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] [--serverport PORT] [--noop]
20 [-o|--onetime] [--sourceaddress IP_ADDRESS] [-t|--test] [-v|--verbose]
21 [-V|--version] [-w|--waitforcert SECONDS]
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24 This is the main puppet client. Its job is to retrieve the local ma‐
25 chine´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. If you run it with no arguments and no configura‐
39 tion, it goes into the background, attempts to get a signed certifi‐
40 cate, and retrieves and applies its configuration every 30 minutes.
41 Some flags are meant specifically for interactive use --- in particu‐
43 lar, ´test´, ´tags´ and ´fingerprint´ are useful.
44 ´--test´ runs once in the foreground with verbose logging, then exits.
46 It also exits if it can´t get a valid catalog. --test includes the
47 ´--detailed-exitcodes´ option by default and exits with one of the fol‐
48 lowing exit codes:
49 • 0: The run succeeded with no changes or failures; the system was
51 already in the desired state.
52 • 1: The run failed, or wasn´t attempted due to another run already
54 in progress.
55 • 2: The run succeeded, and some resources were changed.
57 • 4: The run succeeded, and some resources failed.
59 • 6: The run succeeded, and included both changes and failures.
61 ´--tags´ allows you to specify what portions of a configuration you
65 want to apply. Puppet elements are tagged with all of the class or def‐
66 inition names that contain them, and you can use the ´tags´ flag to
67 specify one of these names, causing only configuration elements con‐
68 tained within that class or definition to be applied. This is very use‐
69 ful when you are testing new configurations --- for instance, if you
70 are just starting to manage ´ntpd´, you would put all of the new ele‐
71 ments into an ´ntpd´ class, and call puppet with ´--tags ntpd´, which
72 would only apply that small portion of the configuration during your
73 testing, rather than applying the whole thing.
74 ´--fingerprint´ is a one-time flag. In this mode ´puppet agent´ runs
76 once and displays on the console (and in the log) the current certifi‐
77 cate (or certificate request) fingerprint. Providing the ´--digest´ op‐
78 tion allows you to use a different digest algorithm to generate the
79 fingerprint. The main use is to verify that before signing a certifi‐
80 cate request on the master, the certificate request the master received
81 is the same as the one the client sent (to prevent against
82 man-in-the-middle attacks when signing certificates).
83 ´--skip_tags´ is a flag used to filter resources. If this is set, then
85 only resources not tagged with the specified tags will be applied. Val‐
86 ues must be comma-separated.
87
89 Note that any Puppet setting that´s valid in the configuration file is
90 also a valid long argument. For example, ´server´ is a valid setting,
91 so you can specify ´--server servername´ as an argument. Boolean set‐
92 tings accept a ´--no-´ prefix to turn off a behavior, translating into
93 ´--setting´ and ´--no-setting´ pairs, such as --daemonize and --no-dae‐
94 monize.
95 See the configuration file documentation at https://pup‐
97 pet.com/docs/puppet/latest/configuration.html for the full list of ac‐
98 ceptable settings. A commented list of all settings can also be gener‐
99 ated by running puppet agent with ´--genconfig´.
100 • --certname: Set the certname (unique ID) of the client. The master
102 reads this unique identifying string, which is usually set to the
103 node´s fully-qualified domain name, to determine which configura‐
104 tions the node will receive. Use this option to debug setup prob‐
105 lems or implement unusual node identification schemes. (This is a
106 Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf.)
107 • --daemonize: Send the process into the background. This is the de‐
109 fault. (This is a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note
110 the special ´no-´ prefix for boolean settings on the command line.)
111 • --no-daemonize: Do not send the process into the background. (This
113 is a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special
114 ´no-´ prefix for boolean settings on the command line.)
115 • --debug: Enable full debugging.
117 • --detailed-exitcodes: Provide extra information about the run via
119 exit codes; works only if ´--test´ or ´--onetime´ is also speci‐
120 fied. If enabled, ´puppet agent´ uses the following exit codes:
121 0: The run succeeded with no changes or failures; the system was
123 already in the desired state.
124 1: The run failed, or wasn´t attempted due to another run already
126 in progress.
127 2: The run succeeded, and some resources were changed.
129 4: The run succeeded, and some resources failed.
131 6: The run succeeded, and included both changes and failures.
133 • --digest: Change the certificate fingerprinting digest algorithm.
135 The default is SHA256. Valid values depends on the version of
136 OpenSSL installed, but will likely contain MD5, MD2, SHA1 and
137 SHA256.
138 • --disable: Disable working on the local system. This puts a lock
140 file in place, causing ´puppet agent´ not to work on the system un‐
141 til the lock file is removed. This is useful if you are testing a
142 configuration and do not want the central configuration to override
143 the local state until everything is tested and committed.
144 Disable can also take an optional message that will be reported by
146 the ´puppet agent´ at the next disabled run.
147 ´puppet agent´ uses the same lock file while it is running, so no
149 more than one ´puppet agent´ process is working at a time.
150 ´puppet agent´ exits after executing this.
152 • --enable: Enable working on the local system. This removes any lock
154 file, causing ´puppet agent´ to start managing the local system
155 again However, it continues to use its normal scheduling, so it
156 might not start for another half hour.
157 ´puppet agent´ exits after executing this.
159 • --evaltrace: Logs each resource as it is being evaluated. This al‐
161 lows you to interactively see exactly what is being done. (This is
162 a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´
163 prefix for boolean settings on the command line.)
164 • --fingerprint: Display the current certificate or certificate sign‐
166 ing request fingerprint and then exit. Use the ´--digest´ option to
167 change the digest algorithm used.
168 • --help: Print this help message
170 • --job-id: Attach the specified job id to the catalog request and
172 the report used for this agent run. This option only works when
173 ´--onetime´ is used. When using Puppet Enterprise this flag should
174 not be used as the orchestrator sets the job-id for you and it must
175 be unique.
176 • --logdest: Where to send log messages. Choose between ´syslog´ (the
178 POSIX syslog service), ´eventlog´ (the Windows Event Log), ´con‐
179 sole´, or the path to a log file. If debugging or verbosity is en‐
180 abled, this defaults to ´console´. Otherwise, it defaults to ´sys‐
181 log´ on POSIX systems and ´eventlog´ on Windows. Multiple destina‐
182 tions can be set using a comma separated list (eg: /path/file1,con‐
183 sole,/path/file2)"
184 A path ending with ´.json´ will receive structured output in JSON
186 format. The log file will not have an ending ´]´ automatically
187 written to it due to the appending nature of logging. It must be
188 appended manually to make the content valid JSON.
189 A path ending with ´.jsonl´ will receive structured output in JSON
191 Lines format.
192 • --masterport: The port on which to contact the Puppet Server. (This
194 is a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Deprecated in favor
195 of the ´serverport´ setting.)
196 • --noop: Use ´noop´ mode where the daemon runs in a no-op or dry-run
198 mode. This is useful for seeing what changes Puppet would make
199 without actually executing the changes. (This is a Puppet setting,
200 and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´ prefix for bool‐
201 ean settings on the command line.)
202 • --onetime: Run the configuration once. Runs a single (normally dae‐
204 monized) Puppet run. Useful for interactively running puppet agent
205 when used in conjunction with the --no-daemonize option. (This is a
206 Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´
207 prefix for boolean settings on the command line.)
208 • --serverport: The port on which to contact the Puppet Server. (This
210 is a Puppet setting, and can go in puppet.conf.)
211 • --sourceaddress: Set the source IP address for transactions. This
213 defaults to automatically selected. (This is a Puppet setting, and
214 can go in puppet.conf.)
215 • --test: Enable the most common options used for testing. These are
217 ´onetime´, ´verbose´, ´no-daemonize´, ´no-usecacheonfailure´, ´de‐
218 tailed-exitcodes´, ´no-splay´, and ´show_diff´.
219 • --trace Prints stack traces on some errors. (This is a Puppet set‐
221 ting, and can go in puppet.conf. Note the special ´no-´ prefix for
222 boolean settings on the command line.)
223 • --verbose: Turn on verbose reporting.
225 • --version: Print the puppet version number and exit.
227 • --waitforcert: This option only matters for daemons that do not yet
229 have certificates and it is enabled by default, with a value of 120
230 (seconds). This causes ´puppet agent´ to connect to the server ev‐
231 ery 2 minutes and ask it to sign a certificate request. This is
232 useful for the initial setup of a puppet client. You can turn off
233 waiting for certificates by specifying a time of 0. (This is a Pup‐
234 pet setting, and can go in puppet.conf.)
235 • --write_catalog_summary After compiling the catalog saves the re‐
237 source list and classes list to the node in the state directory
238 named classes.txt and resources.txt (This is a Puppet setting, and
239 can go in puppet.conf.)
240
244 $ puppet agent --server puppet.domain.com
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247 Puppet agent accepts the following signals:
248 SIGHUP Restart the puppet agent daemon.
250 SIGINT and SIGTERM
252 Shut down the puppet agent daemon.
253 SIGUSR1
255 Immediately retrieve and apply configurations from the puppet
256 master.
257 SIGUSR2
259 Close file descriptors for log files and reopen them. Used with
260 logrotate.
261
263 Luke Kanies
264
266 Copyright (c) 2011 Puppet Inc., LLC Licensed under the Apache 2.0 Li‐
267 cense
268Puppet, Inc. May 2022 PUPPET-AGENT(8)