching for nodes. Defaults to false because SSL usually requires certificates to be set up on the client side.

• Default: false

ldapstackedattrs

The LDAP attributes that should be stacked to arrays by adding the values in all hierarchy elements of the tree. Values should be comma-separated.

• Default: puppetvar

ldapstring

The search string used to find an LDAP node.

• Default: (&(objectclass=puppetClient)(cn=%s))

ldaptls

Whether TLS should be used when searching for nodes. Defaults to false because TLS usually requires certificates to be set up on the client side.

• Default: false

ldapuser

The user to use to connect to LDAP. Must be specified as a full DN.

lexical

Whether to use lexical scoping (vs. dynamic).

• Default: false

libdir

An extra search path for Puppet. This is only useful for those files that Puppet will load on demand, and is only guaranteed to work for those cases. In fact, the autoload mechanism is responsible for making sure this directory is in Ruby's search path

• Default: $vardir/lib

listen

Whether puppetd should listen for connections. If this is true, then by default only the runner server is started, which allows remote authorized and authenticated nodes to connect and trigger puppetd runs.

• Default: false

localcacert

Where each client stores the CA certificate.

• Default: $certdir/ca.pem

localconfig

Where puppetd caches the local configuration. An extension indicating the cache format is added automatically.

• Default: $statedir/localconfig

logdir

The Puppet log directory.

• Default: $vardir/log

manage_internal_file_permissions

Whether Puppet should manage the owner, group, and mode of files it uses internally

• Default: true

manifest

The entry-point manifest for puppetmasterd.

• Default: $manifestdir/site.pp

manifestdir

Where puppetmasterd looks for its manifests.

• Default: $confdir/manifests

masterhttplog

Where the puppetmasterd web server logs.

• Default: $logdir/masterhttp.log

masterlog

Where puppetmasterd logs. This is generally not used, since syslog is the default log destination.

• Default: $logdir/puppetmaster.log

masterport

Which port puppetmasterd listens on.

• Default: 8140

maximum_uid

The maximum allowed UID. Some platforms use negative UIDs but then ship with tools that do not know how to handle signed ints, so the UIDs show up as huge numbers that can then not be fed back into the system. This is a hackish way to fail in a slightly more useful way when that happens.

• Default: 4294967290

mkusers

Whether to create the necessary user and group that puppetd will run as.

• Default: false

modulepath

The search path for modules as a colon-separated list of directories.

• Default: $confdir/modules:/usr/share/puppet/modules

name

The name of the service, if we are running as one. The default is essentially $0 without the path or .rb.

• Default: puppetdoc

node_name

How the puppetmaster determines the client's identity and sets the 'hostname', 'fqdn' and 'domain' facts for use in the manifest, in particular for determining which 'node' statement applies to the client. Possible values are 'cert' (use the subject's CN in the client's certificate) and 'facter' (use the hostname that the client reported in its facts)

• Default: cert

node_terminus

Where to find information about nodes.

• Default: plain

noop

Whether puppetd should be run in noop mode.

• Default: false

paramcheck

Whether to validate parameters during parsing.

• Default: true

parseonly

Just check the syntax of the manifests.

• Default: false

passfile

Where puppetd stores the password for its private key. Generally unused.

• Default: $privatedir/password

path

The shell search path. Defaults to whatever is inherited from the parent process.

• Default: none

pidfile

The pid file

• Default: $rundir/$name.pid

plugindest

Where Puppet should store plugins that it pulls down from the central server.

• Default: $libdir

pluginsignore

What files to ignore when pulling down plugins.

• Default: .svn CVS .git

pluginsource

From where to retrieve plugins. The standard Puppet file type is used for retrieval, so anything that is a valid file source can be used here.

• Default: puppet://$server/plugins

pluginsync

Whether plugins should be synced with the central server.

• Default: false

postrun_command

A command to run after every agent run. If this command returns a non-zero return code, the entire Puppet run will be considered to have failed, even though it might have performed work during the normal run.

preferred_serialization_format

The preferred means of serializing ruby instances for passing over the wire. This won't guarantee that all instances will be serialized using this method, since not all classes can be guaranteed to support this format, but it will be used for all classes that support it.

• Default: pson

prerun_command

A command to run before every agent run. If this command returns a non-zero return code, the entire Puppet run will fail.

privatedir

Where the client stores private certificate information.

• Default: $ssldir/private

privatekeydir

The private key directory.

• Default: $ssldir/private_keys

publickeydir

The public key directory.

• Default: $ssldir/public_keys

puppetdlockfile

A lock file to temporarily stop puppetd from doing anything.

• Default: $statedir/puppetdlock

puppetdlog

The log file for puppetd. This is generally not used.

• Default: $logdir/puppetd.log

puppetport

Which port puppetd listens on.

• Default: 8139

queue_source

Which type of queue to use for asynchronous processing. If your stomp server requires authentication, you can include it in the URI as long as your stomp client library is at least 1.1.1

• Default: stomp://localhost:61613/

queue_type

Which type of queue to use for asynchronous processing.

• Default: stomp

rails_loglevel

The log level for Rails connections. The value must be a valid log level within Rails. Production environments normally use info and other environments normally use debug.

• Default: info

railslog

Where Rails-specific logs are sent

• Default: $logdir/rails.log

report

Whether to send reports after every transaction.

• Default: false

report_port

The port to communicate with the report_server.

• Default: $masterport

report_server

The server to which to send transaction reports.

• Default: $server

reportdir

The directory in which to store reports received from the client. Each client gets a separate subdirectory.

• Default: $vardir/reports

reportfrom

The 'from' email address for the reports.

• Default: report@(the system's fully qualified domain name)

reports

The list of reports to generate. All reports are looked for in puppet/reports/<name>.rb, and multiple report names should be comma-separated (whitespace is okay).

• Default: store

reportserver

(Deprecated for 'report_server') The server to which to send transaction reports.

• Default: $server

req_bits

The bit length of the certificates.

• Default: 2048

requestdir

Where host certificate requests are stored.

• Default: $ssldir/certificate_requests

rest_authconfig

The configuration file that defines the rights to the different rest indirections. This can be used as a fine-grained authorization system for puppetmasterd.

• Default: $confdir/auth.conf

rrddir

The directory where RRD database files are stored. Directories for each reporting host will be created under this directory.

• Default: $vardir/rrd

rrdinterval

How often RRD should expect data. This should match how often the hosts report back to the server.

• Default: $runinterval

rundir

Where Puppet PID files are kept.

• Default: $vardir/run

runinterval

How often puppetd applies the client configuration; in seconds.

• Default: 1800

sendmail

Where to find the sendmail binary with which to send email.

• Default: /usr/sbin/sendmail

serial

Where the serial number for certificates is stored.

• Default: $cadir/serial

server

The server to which server puppetd should connect

• Default: puppet

servertype

The type of server to use. Currently supported options are webrick and mongrel. If you use mongrel, you will need a proxy in front of the process or processes, since Mongrel cannot speak SSL.

• Default: webrick

show_diff

Whether to print a contextual diff when files are being replaced. The diff is printed on stdout, so this option is meaningless unless you are running Puppet interactively. This feature currently requires the diff/lcs Ruby library.

• Default: false

signeddir

Where the CA stores signed certificates.

• Default: $cadir/signed

smtpserver

The server through which to send email reports.

• Default: none

splay

Whether to sleep for a pseudo-random (but consistent) amount of time before a run.

• Default: false

splaylimit

The maximum time to delay before runs. Defaults to being the same as the run interval.

• Default: $runinterval

ssl_client_header

The header containing an authenticated client's SSL DN. Only used with Mongrel. This header must be set by the proxy to the authenticated client's SSL DN (e.g., /CN=puppet.puppetlabs.com). See http://docs.puppetlabs.com/guides/mongrel.html for more information.

• Default: HTTP_X_CLIENT_DN

ssl_client_verify_header

The header containing the status message of the client verification. Only used with Mongrel. This header must be set by the proxy to 'SUCCESS' if the client successfully authenticated, and anything else otherwise. See http://docs.puppetlabs.com/guides/mongrel.html for more information.

• Default: HTTP_X_CLIENT_VERIFY

ssldir

Where SSL certificates are kept.

• Default: $confdir/ssl

statedir

The directory where Puppet state is stored. Generally, this directory can be removed without causing harm (although it might result in spurious service restarts).

• Default: $vardir/state

statefile

Where puppetd and puppetmasterd store state associated with the running configuration. In the case of puppetmasterd, this file reflects the state discovered through interacting with clients.

• Default: $statedir/state.yaml

storeconfigs

Whether to store each client's configuration. This requires ActiveRecord from Ruby on Rails.

• Default: false

strict_hostname_checking

Whether to only search for the complete hostname as it is in the certificate when searching for node information in the catalogs.

• Default: false

summarize

Whether to print a transaction summary.

• Default: false

syslogfacility

What syslog facility to use when logging to syslog. Syslog has a fixed list of valid facilities, and you must choose one of those; you cannot just make one up.

• Default: daemon

tagmap

The mapping between reporting tags and email addresses.

• Default: $confdir/tagmail.conf

tags

Tags to use to find resources. If this is set, then only resources tagged with the specified tags will be applied. Values must be comma-separated.

templatedir

Where Puppet looks for template files. Can be a list of colon-seperated directories.

• Default: $vardir/templates

thin_storeconfigs

Boolean; wether storeconfigs store in the database only the facts and exported resources. If true, then storeconfigs performance will be higher and still allow exported/collected resources, but other usage external to Puppet might not work

• Default: false

trace

Whether to print stack traces on some errors

• Default: false

typecheck

Whether to validate types during parsing.

• Default: true

use_cached_catalog

Whether to only use the cached catalog rather than compiling a new catalog on every run. Puppet can be run with this enabled by default and then selectively disabled when a recompile is desired.

• Default: false

usecacheonfailure

Whether to use the cached configuration when the remote configuration will not compile. This option is useful for testing new configurations, where you want to fix the broken configuration rather than reverting to a known-good one.

• Default: true

user

The user puppetmasterd should run as.

• Default: puppet

vardir

Where Puppet stores dynamic and growing data. The default for this parameter is calculated specially, like confdir.

• Default: /var/lib/puppet

yamldir

The directory in which YAML data is stored, usually in a subdirectory.

• Default: $vardir/yaml

zlib

Boolean; whether to use the zlib library

• Default: true

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This page autogenerated on Thu Feb 24 17:21:34 -0800 2011