Version information
This version is compatible with:
- Puppet Enterprise 2025.5.x, 2025.4.x, 2025.3.x, 2025.2.x, 2025.1.x, 2023.8.x, 2023.7.x, 2023.6.x, 2023.5.x, 2023.4.x, 2023.3.x
- Puppet >= 8.0.0 < 9.0.0
Start using this module
Add this module to your Puppetfile:
mod 'choria-mcollective_agent_shell', '1.1.0'Learn more about managing modules with a PuppetfileDocumentation
Shell agent
The shell agent allows you to start and manage shell commands via mcollective.
It allows the running of long-running processes with a mechanism to check in on the output from these long-running processes, which is independent of the mcollective daemon process (the daemon can be restarted without interrupting the processes)
Please note: we do not recommend this agent as a way of building out your automation, for that you're still better off writing your own tailored agents that fit your use case. This agent is targeted at the ad-hoc needs that people occasionally have.
Actions
This agent provides the following actions, for details about each please run mco plugin doc agent/shell
- kill - Kill a command by handle
- list - Get a list of all running commands
- run - Run a command
- start - Spawn a command
- status - Get status of managed command
Installation
Add the agent and client:
mcollective::plugin_classes:
- mcollective_agent_shell
Configuring the agent
The agent should work without any additional configuration, though there are some options you can tune via Hiera.
.state_directory
This is where the state used to track processes will live. By default this
will be /var/run/mcollective-shell on Unix systems.
mcollective_agent_shell::config:
state_directory: /opt/run/mcollective-shell
Application usage
The mco shell application has several subcommands to start and manage
processes.
mco shell run
Runs a command and reports back. Use this for discrete short-living commands.
For long-running commands look at start or run --tail.
$ mco shell run dir
* [ ============================================================> ] 2 / 2
master:
bin dev home lib64 media opt root selinux srv tmp vagrant
boot etc lib lost+found mnt proc sbin src sys usr var
server2008r2a:
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is DADF-75F9
Directory of C:\
09/22/2012 11:45 AM <SYMLINKD> manifests [\\vboxsrv\manifests]
09/22/2012 11:45 AM <SYMLINKD> modules [\\vboxsrv\modules]
07/13/2009 08:20 PM <DIR> PerfLogs
09/22/2012 11:42 AM <DIR> Program Files
03/27/2014 06:52 AM <DIR> Program Files (x86)
07/03/2014 07:42 AM <SYMLINKD> src [\\vboxsrv\C:_src]
03/27/2014 06:39 AM <DIR> Users
07/03/2014 07:42 AM <SYMLINKD> vagrant [\\vboxsrv\vagrant]
03/27/2014 06:41 AM <DIR> Windows
0 File(s) 0 bytes
9 Dir(s) 34,565,091,328 bytes free
Finished processing 2 / 2 hosts in 221.28 ms
mco shell run --tail
Starts a command, shows you the output from it, kills the command when you interrupt with control-c, exits normally when the command exits.
$ mco shell -I /master/ run --tail vmstat 1
* [ ============================================================> ] 1 / 1
master stdout: procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- -----cpu-----
master stdout: r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa st
master stdout: 0 1 445812 120584 5808 37348 34 29 52 48 39 47 6 1 93 0 0
master stdout: 1 0 445112 122692 5824 37332 2692 0 2692 84 911 2089 47 9 40 4 0
master stdout: 1 0 444848 122576 5824 37344 288 0 288 0 773 1914 48 5 47 0 0
master stdout: 0 0 444012 121320 5824 37348 1212 0 1212 0 823 1917 47 6 45 1 0
master stdout: 0 0 443984 121204 5824 37372 0 0 0 0 797 1796 52 5 43 0 0
master stdout: 0 0 438800 117244 5824 37360 3896 0 3896 0 910 2123 49 6 45 0 0
master stdout: 1 0 438768 117136 5840 37368 0 0 0 136 811 1926 48 6 45 0 0
^CAttempting to stopping cleanly, interrupt again to kill
Sending kill to master 6dad5cb9-57f7-46e0-bad7-07ab117369a5
mco shell start
Starts a command in the background and tells you the id that has been assigned
to it. You can then use mco shell watch, mco shell kill, mco shell list
to monitor this process and observe its output
$ mco shell -I /master/ start vmstat 1
* [ ============================================================> ] 1 / 1
master: 0dd67fac-734f-4824-8b4d-03100d4f9d07
Finished processing 1 / 1 hosts in 76.37 ms
mco shell watch
Shows you the output of a command you previously started with mco shell start
$ mco shell watch 0dd67fac-734f-4824-8b4d-03100d4f9d07
* [ ============================================================> ] 2 / 2
master stdout: procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- -----cpu-----
master stdout: r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa st
master stdout: 2 0 431448 110704 8484 40644 34 29 52 48 40 47 6 1 93 0 0
mco shell list
Show a list of running jobs.
$ mco shell list -v
* [ ============================================================> ] 2 / 2
master:
0dd67fac-734f-4824-8b4d-03100d4f9d07
1fd3961a-f48d-4119-b988-146b490a5ca3
d174e20b-9cdb-4c14-9f34-fd29995f30cb
ea809b20-3123-46b4-bf59-10ff7251ca9b
Finished processing 2 / 2 hosts in 142.34 ms
mco shell kill
Kill a running job.
$ mco shell kill 0dd67fac-734f-4824-8b4d-03100d4f9d07
* [ ============================================================> ] 2 / 2
Finished processing 2 / 2 hosts in 170.17 ms
Known Issues
Encoding Concerns
Sometimes when running certain commands, you may encounter UTF-8 characters in the reply. This can result in an error, "Cannot decode output from Shim", coming back from mcollective. In order to work around this, you can choose to set LC_ALL=en for the choria-server service. Under systemd, for example, create the following file at
/etc/systemd/system/choria-server.service.d/environment.conf
[Service]
Environment="LC_ALL=en"
And then restart choria-server
root@myhost:~$ systemctl restart choria-server
Note that this change will apply to all choria interactions, so could have untested and unintended consequences.
Changelog
Change history for choria/mcollective_agent_shell
1.1.0
Released 2024-08-26
- Support latest ruby and use new module layout
1.0.6
Released 2023-10-06
- Improve Puppet 8 support
1.0.5
Released 2023-09-18
- Improve processing STDOUT and STDERR and support for non-ASCCI-7BIT characters
1.0.4
Released 2019-09-20
- Improve compatibility with the pure JSON Choria Server
1.0.3
Released 2018-04-20
- Include JSON DDL files
- Add Licencing files and contribution guidelines
1.0.2
Release 2018-03-07
- Further adjustments for compatability with the mco plugin packager (#3)
1.0.1
Release 2018-03-06
- Adjust file layout to be compatible with mco plugin packager (#3)
1.0.0
Released 2018-02-28
- Initial release as part of the Choria Project
0.0.2
Released 2015-03-12
- Removed saucy cows from build targets (MCOP-271)
- Add explicit
require 'pathname'to fix agent in some configuration (PR#4)
0.0.1
Released 2014-07-17
- Initial public release
Dependencies
- choria/mcollective (>= 0.14.5 < 2.0.0)
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