Configuration parameters for bcfg2
bcfg2.conf includes configuration parameters for the Bcfg2 server and client.
The file is INI-style and consists of sections and options. A section begins with the name of the sections in square brackets and continues until the next section begins.
Options are specified in the form "name=value".
The file is line-based each newline-terminated line represents either a comment, a section name or an option.
Any line beginning with a hash (#) is ignored, as are lines containing only whitespace.
These options are only necessary on the Bcfg2 server. They are specified in the [server] section of the configuration file.
repository
Specifies the path to the Bcfg2 repository containing all of the configuration specifications. The repository should be created using the bcfg2-admin init command.
filemonitor
The file monitor used to watch for changes in the repository. The default is the best available monitor. The following values are valid:
inotify gamin fam pseudo
fam_blocking
Whether the server should block at startup until the file monitor backend has processed all events. This can cause a slower startup, but ensure that all files are recognized before the first client is handled.
ignore_files
A comma-separated list of globs that should be ignored by the file monitor. Default values are:
*~ *# #* *.swp *.swpx *.swx SCCS .svn 4913 .gitignore
listen_all
This setting tells the server to listen on all available interfaces. The default is to only listen on those interfaces specified by the bcfg2 setting in the components section of bcfg2.conf.
plugins
A comma-delimited list of enabled server plugins. Currently available plugins are:
Account Base Bundler Bzr Cfg Cvs Darcs DBStats Decisions Deps Editor FileProbes Fossil Git GroupPatterns Guppy Hg Hostbase Ldap Metadata NagiosGen Ohai Packages Pkgmgr POSIXCompat Probes Properties PuppetENC Reporting Rules SEModules ServiceCompat Snapshots SSHbase SSLCA Statistics Svn TCheetah TemplateHelper TGenshi Trigger
Descriptions of each plugin can be found in their respective sections below.
prefix
Specifies a prefix if the Bcfg2 installation isn't placed in the default location (e.g. /usr/local).
backend
Specifies which server core backend to use. Current available options are:
cherrypy builtin best
The default is best, which is currently an alias for builtin. More details on the backends can be found in the official documentation.
user
The username or UID to run the daemon as. Default is 0.
group
The group name or GID to run the daemon as. Default is 0.
vcs_root
Specifies the path to the root of the VCS working copy that holds your Bcfg2 specification, if it is different from repository. E.g., if the VCS repository does not hold the bcfg2 data at the top level, you may need to set this option.
umask
The umask to set for the server. Default is 0077.
This section has a listing of all the plugins currently provided with Bcfg2.
The account plugin manages authentication data, including the following.
/etc/passwd
/etc/group
/etc/security/limits.conf
/etc/sudoers
/root/.ssh/authorized_keys
The Base plugin is a structure plugin that provides the ability to add lists of unrelated entries into client configuration entry inventories. Base works much like Bundler in its file format. This structure plugin is good for the pile of independent configs needed for most actual systems.
The Bundler plugin is used to describe groups of inter-dependent configuration entries, such as the combination of packages, configuration files, and service activations that comprise typical Unix daemons. Bundles are used to add groups of configuration entries to the inventory of client configurations, as opposed to describing particular versions of those entries.
The Bzr plugin allows you to track changes to your Bcfg2 repository using a GNU Bazaar version control backend. Currently, it enables you to get revision information out of your repository for reporting purposes.
The Cfg plugin provides a repository to describe configuration file contents for clients. In its simplest form, the Cfg repository is just a directory tree modeled off of the directory tree on your client machines.
The Cvs plugin allows you to track changes to your Bcfg2 repository using a Concurrent version control backend. Currently, it enables you to get revision information out of your repository for reporting purposes.
The Darcs plugin allows you to track changes to your Bcfg2 repository using a Darcs version control backend. Currently, it enables you to get revision information out of your repository for reporting purposes.
Direct to database statistics plugin.
The Decisions plugin has support for a centralized set of per-entry installation decisions. This approach is needed when particular changes are deemed "high risk"; this gives the ability to centrally specify these changes, but only install them on clients when administrator supervision is available.
The Defaults plugin can be used to populate default attributes for entries. Defaults is not a Generator plugin, so it does not actually bind an entry; Defaults are applied after an entry has been bound, and only populate attributes that are not yet set.
The Deps plugin allows you to make a series of assertions like "Package X requires Package Y (and optionally also Package Z etc.)"
The Editor plugin attempts to allow you to partially manage configuration for a file. Its use is not recommended and not well documented.
The FileProbes plugin allows you to probe a client for a file, which is then added to the Cfg specification. If the file changes on the client, FileProbes can either update it in the specification or allow Cfg to replace it.
The Fossil plugin allows you to track changes to your Bcfg2 repository using a Fossil SCM version control backend. Currently, it enables you to get revision information out of your repository for reporting purposes.
The Git plugin allows you to track changes to your Bcfg2 repository using a Git version control backend. Currently, it enables you to get revision information out of your repository for reporting purposes.
The GroupPatterns plugin is a connector that can assign clients group membership based on patterns in client hostnames.
The Guppy plugin is used to trace memory leaks within the bcfg2-server process using Guppy.
The Hg plugin allows you to track changes to your Bcfg2 repository using a Mercurial version control backend. Currently, it enables you to get revision information out of your repository for reporting purposes.
The Hostbase plugin is an IP management system built on top of Bcfg2.
The Ldap plugin makes it possible to fetch data from an LDAP directory, process it and attach it to your metadata.
The Metadata plugin is the primary method of specifying Bcfg2 server metadata.
The NagiosGen plugin dynamically generates Nagios configuration files based on Bcfg2 data.
The Ohai plugin is used to detect information about the client operating system. The data is reported back to the server using JSON.
The Packages plugin is an alternative to Pkgmgr for specifying package entries for clients. Where Pkgmgr explicitly specifies package entry information, Packages delegates control of package version information to the underlying package manager, installing the latest version available from through those channels.
The Pkgmgr plugin resolves the Abstract Configuration Entity "Package" to a package specification that the client can use to detect, verify and install the specified package.
The POSIXCompat plugin provides a compatibility layer for 1.3 POSIX Entries so that they are compatible with older clients.
The Probes plugin gives you the ability to gather information from a client machine before you generate its configuration. This information can be used with the various templating systems to generate configuration based on the results.
The Properties plugin is a connector plugin that adds information from properties files into client metadata instances.
The PuppetENC plugin is a connector plugin that adds support for Puppet External Node Classifiers.
The Reporting plugin enables the collection of data for use with Bcfg2's dynamic reporting system.
The Rules plugin provides literal configuration entries that resolve the abstract configuration entries normally found in the Bundler and Base plugins. The literal entries in Rules are suitable for consumption by the appropriate client drivers.
The SEModules plugin provides a way to distribute SELinux modules via Bcfg2.
The ServiceCompat plugin converts service entries for older clients.
The Snapshots plugin stores various aspects of a client’s state when the client checks in to the server.
The SSHbase generator plugin manages ssh host keys (both v1 and v2) for hosts. It also manages the ssh_known_hosts file. It can integrate host keys from other management domains and similarly export its keys.
The SSLCA plugin is designed to handle creation of SSL privatekeys and certificates on request.
The Statistics plugin is deprecated (see Reporting).
The Svn plugin allows you to track changes to your Bcfg2 repository using a Subversion backend. Currently, it enables you to get revision information out of your repository for reporting purposes.
The TCheetah plugin allows you to use the cheetah templating system to create files. It also allows you to include the results of probes executed on the client in the created files.
The TGenshi plugin allows you to use the Genshi templating system to create files. It also allows you to include the results of probes executed on the client in the created files.
The Trigger plugin provides a method for calling external scripts when clients are configured.
These options are specified in the [caching] section.
client_metadata
The following four caching modes are available for client metadata:
off: No caching of client metadata objects is performed. This is the default.
initial: Only initial metadata objects are cached. Initial metadata objects are created only from the data in the Metadata plugin, before additional groups from other plugins are merged in.
cautious: Final metadata objects are cached, but each client’s cache is cleared at the start of each client run, immediately after probe data is received. Cache is also cleared as in aggressive mode. on is a synonym for cautious.
aggressive: Final metadata objects are cached. Each plugin is responsible for clearing cache when appropriate.
These options only affect client functionality. They can be specified in the [client] section.
decision
Specify the server decision list mode (whitelist or blacklist). (This settiing will be ignored if the client is called with the -f option).
drivers
Specify tool driver set to use. This option can be used to explicitly specify the client tool drivers you want to use when the client is run.
paranoid
Run the client in paranoid mode.
profile
Assert the given profile for the host.
Specified in the [communication] section. These options define settings used for client-server communication.
ca
The path to a file containing the CA certificate. This file is required on the server, and optional on clients. However, if the cacert is not present on clients, the server cannot be verified.
certificate
The path to a file containing a PEM formatted certificate which signs the key with the ca certificate. This setting is required on the server in all cases, and required on clients if using client certificates.
key
Specifies the path to a file containing the SSL Key. This is required on the server in all cases, and required on clients if using client certificates.
password
Required on both the server and clients. On the server, sets the password clients need to use to communicate. On a client, sets the password to use to connect to the server.
protocol
Communication protocol to use. Defaults to xmlrpc/ssl.
retries
A client-only option. Number of times to retry network communication. Default is 3 retries.
retry_delay
A client-only option. Number of seconds to wait in between retrying network communication. Default is 1 second.
serverCommonNames
A client-only option. A colon-separated list of Common Names the client will accept in the SSL certificate presented by the server.
timeout
A client-only option. The network communication timeout.
user
A client-only option. The UUID of the client.
Specified in the [components] section.
bcfg2
URL of the server. On the server this specifies which interface and port the server listens on. On the client, this specifies where the client will attempt to contact the server.
e.g. bcfg2 = https://10.3.1.6:6789
encoding
Text encoding of configuration files. Defaults to UTF-8.
lockfile
The path to the client lock file, which is used to ensure that only one Bcfg2 client runs at a time on a single client.
Specified in the [logging] section. These options control the server logging functionality.
debug
Whether or not to enable debug-level log output. Default is false.
path
Server log file path.
syslog
Whether or not to send logging data to syslog. Default is true.
verbose
Whether or not to enable verbose log output. Default is false.
Specified in the [mdata] section. These options affect the default metadata settings for Paths with type='file'.
owner
Global owner for Paths (defaults to root)
group
Global group for Paths (defaults to root)
mode
Global permissions for Paths (defaults to 644)
secontext
Global SELinux context for Path entries (defaults to __default__, which restores the expected context)
paranoid
Global paranoid settings for Paths (defaults to false)
sensitive
Global sensitive settings for Paths (defaults to false)
important
Global important settings for Paths. Defaults to false.
The following options are specified in the [packages] section.
resolver
Enable dependency resolution. Default is 1 (true).
metadata
Enable metadata processing. Default is 1 (true). If metadata is disabled, it’s implied that resolver is also disabled.
yum_config
The path at which to generate Yum configs. No default.
apt_config
The path at which to generate APT configs. No default.
gpg_keypath
The path on the client where RPM GPG keys will be copied before they are imported on the client. Default is /etc/pki/rpm-gpg.
version
Set the version attribute used when binding Packages. Default is auto.
The following options are specified in the [packages:yum] section.
use_yum_libraries
By default, Bcfg2 uses an internal implementation of Yum’s dependency resolution and other routines so that the Bcfg2 server can be run on a host that does not support Yum itself. If you run the Bcfg2 server on a machine that does have Yum libraries, however, you can enable use of those native libraries in Bcfg2 by setting this to 1.
helper
Path to bcfg2-yum-helper. By default, Bcfg2 looks first in $PATH and then in /usr/sbin/bcfg2-yum-helper for the helper.
The following options are specified in the [packages:pulp] section.
username
The username of a Pulp user that will be used to register new clients and bind them to repositories.
password
The password of a Pulp user that will be used to register new clients and bind them to repositories.
All other options in the [packages:yum] section will be passed along verbatim to the Yum configuration if you are using the native Yum library support.
These options allow for finer-grained control of the paranoid mode on the Bcfg2 client. They are specified in the [paranoid] section of the configuration file.
path
Custom path for backups created in paranoid mode. The default is in /var/cache/bcfg2.
max_copies
Specify a maximum number of copies for the server to keep when running in paranoid mode. Only the most recent versions of these copies will be kept.
Specified in the [snapshots] section. These options control the server snapshots functionality.
driver
sqlite
database
The name of the database to use for statistics data.
e.g.: $REPOSITORY_DIR/etc/bcfg2.sqlite
These options are necessary to configure the SSLCA plugin and can be found in the [sslca_default] section of the configuration file.
config
Specifies the location of the openssl configuration file for your CA.
passphrase
Specifies the passphrase for the CA’s private key (if necessary). If no passphrase exists, it is assumed that the private key is stored unencrypted.
chaincert
Specifies the location of your ssl chaining certificate. This is used when pre-existing certifcate hostfiles are found, so that they can be validated and only regenerated if they no longer meet the specification. If you’re using a self signing CA this would be the CA cert that you generated.
Server-only, specified in the [database] section. These options control the database connection of the server.
engine
The database engine used by the statistics module. One of the following:
postgresql mysql sqlite3 ado_mssql
name
The name of the database to use for statistics data. If 'database_engine' is set to 'sqlite3' this is a file path to the sqlite file and defaults to $REPOSITORY_DIR/etc/brpt.sqlite.
user
User for database connections. Not used for sqlite3.
password
Password for database connections. Not used for sqlite3.
host
Host for database connections. Not used for sqlite3.
port
Port for database connections. Not used for sqlite3.
options
Various options for the database connection. The value is expected as multiple key=value pairs, separated with commas. The concrete value depends on the database engine.
config
Specifies the location of the reporting configuration (default is /etc/bcfg2-web.conf.
time_zone
Specifies a time zone other than that used on the system. (Note that this will cause the Bcfg2 server to log messages in this time zone as well).
web_debug
Turn on Django debugging.