PuppetDB 1.4 » Configuration

This version of PuppetDB is not included in Puppet Enterprise. The latest version of PE includes PuppetDB 4.0. A newer version is available; see the version menu above for details.

Summary

PuppetDB has three main groups of settings:

The init script’s configuration file, which sets the Java heap size and the location of PuppetDB’s main config file
Logging settings, which go in the log4j.properties file and can be changed without restarting PuppetDB
All other settings, which go in PuppetDB’s configuration file(s) and take effect after the service is restarted

Init Script Config File

If you installed PuppetDB from packages or used the rake install installation method, an init script was created for PuppetDB. This script has its own configuration file, whose location varies by platform and by package:

OS and Package	File
Redhat-like (open source)	`/etc/sysconfig/puppetdb`
Redhat-like (PE)	`/etc/sysconfig/pe-puppetdb`
Debian/Ubuntu (open source)	`/etc/default/puppetdb`
Debian/Ubuntu (PE)	`/etc/default/pe-puppetdb`

In this file, you can change the following settings:

JAVA_BIN: The location of the Java binary.
JAVA_ARGS: Command line options for the Java binary, most notably the -Xmx (max heap size) flag.
USER: The user PuppetDB should be running as.
INSTALL_DIR: The directory into which PuppetDB is installed.
CONFIG: The location of the PuppetDB config file, which may be a single file or a directory of .ini files.

Configuring the Java Heap Size

To change the JVM heap size for PuppetDB, edit the init script config file by setting a new value for the -Xmx flag in the JAVA_ARGS variable.

For example, to cap PuppetDB at 192MB of memory:

JAVA_ARGS="-Xmx192m"

To use 1GB of memory:

JAVA_ARGS="-Xmx1g"

Configuring JMX Access

While all JMX metrics are exposed using the /metrics namespace, you can also expose direct JMX access using standard JVM means as documented here. This can be done using the JAVA_ARGS init script setting, similar to configuring the heap size.

For example, adding the following JVM options will open up a JMX socket on port 1099:

JAVA_ARGS="-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=1099"

The log4j Logging Config File

Logging is configured with a log4j.properties file, whose location is defined with the logging-config setting. If you change the log settings while PuppetDB is running, it will apply the new settings without requiring a restart.

See the log4j documentation for more information about logging options.

The PuppetDB Configuration File(s)

PuppetDB is configured using an INI-style config format with several [sections]. This is very similar to the format used by Puppet. All of the sections and settings described below belong in the PuppetDB config file(s).

Whenever you change PuppetDB’s configuration settings, you must restart the service for the changes to take effect.

You can change the location of the main config file in the init script config file. This location can point to a single configuration file or a directory of .ini files. If you specify a directory (conf.d style), PuppetDB will merge the .ini files in alphabetical order.

If you’ve installed PuppetDB from a package, by default it will use the conf.d config style. The default config directory is /etc/puppetdb/conf.d (or /etc/puppetlabs/puppetdb/conf.d for Puppet Enterprise). If you’re running from source, you may use the -c command-line argument to specify your config file or directory.

An example configuration file:

[global]
vardir = /var/lib/puppetdb
logging-config = /var/lib/puppetdb/log4j.properties
resource-query-limit = 20000

[database]
classname = org.postgresql.Driver
subprotocol = postgresql
subname = //localhost:5432/puppetdb

[jetty]
port = 8080

Playing Nice With the PuppetDB Module

If you installed PuppetDB with the puppetlabs-puppetdb module, the config file(s) will be managed by Puppet. However, since the module manages these files on a per-setting basis, you can still configure additional settings that the module doesn’t set.

To do this, you should create a new class (something like site::puppetdb::server::extra), declare any number of ini_setting resources as shown below, set the class to refresh the puppetdb::server class, and assign it to your PuppetDB server.

# Site-specific PuppetDB settings. Declare this class on any node that gets the puppetdb::server class.
    class site::puppetdb::server::extra {

      # Restart the PuppetDB service if settings change
      Class[site::puppetdb::server::extra] ~> Class[puppetdb::server]
      
      # Get PuppetDB confdir
      include puppetdb::params
      $confdir = $puppetdb::params::confdir

      # Set resource defaults assuming we're only doing [database] settings
      Ini_setting {
        path => "${confdir}/database.ini",
        ensure => present,
        section => 'database',
        require => Class['puppetdb::server::validate_db'],
      }

      ini_setting {'puppetdb_node_ttl':
        setting => 'node_ttl',
        value => '5d',
      }

      ini_setting {'puppetdb_report_ttl':
        setting => 'report_ttl',
        value => '30d',
      }

    }

`[global]` Settings

The [global] section is used to configure application-wide behavior.

`vardir`

This defines the parent directory for the MQ’s data directory. Also, if a database isn’t specified, the default database’s files will be stored in <vardir>/db. The directory must exist and be writable by the PuppetDB user in order for the application to run.

`logging-config`

This describes the full path to a log4j.properties file. Covering all the options available for configuring log4j is outside the scope of this document; see the aforementioned link for exhaustive information.

If this setting isn’t provided, PuppetDB defaults to logging at INFO level to standard out.

If you installed from packages, PuppetDB will use the log4j.properties file in the /etc/puppetdb/ or /etc/puppetlabs/puppetdb directory. Otherwise, you can find an example file in the ext directory of the source.

You can edit the logging configuration file while PuppetDB is running, and it will automatically react to changes after a few seconds.

`resource-query-limit`

The maximum number of legal results that a resource query can return. If you issue a query that would result in more results than this value, the query will simply return an error. (This can be used to prevent accidental queries that would yield huge numbers of results from consuming undesirable amounts of resources on the server.)

The default value is 20000.

`event-query-limit`

The maximum number of legal results that a resource event query can return. If you issue a query that would result in more results than this value, the query will simply return an error. (This can be used to prevent accidental queries that would yield huge numbers of results from consuming undesirable amounts of resources on the server.)

The default value is 20000.

`update-server`

The URL to query when checking for newer versions; defaults to http://updates.puppetlabs.com/check-for-updates. Overriding this setting may be useful if your PuppetDB server is firewalled and can’t make external HTTP requests, in which case you could configure a proxy server to send requests to the updates.puppetlabs.com URL and override this setting to point to your proxy server.

`[database]` Settings

The [database] section configures PuppetDB’s database settings.

PuppetDB can use either a built-in HSQLDB database or a PostgreSQL database. If no database information is supplied, an HSQLDB database at <vardir>/db will be used.

FAQ: Why no MySQL or Oracle support?

MySQL lacks several features that PuppetDB relies on; the most notable is recursive queries. We have no plans to ever support MySQL.

Depending on demand, Oracle support may be forthcoming in a future version of PuppetDB. This hasn’t been decided yet.

Using Built-in HSQLDB

To use an HSQLDB database at the default <vardir>/db, you can simply remove all database settings. To configure the DB for a different location, put the following in the [database] section:

classname = org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver
subprotocol = hsqldb
subname = file:</PATH/TO/DB>;hsqldb.tx=mvcc;sql.syntax_pgs=true

Replace </PATH/TO/DB> with the filesystem location in which you’d like to persist the database.

Do not use the username or password settings.

Using PostgreSQL

Before using the PostgreSQL backend, you must set up a PostgreSQL server, ensure that it will accept incoming connections, create a user for PuppetDB to use when connecting, and create a database for PuppetDB. Completely configuring PostgreSQL is beyond the scope of this manual, but if you are logged in as root on a running Postgres server, you can create a user and database as follows:

$ sudo -u postgres sh
$ createuser -DRSP puppetdb
$ createdb -E UTF8 -O puppetdb puppetdb
$ exit

Next you will most likely need to modify the pg_hba.conf file to allow for md5 authentication from at least localhost. To locate the file you can either issue a locate pg_hba.conf command (if your distribution supports it) or consult your distribution’s documentation for the PostgreSQL confdir.

The following example pg_hba.conf file allows md5 authentication from localhost for both IPv4 and IPv6 connections:

# TYPE  DATABASE   USER   CIDR-ADDRESS  METHOD
local   all        all                  md5
host    all        all    127.0.0.1/32  md5
host    all        all    ::1/128       md5

Restart PostgreSQL and ensure you can log in by running:

$ sudo service postgresql restart
$ psql -h localhost puppetdb puppetdb

To configure PuppetDB to use this database, put the following in the [database] section:

classname = org.postgresql.Driver
subprotocol = postgresql
subname = //<HOST>:<PORT>/<DATABASE>
username = <USERNAME>
password = <PASSWORD>

Replace <HOST> with the DB server’s hostname. Replace <PORT> with the port on which PostgreSQL is listening. Replace <DATABASE> with the name of the database you’ve created for use with PuppetDB.

Using SSL With PostgreSQL

It’s possible to use SSL to protect connections to the database. There are several extra steps and considerations when doing so; see the PostgreSQL SSL setup page for complete details.

The main difference in the config file is that you must be sure to add ?ssl=true to the subname setting:

subname = //<HOST>:<PORT>/<DATABASE>?ssl=true

`gc-interval`

This controls how often, in minutes, to compact the database. The compaction process reclaims space and deletes unnecessary rows. If not supplied, the default is every 60 minutes.

`node-ttl`

Auto-deactivate nodes that haven’t seen any activity (no new catalogs, facts, etc) in the specified amount of time. You may specify the time as a string using any of the following suffixes:

`d`  - days
`h`  - hours
`m`  - minutes
`s`  - seconds
`ms` - milliseconds

So, e.g., a value of 30d would set the time-to-live to 30 days, and a value of 48h would set the time-to-live to 48 hours.

Nodes will be checked for staleness every gc-interval minutes. Manual deactivation will continue to work as always.

If unset, auto-deactivation of nodes is disabled.

`node-purge-ttl`

Automatically delete nodes that have been deactivated for the specified amount of time. This will also delete all facts, catalogs and reports for the node. This ttl may be specified the same way as node-ttl above.

If unset, auto-deletion of nodes is disabled.

`report-ttl`

Automatically delete reports that are older than the specified amount of time. You may specify the time as a string using any of the suffixes described in the node-ttl section above.

Outdated reports will be deleted during the database garbage collection, which runs every gc-interval minutes.

If unset, the default value is 14 days.

`classname`

This sets the JDBC class to use. Set this to:

org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver when using the embedded database
org.postgresql.Driver when using PostgreSQL

`subprotocol`

Set this to:

hsqldb when using the embedded database
postgresql when using PostgreSQL

`subname`

This describes where to find the database. Set this to:

file:</PATH/TO/DB>;hsqldb.tx=mvcc;sql.syntax_pgs=true when using the embedded database, replacing </PATH/TO/DB> with a local filesystem path
//<HOST>:<PORT>/<DATABASE> when using PostgreSQL, replacing <HOST> with the DB server’s hostname, <PORT> with the port on which PostgreSQL is listening, and <DATABASE> with the name of the database
- Append ?ssl=true to this if your PostgreSQL server is using SSL.

`username`

This is the username to use when connecting. Only used with PostgreSQL.

`password`

This is the password to use when connecting. Only used with PostgreSQL.

`log-slow-statements`

This sets the number of seconds before an SQL query is considered “slow.” Slow SQL queries are logged as warnings, to assist in debugging and tuning. Note PuppetDB does not interrupt slow queries; it simply reports them after they complete.

The default value is 10 seconds. A value of 0 will disable logging of slow queries.

`conn-max-age`

The maximum time (in minutes), for a pooled connection to remain unused before it is closed off.

If not supplied, we default to 60 minutes.

`conn-keep-alive`

This sets the time (in minutes), for a connection to remain idle before sending a test query to the DB. This is useful to prevent a DB from timing out connections on its end.

If not supplied, we default to 45 minutes.

`conn-lifetime`

The maximum time (in minutes) a pooled connection should remain open. Any connections older than this setting will be closed off. Connections currently in use will not be affected until they are returned to the pool.

If not supplied, we won’t terminate connections based on their age alone.

`[command-processing]` Settings

The [command-processing] section configures the command-processing subsystem.

Every change to PuppetDB’s data stores arrives via commands that are inserted into a message queue (MQ). Command processor threads pull items off of that queue, persisting those changes.

`threads`

This defines how many command processing threads to use. Each thread can process a single command at a time. The number of threads can be tuned based on what you see in the performance dashboard.

This setting defaults to half the number of cores in your system.

`dlo-compression-threshold`

This setting specifies the maximum duration to keep messages in the dead-letter office before archiving them. This process will check for compressible messages on startup and after every gc-interval, but will only perform the archive once per dlo-compression-threshold. The same format can be used as for the node-ttl setting above. If set to 0 seconds, this behavior will be disabled. The default value is 1 day.

`store-usage`

This setting sets the maximum amount of space in megabytes that PuppetDB’s ActiveMQ can use for persistent message storage.

`temp-usage`

This setting sets the maximum amount of space in megabytes that PuppetDB’s ActiveMQ can use for temporary message storage.

`[jetty]` (HTTP) Settings

The [jetty] section configures HTTP for PuppetDB.

`host`

This sets the hostname to listen on for unencrypted HTTP traffic. If not supplied, we bind to localhost, which will reject connections from anywhere but the PuppetDB server itself. To listen on all available interfaces, use 0.0.0.0.

Note: Unencrypted HTTP is the only way to view the performance dashboard, since PuppetDB uses host verification for SSL. However, it can also be used to make any call to PuppetDB’s API, including inserting exported resources and retrieving arbitrary data about your Puppet-managed nodes. If you enable cleartext HTTP, you MUST configure your firewall to protect unverified access to PuppetDB.

`port`

This sets what port to use for unencrypted HTTP traffic. If not supplied, we won’t listen for unencrypted traffic at all.

`max-threads`

This sets the maximum number of threads assigned to responding to HTTP and HTTPS requests, effectively changing how many concurrent requests can be made at one time. Defaults to 50.

Note: Due to how our web-server (Jetty 7) behaves, this setting must be higher then the number of CPU’s on your system or it will stop processing any HTTP requests.

`ssl-host`

This sets the hostname to listen on for encrypted HTTPS traffic. If not supplied, we bind to localhost. To listen on all available interfaces, use 0.0.0.0.

`ssl-port`

This sets the port to use for encrypted HTTPS traffic. If not supplied, we won’t listen for encrypted traffic at all.

`ssl-cert`

This sets the path to the server certificate PEM file used by the PuppetDB web service for HTTPS.

Note: This setting overrides the alternate configuration settings keystore and key-password.

`ssl-key`

This sets the path to the private key PEM file that corresponds with the ssl-cert, it used by the PuppetDB web service for HTTPS.

Note: This setting overrides the alternate configuration settings keystore and key-password.

`ssl-ca-cert`

This sets the path to the CA certificate PEM file used for client authentication. Authorized clients must be signed by the CA that that corresponds to this certificate.

Note: This setting overrides the alternate configuration settings truststore and trust-password.

`keystore`

This sets the path to a Java keystore file containing the key and certificate to be used for HTTPS.

`key-password`

This sets the passphrase to use for unlocking the keystore file.

`truststore`

This describes the path to a Java keystore file containing the CA certificate(s) for your puppet infrastructure.

`trust-password`

This sets the passphrase to use for unlocking the truststore file.

`certificate-whitelist`

Optional. This describes the path to a file that contains a list of certificate names, one per line. Incoming HTTPS requests will have their certificates validated against this list of names and only those with an exact matching entry will be allowed through. (For a puppet master, this compares against the value of the certname setting, rather than the dns_alt_names setting.)

If not supplied, PuppetDB uses standard HTTPS without any additional authorization. All HTTPS clients must still supply valid, verifiable SSL client certificates.

`cipher-suites`

Optional. A comma-separated list of cryptographic ciphers to allow for incoming SSL connections. Valid names are listed in the official JDK cryptographic providers documentation; you’ll need to use the all-caps cipher suite name.

If not supplied, PuppetDB uses the default cipher suites for your local system on JDK versions older than 1.7.0u6. On newer JDK versions, PuppetDB will use only non-DHE cipher suites.

`ssl-protocols`

Optional. A comma-separated list of protocols to allow for incoming SSL connections. Valid names are listed in the official JDK cryptographic protocol documentation; you’ll need to use the names with verbatim capitalization. For example: SSLv3, TLSv1, TLSv1.1, TLSv1.2.

If not supplied, PuppetDB uses the default SSL protocols for your local system.

Note: This setting is only effective when PuppetDB is running with Java version 1.7 or better.

`[repl]` Settings

The [repl] section configures remote runtime modification. For more detailed info, see Debugging with the Remote REPL.

Enabling a remote REPL allows you to manipulate the behavior of PuppetDB at runtime. This should only be done for debugging purposes, and is thus disabled by default. An example configuration stanza:

[repl]
enabled = true
type = nrepl
port = 8081

`enabled`

Set to true to enable the REPL. Defaults to false.

`type`

Either nrepl or swank or telnet.

The telnet repl type opens up a socket you can connect to via telnet. The interface is pretty low-level and raw (no completion or command history), but it is nonetheless usable on just about any system without the need of any external tools other than telnet itself.

The nrepl repl type opens up a socket you can connect to via any nrepl-protocol client, such as via Leiningen using lein repl :connect localhost:8082 or via Emacs (via M-x nrepl), Vim, or integration with other editors like Netbeans or Eclipse. This is much more user-friendly than telnet.

The swank type allows emacs’ clojure-mode to connect directly to a running PuppetDB instance by using M-x slime-connect. This is not recommended, as the upstream Swank project has been deprecated in favor of nrepl.

`port`

The port to use for the REPL.

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PuppetDB 1.4 » Configuration

Summary

Init Script Config File

Configuring the Java Heap Size

Configuring JMX Access

The log4j Logging Config File

The PuppetDB Configuration File(s)

Playing Nice With the PuppetDB Module

[global] Settings

vardir

logging-config

resource-query-limit

event-query-limit

update-server

[database] Settings

Using Built-in HSQLDB

Using PostgreSQL

Using SSL With PostgreSQL

gc-interval

node-ttl

node-purge-ttl

report-ttl

classname

subprotocol

subname

username

password

log-slow-statements

conn-max-age

conn-keep-alive

conn-lifetime

[command-processing] Settings

threads

dlo-compression-threshold

store-usage

temp-usage

[jetty] (HTTP) Settings

host

port

max-threads

ssl-host

ssl-port

ssl-cert

ssl-key

ssl-ca-cert

keystore

key-password

truststore

trust-password

certificate-whitelist

cipher-suites

ssl-protocols

[repl] Settings

enabled

type

port

`[global]` Settings

`vardir`

`logging-config`

`resource-query-limit`

`event-query-limit`

`update-server`

`[database]` Settings

`gc-interval`

`node-ttl`

`node-purge-ttl`

`report-ttl`

`classname`

`subprotocol`

`subname`

`username`

`password`

`log-slow-statements`

`conn-max-age`

`conn-keep-alive`

`conn-lifetime`

`[command-processing]` Settings

`threads`

`dlo-compression-threshold`

`store-usage`

`temp-usage`

`[jetty]` (HTTP) Settings

`host`

`port`

`max-threads`

`ssl-host`

`ssl-port`

`ssl-cert`

`ssl-key`

`ssl-ca-cert`

`keystore`

`key-password`

`truststore`

`trust-password`

`certificate-whitelist`

`cipher-suites`

`ssl-protocols`

`[repl]` Settings

`enabled`

`type`

`port`