1PUPPET-AGENT(8) Puppet manual PUPPET-AGENT(8)
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6 puppet-agent - The puppet agent daemon
7
9 Retrieves the client configuration from the puppet master and applies
10 it to the local host.
11 This service may be run as a daemon, run periodically using cron (or
13 something similar), or run interactively for testing purposes.
14
16 puppet agent [--certname NAME] [-D|--daemonize|--no-daemonize]
17 [-d|--debug] [--detailed-exitcodes] [--digest DIGEST] [--disable [MES‐
18 SAGE]] [--enable] [--fingerprint] [-h|--help] [-l|--logdest sys‐
19 log|eventlog|ABS FILEPATH|console] [--masterport PORT] [--noop]
20 [-o|--onetime] [--sourceaddress IP_ADDRESS] [-t|--test] [-v|--verbose]
21 [-V|--version] [-w|--waitforcert SECONDS]
22
24 This is the main puppet client. Its job is to retrieve the local
25 machine´s configuration from a remote server and apply it. In order to
26 successfully communicate with the remote server, the client must have a
27 certificate signed by a certificate authority that the server trusts;
28 the recommended method for this, at the moment, is to run a certificate
29 authority as part of the puppet server (which is the default). The
30 client will connect and request a signed certificate, and will continue
31 connecting until it receives one.
32 Once the client has a signed certificate, it will retrieve its configu‐
34 ration and apply it.
35
37 ´puppet agent´ does its best to find a compromise between interactive
38 use and daemon use. Run with no arguments and no configuration, it will
39 go into the background, attempt to get a signed certificate, and
40 retrieve and apply its configuration every 30 minutes.
41 Some flags are meant specifically for interactive use -- in particular,
43 ´test´, ´tags´ and ´fingerprint´ are useful.
44 ´--test´ does a single run in the foreground with verbose logging, then
46 exits. It will also exit if it can´t get a valid catalog. The exit code
47 after running with ´--test´ is 0 if the catalog was successfully
48 applied, and 1 if the run either failed or wasn´t attempted (due to
49 another run already in progress).
50 ´--tags´ allows you to specify what portions of a configuration you
52 want to apply. Puppet elements are tagged with all of the class or def‐
53 inition names that contain them, and you can use the ´tags´ flag to
54 specify one of these names, causing only configuration elements con‐
55 tained within that class or definition to be applied. This is very use‐
56 ful when you are testing new configurations -- for instance, if you are
57 just starting to manage ´ntpd´, you would put all of the new elements
58 into an ´ntpd´ class, and call puppet with ´--tags ntpd´, which would
59 only apply that small portion of the configuration during your testing,
60 rather than applying the whole thing.
61 ´--fingerprint´ is a one-time flag. In this mode ´puppet agent´ will
63 run once and display on the console (and in the log) the current cer‐
64 tificate (or certificate request) fingerprint. Providing the ´--digest´
65 option allows to use a different digest algorithm to generate the fin‐
66 gerprint. The main use is to verify that before signing a certificate
67 request on the master, the certificate request the master received is
68 the same as the one the client sent (to prevent against man-in-the-mid‐
69 dle attacks when signing certificates).
70
72 Note that any Puppet setting that´s valid in the configuration file is
73 also a valid long argument. For example, ´server´ is a valid setting,
74 so you can specify ´--server servername´ as an argument. Boolean set‐
75 tings translate into ´--setting´ and ´--no-setting´ pairs.
76 See the configuration file documentation at https://pup‐
78 pet.com/docs/puppet/latest/configuration.html for the full list of
79 acceptable settings. A commented list of all settings can also be gen‐
80 erated by running puppet agent with ´--genconfig´.
81 --certname
83 Set the certname (unique ID) of the client. The master reads
84 this unique identifying string, which is usually set to the
85 node´s fully-qualified domain name, to determine which configu‐
86 rations the node will receive. Use this option to debug setup
87 problems or implement unusual node identification schemes. (This
88 is a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf.)
89 --daemonize
91 Send the process into the background. This is the default. (This
92 is a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special
93 ´no-´ prefix for boolean settings on the command line.)
94 --no-daemonize
96 Do not send the process into the background. (This is a Puppet
97 setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´ pre‐
98 fix for boolean settings on the command line.)
99 --debug
101 Enable full debugging.
102 --detailed-exitcodes
104 Provide extra information about the run via exit codes; only
105 works if ´--test´ or ´--onetime´ is also specified. If enabled,
106 ´puppet agent´ will use the following exit codes:
107 0: The run succeeded with no changes or failures; the system was
109 already in the desired state.
110 1: The run failed, or wasn´t attempted due to another run
112 already in progress.
113 2: The run succeeded, and some resources were changed.
115 4: The run succeeded, and some resources failed.
117 6: The run succeeded, and included both changes and failures.
119 --digest
121 Change the certificate fingerprinting digest algorithm. The
122 default is SHA256. Valid values depends on the version of
123 OpenSSL installed, but will likely contain MD5, MD2, SHA1 and
124 SHA256.
125 --disable
127 Disable working on the local system. This puts a lock file in
128 place, causing ´puppet agent´ not to work on the system until
129 the lock file is removed. This is useful if you are testing a
130 configuration and do not want the central configuration to over‐
131 ride the local state until everything is tested and committed.
132 Disable can also take an optional message that will be reported
134 by the ´puppet agent´ at the next disabled run.
135 ´puppet agent´ uses the same lock file while it is running, so
137 no more than one ´puppet agent´ process is working at a time.
138 ´puppet agent´ exits after executing this.
140 --enable
142 Enable working on the local system. This removes any lock file,
143 causing ´puppet agent´ to start managing the local system again
144 (although it will continue to use its normal scheduling, so it
145 might not start for another half hour).
146 ´puppet agent´ exits after executing this.
148 --fingerprint
150 Display the current certificate or certificate signing request
151 fingerprint and then exit. Use the ´--digest´ option to change
152 the digest algorithm used.
153 --help Print this help message
155 --job-id
157 Attach the specified job id to the catalog request and the
158 report used for this agent run. This option only works when
159 ´--onetime´ is used.
160 --logdest
162 Where to send log messages. Choose between ´syslog´ (the POSIX
163 syslog service), ´eventlog´ (the Windows Event Log), ´console´,
164 or the path to a log file. If debugging or verbosity is enabled,
165 this defaults to ´console´. Otherwise, it defaults to ´syslog´
166 on POSIX systems and ´eventlog´ on Windows.
167 A path ending with ´.json´ will receive structured output in
169 JSON format. The log file will not have an ending ´]´ automati‐
170 cally written to it due to the appending nature of logging. It
171 must be appended manually to make the content valid JSON.
172 --masterport
174 The port on which to contact the puppet master. (This is a Pup‐
175 pet setting, and can go in puppet.conf.)
176 --noop Use ´noop´ mode where the daemon runs in a no-op or dry-run
178 mode. This is useful for seeing what changes Puppet will make
179 without actually executing the changes. (This is a Puppet set‐
180 ting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´ prefix
181 for boolean settings on the command line.)
182 --onetime
184 Run the configuration once. Runs a single (normally daemonized)
185 Puppet run. Useful for interactively running puppet agent when
186 used in conjunction with the --no-daemonize option. (This is a
187 Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special
188 ´no-´ prefix for boolean settings on the command line.)
189 --sourceaddress
191 Set the source IP address for transactions. This defaults to
192 automatically selected. (This is a Puppet setting, and can go in
193 puppet.conf.)
194 --test Enable the most common options used for testing. These are ´one‐
196 time´, ´verbose´, ´no-daemonize´, ´no-usecacheonfailure´,
197 ´detailed-exitcodes´, ´no-splay´, and ´show_diff´.
198 --verbose
200 Turn on verbose reporting.
201 --version
203 Print the puppet version number and exit.
204 --waitforcert
206 This option only matters for daemons that do not yet have cer‐
207 tificates and it is enabled by default, with a value of 120
208 (seconds). This causes ´puppet agent´ to connect to the server
209 every 2 minutes and ask it to sign a certificate request. This
210 is useful for the initial setup of a puppet client. You can turn
211 off waiting for certificates by specifying a time of 0. (This is
212 a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special
213 ´no-´ prefix for boolean settings on the command line.)
214
216 $ puppet agent --server puppet.domain.com
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219 Puppet agent accepts the following signals:
220 SIGHUP Restart the puppet agent daemon.
222 SIGINT and SIGTERM
224 Shut down the puppet agent daemon.
225 SIGUSR1
227 Immediately retrieve and apply configurations from the puppet
228 master.
229 SIGUSR2
231 Close file descriptors for log files and reopen them. Used with
232 logrotate.
233
235 Luke Kanies
236
238 Copyright (c) 2011 Puppet Inc., LLC Licensed under the Apache 2.0
239 License
240Puppet, Inc. April 2020 PUPPET-AGENT(8)