bcfg2.conf¶

Description¶

bcfg2.conf includes configuration parameters for the Bcfg2 server and client.

File format¶

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.

Server options¶

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
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. Defaults to True.

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:

ACL
Bundler
Bzr
Cfg
Cvs
Darcs
Decisions
Defaults
Deps
FileProbes
Fossil
Git
GroupLogic
GroupPatterns
Guppy
Hg
Ldap
Metadata
NagiosGen
Ohai
Packages
Pkgmgr
POSIXCompat
Probes
Properties
PuppetENC
Reporting
Rules
SEModules
ServiceCompat
SSHbase
Svn
TemplateHelper
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.

Server Plugins¶

This section has a listing of all the plugins currently provided with Bcfg2.

ACL Plugin¶

The ACL plugin controls which hosts can make which XML-RPC calls.

Bundler Plugin¶

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.

Bzr Plugin¶

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.

Cfg Plugin¶

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.

Cvs Plugin¶

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.

Darcs Plugin¶

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.

Decisions 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.

Defaults Plugin¶

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.

Deps Plugin¶

The Deps plugin allows you to make a series of assertions like “Package X requires Package Y (and optionally also Package Z etc.)”

FileProbes Plugin¶

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.

Fossil Plugin¶

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.

Git Plugin¶

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.

GroupLogic Plugin¶

The GroupLogic plugin lets you flexibly assign group membership with a Genshi template.

GroupPatterns Plugin¶

The GroupPatterns plugin is a connector that can assign clients group membership based on patterns in client hostnames.

Guppy Plugin¶

The Guppy plugin is used to trace memory leaks within the bcfg2-server process using Guppy.

Hg Plugin¶

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.

Ldap Plugin¶

The Ldap plugin makes it possible to fetch data from a LDAP directory, process it and attach it to your metadata.

Metadata Plugin¶

The Metadata plugin is the primary method of specifying Bcfg2 server metadata.

NagiosGen Plugin¶

The NagiosGen plugin dynamically generates Nagios configuration files based on Bcfg2 data.

Ohai Plugin¶

The Ohai plugin is used to detect information about the client operating system. The data is reported back to the server using JSON.

Packages Plugin¶

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.

Pkgmgr Plugin¶

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.

POSIXCompat Plugin¶

The POSIXCompat plugin provides a compatibility layer for 1.3 POSIX Entries so that they are compatible with older clients.

Probes Plugin¶

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.

Properties Plugin¶

The Properties plugin is a connector plugin that adds information from properties files into client metadata instances.

PuppetENC Plugin¶

The PuppetENC plugin is a connector plugin that adds support for Puppet External Node Classifiers.

Reporting Plugin¶

The Reporting plugin enables the collection of data for use with Bcfg2’s dynamic reporting system.

Rules Plugin¶

The Rules plugin provides literal configuration entries that resolve the abstract configuration entries normally found in Bundler. The literal entries in Rules are suitable for consumption by the appropriate client drivers.

SEModules Plugin¶

The SEModules plugin provides a way to distribute SELinux modules via Bcfg2.

ServiceCompat Plugin¶

The ServiceCompat plugin converts service entries for older clients.

SSHbase Plugin¶

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.

Svn Plugin¶

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.

Trigger Plugin¶

The Trigger plugin provides a method for calling external scripts when clients are configured.

Caching options¶

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.

Client options¶

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.

Communication options¶

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/tlsv1.

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.

Component options¶

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.

Logging options¶

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.

MDATA options¶

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.

Packages options¶

The following options are specified in the [packages] section.

backends

Comma separated list of backends for the dependency resolution. Default is “Yum,Apt,Pac,Pkgng”.

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.

Paranoid options¶

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.

SSL CA options¶

These options are necessary to configure the SSL CA feature of the Cfg 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.

Database options¶

Server-only, specified in the [database] section. These options control the database connection of the server.

engine
The database engine used by server plugins. One of the following:
postgresql
mysql
sqlite3
ado_mssql
name

The name of the database to use for server data. If ‘database_engine’ is set to ‘sqlite3’ this is a file path to the sqlite file and defaults to $REPOSITORY_DIR/etc/bcfg2.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 expected is the literal value of the django OPTIONS setting.

reporting_engine
The database engine used by the Reporting plugin. One of the following:
   postgresql
   mysql
   sqlite3
   ado_mssql

If reporting_engine is not specified, the Reporting plugin uses
the same database as the other server plugins.
reporting_name

The name of the database to use for reporting data. If ‘database_engine’ is set to ‘sqlite3’ this is a file path to the sqlite file and defaults to $REPOSITORY_DIR/etc/reporting.sqlite.

reporting_user

User for reporting database connections. Not used for sqlite3.

reporting_password

Password for reporting database connections. Not used for sqlite3.

reporting_host

Host for reporting database connections. Not used for sqlite3.

reporting_port

Port for reporting database connections. Not used for sqlite3.

reporting_options

Various options for the database connection. The value expected is the literal value of the django OPTIONS setting.

Reporting options¶

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.

max_children

Maximum number of children for the reporting collector. Use 0 to disable the limit. (default is 0)

django_settings

Arbitrary options for the Django installation. The value expected is a literal python dictionary, that is merged with the already set django settings.