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only_before_sync

decorate a puppet resource with pre-update/post-update resources

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Version information

  • 0.1.0 (latest)
released May 31st 2016

Start using this module

  • r10k or Code Manager
  • Bolt
  • Manual installation
  • Direct download

Add this module to your Puppetfile:

mod 'geoffwilliams-only_before_sync', '0.1.0'
Learn more about managing modules with a Puppetfile

Add this module to your Bolt project:

bolt module add geoffwilliams-only_before_sync
Learn more about using this module with an existing project

Manually install this module globally with Puppet module tool:

puppet module install geoffwilliams-only_before_sync --version 0.1.0

Direct download is not typically how you would use a Puppet module to manage your infrastructure, but you may want to download the module in order to inspect the code.

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Documentation

geoffwilliams/only_before_sync — version 0.1.0 May 31st 2016

Build Status

only_before_sync

Table of Contents

  1. Description
  2. Setup - The basics of getting started with only_before_sync
  3. Usage - Configuration options and additional functionality
  4. Reference - An under-the-hood peek at what the module is doing and how
  5. Limitations - OS compatibility, etc.
  6. Development - Guide for contributing to the module

Description

only_before_sync allows you to designate specific resources to run ONLY when a resources is scheduled to be synced (run).

Practically, this module lends itself to tasks such as running scripts before a particular package is installed or upgraded.

How it works

A regular puppet resource will normally self-determine if it needs to sync (run) and will then perform the required actions as a single step.

This module works by front-loading this process with a test to see if the resource needs to sync and then enables and executes the conditional resources.

Each instance of this resource needs to be configured with:

  • resource - the main resource that we are testing against
  • before_sync - Puppet resources to enable and process if resource needs sync. These must each be put in noop mode. If this module determines that resource will sync, they will be enabled and then processed naturally as part of the Puppet run

Graphically, the following procedure looks like this:

start                                                         c   c   o
  |                                                           a   o   n
  V                                                           t   m
validate parameters and catalog                               a   p   m
  |                                                           l   i   a
  V                                                           g   l   s
reorder catalog resources                                         e   t
  |                                                                   e
  |                                                                   r
  |
..|.............................................................................
  |
catalog produced and control passed to agent
  |
..|.............................................................................
  V
<resource needs sync> --------------------------------        t   m
  | yes                                              |        h   o
  V                                                  |        i   d
turn off noop mode for before_sync resources         |        s   u
  |                                                  |            l
  |                                                  |            e
  |                                                  |
..|..................................................|..........................
  V                                                  |      
agent naturally processes before_sync resources <-----        y   c
  |                                                           o   o
agent naturally processes main resource                       u   d
    |                                                         r   e
    |
....|...........................................................................
    V                                                           
  <main resource needs sync>                                  n   t
    | yes               | no                                  a   y
    V                   V                                     t   p
  sync main resource    stop                                  i   e
    |                                                         v
    V                                                         e  
  stop

Setup

What only_before_sync affects

The module doesn't control physical resources on the machine, only the manipulation of the final catalog which is done from the agent node with validation taking place on the master.

This is done in a very similar way to the puppetlabs/transition module which is a good 'see also'

Usage

Usage is best illustrated by a worked example:

# The package to install that we will attach our exec resources to
# notice that it is before all other resources even though it needs
# to be processed internally _last_.  The type and provider will
# reorder the graph at compile time to take care of this
package { "nmap-ncat":
  ensure => present,
}

# Query RPM to verify that the package is not installed yet and write this to a
# file, proving that the package resource has not yet been processed.  In
# real-world useage, a script that you only wanted to run on install or upgrade
# would be set as the command here.
exec { "before_package_installed":
  noop    => true,
  command => '/bin/rpm -q nmap-ncat > /tmp/exec.txt',
  returns => 1, # Expect exit status 1 from rpm if package not installed
}

# Make our 2 exec resources run before package installation only
# if an upgrade/install is happening.  You can add multiple resources
# by using an array or just refer to a single resource.  All resources *MUST* be
# marked as noop in your puppet code.  The provider works by turning off noop
# mode if the main resource requires a sync
only_before_sync { "testing123":
  resource    => Package['nmap-ncat'],
  before_sync => [
    Exec["before_package_installed"],
    Exec["demo"]
  ],
}

# an additional exec resource just to prove that we can handle more then one
exec { "demo":
  noop    => true,
  command => "/bin/date > /tmp/demo.txt",
}

Key steps/features

  • Define the resources that you wish to conditionally run and set their noop parameter (the exec resources)
  • Add the main resource (the package)
  • Add an only_before_sync resource to glue everything together
    • only_before_sync will re-order dependencies by adding the equivalent before and require edges to the dependency graph
    • The name/title of the resource are for reference/de-duplication purposes only and can be set to anything unique
    • The before_sync attribute uses the Puppet referencing syntax to reference one or more resources in noop mode
    • If the resource identified by the resource parameter needs to sync, noop mode will be removed from all resources referenced by before_sync
    • The resource attribute is a reference to the resource which will used to test whether the resources referenced in the before_sync parameter should be enabled during this Puppet run
    • In this example, we have used the exec and package resources because this illustrates a the main customer usage of this module. You may, however, use any resource types you like as long as they are native type and providers and implement the insync method in the Puppet type definition

Reference

only_before_sync

Custom type and provider to allow running resources before another resource is synced

Limitations

  • Not supported by Puppet

Development

Pull Requests welcome

Testing

Users of this module are strongly encouraged to carry out their own testing to verify correct operation. This project is also complete with acceptance tests written using:

Tests currently use Docker so you will need this setup on the machine you are testing from.

DO NOT RUN TESTS FROM A PUPPET MASTER!

To run them tests, first prepare your system:

bundle install

And then run all test suites by running:

bundle exec kitchen verify

This will run end-to-end testing by creating a container, installing the Puppet code and running the tests.

If desired, you can instead run the stages of the test suite individually:

  • bundle exec kitchen create - Create the test container/vm infrastructure
  • bundle exec kitchen converge - Run Puppet inside the container
  • bundle exec kitchen verify - Check the state of the system after running Puppet

It is suggested to have your CI server execute these tests before allowing code to be published to the puppet master