Puppet users - May 2009 - Using custom facts for the first time

Hi,
I''m attempting to create a custom fact to tell me the day of the week (
to
be used as a file suffix for vmware snapshots). I''ve followed the wiki
which
advises deploying facts via modules for releases >0.24. As I understand this
means :-

   1. creating a plugins/facter directory under an existing (or new module)
   2. dropping in your ruby based facter (.rb) script to that directory
   3.  adding the following to /etc/puppet/puppet.conf on the master

[main]
pluginsync = true
factpath = $vardir/lib/facter

Aftre this things get a bit hazy for me. The Adding Facts wiki page
http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/AddingFacts talks about :-
>> Create a directory called facter/ somewhere, and set the environment
variable $RUBYLIB to its parent. You can then run facter, and it will import
your code:
>> host:~$ mkdir -p ~/lib/ruby/facter ; export RUBYLIB=~/lib/ruby
>> host:/tmp$ cp /path/to/hardware_platform.rb $RUBYLIB/facter
>> host:/tmp$ facter hardware_platform
>> SUNW,Sun-Blade-1500
Do I need to do this or is this deprecated with modules? Also, what does the
factpath do? Does that need to exist on master and clients. The final step
is to run puppetd with --factsync on (I guess) a client. On mine it returns
an error

# puppetd -vt --factsync
info: Retrieving facts
err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts]: Failed to generate additional resources
during transaction: Fileserver module ''facts'' not mounted

In short, as you can probably tell, I don''t really know what
I''m doing so
any help would be great

Cheers
Paul
-- 
Paul Matthews
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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paul matthews wrote:
> Hi,
> I''m attempting to create a custom fact to tell me the day of the
week
> ( to be used as a file suffix for vmware snapshots). I''ve followed
the
> wiki which advises deploying facts via modules for releases >0.24. As 
> I understand this means :-
>
>    1. creating a plugins/facter directory under an existing (or new
>       module)
>    2. dropping in your ruby based facter (.rb) script to that directory
>    3.  adding the following to /etc/puppet/puppet.conf on the master
>
> [main]
> pluginsync = true
> factpath = $vardir/lib/facter
>
> Aftre this things get a bit hazy for me. The Adding Facts wiki page 
> http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/AddingFacts talks about :-
>
> >> Create a directory called facter/ somewhere, and set the 
> environment variable $RUBYLIB to its parent. You can then run facter, 
> and it will import your code:
>
> >> host:~$ mkdir -p ~/lib/ruby/facter ; export RUBYLIB=~/lib/ruby
> >> host:/tmp$ cp /path/to/hardware_platform.rb $RUBYLIB/facter
> >> host:/tmp$ facter hardware_platform
> >> SUNW,Sun-Blade-1500
>
This is to test your scripts , its nothing related to custom facts 
distribution per se.
> Do I need to do this or is this deprecated with modules? Also, what 
> does the factpath do? Does that need to exist on master and clients. 
> The final step is to run puppetd with --factsync on (I guess) a 
> client. On mine it returns an error
>
> # puppetd -vt --factsync
> info: Retrieving facts
> err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts]: Failed to generate additional 
> resources during transaction: Fileserver module ''facts''
not mounted
>
Did you configure you fileserver.conf  on puppetmaster for "facts" 
module i.e did you add following in your fileserver.conf ?

[facts]
   path /var/lib/puppet/facts

here "/var/lib/puppet/facts" is your path to "facts" file
server module
on  puppetmaster where you will put your custom scripts that will sync 
to puppet client  and gets distributed to $factdest.  factpath is  the  
option to puppet which  tells where to look for the facts and by 
default  this is set as same as $factdest .
> In short, as you can probably tell, I don''t really know what
I''m doing
> so any help would be great
>
> Cheers
> Paul
> -- 
> Paul Matthews
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >

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Superb, thanks for that. I think my confusion was missing the point that you
need a specific module for facts pointed to by factpath  rather than tacking
on a plugins/facter directory under an existing module

2009/5/28 Saurabh Verma <nitw.saurabh@gmail.com>
>
> paul matthews wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I''m attempting to create a custom fact to tell me the day of
the week
> > ( to be used as a file suffix for vmware snapshots). I''ve
followed the
> > wiki which advises deploying facts via modules for releases >0.24.
As
> > I understand this means :-
> >
> >    1. creating a plugins/facter directory under an existing (or new
> >       module)
> >    2. dropping in your ruby based facter (.rb) script to that
directory
> >    3.  adding the following to /etc/puppet/puppet.conf on the master
> >
> > [main]
> > pluginsync = true
> > factpath = $vardir/lib/facter
> >
> > Aftre this things get a bit hazy for me. The Adding Facts wiki page
> > http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/AddingFacts talks about :-
> >
> > >> Create a directory called facter/ somewhere, and set the
> > environment variable $RUBYLIB to its parent. You can then run facter,
> > and it will import your code:
> >
> > >> host:~$ mkdir -p ~/lib/ruby/facter ; export
RUBYLIB=~/lib/ruby
> > >> host:/tmp$ cp /path/to/hardware_platform.rb $RUBYLIB/facter
> > >> host:/tmp$ facter hardware_platform
> > >> SUNW,Sun-Blade-1500
> >
> This is to test your scripts , its nothing related to custom facts
> distribution per se.
> > Do I need to do this or is this deprecated with modules? Also, what
> > does the factpath do? Does that need to exist on master and clients.
> > The final step is to run puppetd with --factsync on (I guess) a
> > client. On mine it returns an error
> >
> > # puppetd -vt --factsync
> > info: Retrieving facts
> > err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts]: Failed to generate additional
> > resources during transaction: Fileserver module
''facts'' not mounted
> >
> Did you configure you fileserver.conf  on puppetmaster for
"facts"
> module i.e did you add following in your fileserver.conf ?
>
> [facts]
>   path /var/lib/puppet/facts
>
> here "/var/lib/puppet/facts" is your path to "facts"
file server module
> on  puppetmaster where you will put your custom scripts that will sync
> to puppet client  and gets distributed to $factdest.  factpath is  the
> option to puppet which  tells where to look for the facts and by
> default  this is set as same as $factdest .
> > In short, as you can probably tell, I don''t really know what
I''m doing
> > so any help would be great
> >
> > Cheers
> > Paul
> > --
> > Paul Matthews
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > >
>
>
> >
>

-- 
Paul Matthews
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Thanks to Saurabh pointing me in the right direction, the solution I found
to getting basic custom facts to work were as follows:-

1.  On the puppetmaster in your modules directory create a facts module with
subdirectory files. In this add any of your custom .rb scripts

# ls /etc/puppet/modules/facts/files
day_of_week.rb
hardware_platform.rb    # = wiki example


2. On the puppetmaster in /etc/puppet/puppet.conf I added:-
    pluginsync = true
    factpath = $vardir/facts    #vardir = /var/lib/puppet

3. On the puppetmaster in /etc/puppet/fileserver.conf I added:-
[facts]
path /var/lib/puppet/facts
  allow yourdomain.com    # I think these 3 lines are optional
  deny *.evil.example.com   #           "     "
  allow 10.0.0.0/24              #           "   "

4. On the server I added the file  /etc/profile.d/facter.sh containing
export FACTERLIB=/var/lib/puppet/facts
Not entirely sure if this step is necessary but I saw it on another posting

5. On the client I didn''t seem to need to do anything to the config
files
and the only change needed to pick this up was add the --factsync param to
puppetd
All being well you should see something like the following on fhe client:-

# puppetd -vt --factsync
info: Retrieving facts
notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/day_of_week.rb]/ensure: created
notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/hardware_platform.rb]/ensure: created
info: Loading fact day_of_week
info: Loading fact hardware_platform
info: Caching catalog at /var/lib/puppet/localconfig.yaml
notice: Starting catalog run

To then access the variables that you have defined simply refer to them in
your manifest eg. $day_of_week or $hardware_platform

It is probably worth noting that this may not be the best way of doing
things. The example used in the wiki using the ''custom'' module
I could not
get to work without file errors relating to /facts. I''m sure there is
added
benefits in using the wiki example but hopefully this may get someone over
the first hurdle

Paul





2009/5/28 paul matthews <paulsmatthews@googlemail.com>
> Superb, thanks for that. I think my confusion was missing the point that
> you need a specific module for facts pointed to by factpath  rather than
> tacking on a plugins/facter directory under an existing module
>
> 2009/5/28 Saurabh Verma <nitw.saurabh@gmail.com>
>
>
>> paul matthews wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> > I''m attempting to create a custom fact to tell me the day
of the week
>> > ( to be used as a file suffix for vmware snapshots). I''ve
followed the
>> > wiki which advises deploying facts via modules for releases
>0.24. As
>> > I understand this means :-
>> >
>> >    1. creating a plugins/facter directory under an existing (or
new
>> >       module)
>> >    2. dropping in your ruby based facter (.rb) script to that
directory
>> >    3.  adding the following to /etc/puppet/puppet.conf on the
master
>> >
>> > [main]
>> > pluginsync = true
>> > factpath = $vardir/lib/facter
>> >
>> > Aftre this things get a bit hazy for me. The Adding Facts wiki
page
>> > http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/AddingFacts talks about
:-
>> >
>> > >> Create a directory called facter/ somewhere, and set the
>> > environment variable $RUBYLIB to its parent. You can then run
facter,
>> > and it will import your code:
>> >
>> > >> host:~$ mkdir -p ~/lib/ruby/facter ; export
RUBYLIB=~/lib/ruby
>> > >> host:/tmp$ cp /path/to/hardware_platform.rb
$RUBYLIB/facter
>> > >> host:/tmp$ facter hardware_platform
>> > >> SUNW,Sun-Blade-1500
>> >
>> This is to test your scripts , its nothing related to custom facts
>> distribution per se.
>> > Do I need to do this or is this deprecated with modules? Also,
what
>> > does the factpath do? Does that need to exist on master and
clients.
>> > The final step is to run puppetd with --factsync on (I guess) a
>> > client. On mine it returns an error
>> >
>> > # puppetd -vt --factsync
>> > info: Retrieving facts
>> > err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts]: Failed to generate additional
>> > resources during transaction: Fileserver module
''facts'' not mounted
>> >
>> Did you configure you fileserver.conf  on puppetmaster for
"facts"
>> module i.e did you add following in your fileserver.conf ?
>>
>> [facts]
>>   path /var/lib/puppet/facts
>>
>> here "/var/lib/puppet/facts" is your path to
"facts" file server module
>> on  puppetmaster where you will put your custom scripts that will sync
>> to puppet client  and gets distributed to $factdest.  factpath is  the
>> option to puppet which  tells where to look for the facts and by
>> default  this is set as same as $factdest .
>> > In short, as you can probably tell, I don''t really know
what I''m doing
>> > so any help would be great
>> >
>> > Cheers
>> > Paul
>> > --
>> > Paul Matthews
>> >
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > >
>>
>>
>> >>
>>
>
>
> --
> Paul Matthews
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>


-- 
Paul Matthews
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Paul,

A custom fact is probably the wrong way to implement this, actually,
unless you have servers in multiple locations where the day of the
week differs from server to server.

Custom facts are intended for information that can only be computed at
the client end. For something like the day of the week you should use
a custom function instead. See:
http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/WritingYourOwnFunctions for
more information.

--Paul

On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 9:34 AM, paul matthews
<paulsmatthews@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Thanks to Saurabh pointing me in the right direction, the solution I found
> to getting basic custom facts to work were as follows:-
>
> 1.  On the puppetmaster in your modules directory create a facts module
with
> subdirectory files. In this add any of your custom .rb scripts
>
> # ls /etc/puppet/modules/facts/files
> day_of_week.rb
> hardware_platform.rb    # = wiki example
>
>
> 2. On the puppetmaster in /etc/puppet/puppet.conf I added:-
>     pluginsync = true
>     factpath = $vardir/facts    #vardir = /var/lib/puppet
>
> 3. On the puppetmaster in /etc/puppet/fileserver.conf I added:-
> [facts]
> path /var/lib/puppet/facts
>   allow yourdomain.com    # I think these 3 lines are optional
>   deny *.evil.example.com   #           "     "
>   allow 10.0.0.0/24              #           "   "
>
> 4. On the server I added the file  /etc/profile.d/facter.sh containing
> export FACTERLIB=/var/lib/puppet/facts
> Not entirely sure if this step is necessary but I saw it on another posting
>
> 5. On the client I didn''t seem to need to do anything to the
config files
> and the only change needed to pick this up was add the --factsync param to
> puppetd
> All being well you should see something like the following on fhe client:-
>
> # puppetd -vt --factsync
> info: Retrieving facts
> notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/day_of_week.rb]/ensure: created
> notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/hardware_platform.rb]/ensure: created
> info: Loading fact day_of_week
> info: Loading fact hardware_platform
> info: Caching catalog at /var/lib/puppet/localconfig.yaml
> notice: Starting catalog run
>
> To then access the variables that you have defined simply refer to them in
> your manifest eg. $day_of_week or $hardware_platform
>
> It is probably worth noting that this may not be the best way of doing
> things. The example used in the wiki using the ''custom''
module I could not
> get to work without file errors relating to /facts. I''m sure there
is added
> benefits in using the wiki example but hopefully this may get someone over
> the first hurdle
>
> Paul
>
>
>
>
>
> 2009/5/28 paul matthews <paulsmatthews@googlemail.com>
>>
>> Superb, thanks for that. I think my confusion was missing the point
that
>> you need a specific module for facts pointed to by factpath  rather
than
>> tacking on a plugins/facter directory under an existing module
>>
>> 2009/5/28 Saurabh Verma <nitw.saurabh@gmail.com>
>>>
>>> paul matthews wrote:
>>> > Hi,
>>> > I''m attempting to create a custom fact to tell me the
day of the week
>>> > ( to be used as a file suffix for vmware snapshots).
I''ve followed the
>>> > wiki which advises deploying facts via modules for releases
>0.24. As
>>> > I understand this means :-
>>> >
>>> >    1. creating a plugins/facter directory under an existing
(or new
>>> >       module)
>>> >    2. dropping in your ruby based facter (.rb) script to that
directory
>>> >    3.  adding the following to /etc/puppet/puppet.conf on the
master
>>> >
>>> > [main]
>>> > pluginsync = true
>>> > factpath = $vardir/lib/facter
>>> >
>>> > Aftre this things get a bit hazy for me. The Adding Facts wiki
page
>>> > http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/AddingFacts talks
about :-
>>> >
>>> > >> Create a directory called facter/ somewhere, and set
the
>>> > environment variable $RUBYLIB to its parent. You can then run
facter,
>>> > and it will import your code:
>>> >
>>> > >> host:~$ mkdir -p ~/lib/ruby/facter ; export
RUBYLIB=~/lib/ruby
>>> > >> host:/tmp$ cp /path/to/hardware_platform.rb
$RUBYLIB/facter
>>> > >> host:/tmp$ facter hardware_platform
>>> > >> SUNW,Sun-Blade-1500
>>> >
>>> This is to test your scripts , its nothing related to custom facts
>>> distribution per se.
>>> > Do I need to do this or is this deprecated with modules? Also,
what
>>> > does the factpath do? Does that need to exist on master and
clients.
>>> > The final step is to run puppetd with --factsync on (I guess)
a
>>> > client. On mine it returns an error
>>> >
>>> > # puppetd -vt --factsync
>>> > info: Retrieving facts
>>> > err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts]: Failed to generate
additional
>>> > resources during transaction: Fileserver module
''facts'' not mounted
>>> >
>>> Did you configure you fileserver.conf  on puppetmaster for
"facts"
>>> module i.e did you add following in your fileserver.conf ?
>>>
>>> [facts]
>>>   path /var/lib/puppet/facts
>>>
>>> here "/var/lib/puppet/facts" is your path to
"facts" file server module
>>> on  puppetmaster where you will put your custom scripts that will
sync
>>> to puppet client  and gets distributed to $factdest.  factpath is
 the
>>> option to puppet which  tells where to look for the facts and by
>>> default  this is set as same as $factdest .
>>> > In short, as you can probably tell, I don''t really
know what I''m doing
>>> > so any help would be great
>>> >
>>> > Cheers
>>> > Paul
>>> > --
>>> > Paul Matthews
>>> >
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> >
>>> > >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Paul Matthews
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> --
> Paul Matthews
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >
>
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