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puppet_operational_dashboards

A module for managing the installation and configuration of metrics dashboards for Puppet Infrastructure.
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Version information

  • 2.3.0 (latest)
  • 2.2.0
  • 2.1.0
  • 2.0.0
  • 1.13.1
  • 1.13.0
  • 1.12.0
  • 1.11.0
  • 1.10.0
  • 1.9.0
  • 1.8.0
  • 1.7.0
  • 1.6.0
  • 1.5.0
  • 1.4.0
  • 1.3.0
  • 1.2.0
  • 1.1.0
  • 1.0.0
  • 0.2.0
  • 0.1.2
released Feb 5th 2024
Passed malware scan
This version is compatible with:
  • Puppet Enterprise 2023.8.x, 2023.7.x, 2023.6.x, 2023.5.x, 2023.4.x, 2023.3.x, 2023.2.x, 2023.1.x, 2023.0.x, 2021.7.x, 2021.6.x, 2021.5.x, 2021.4.x, 2021.3.x, 2021.2.x, 2021.1.x, 2021.0.x
  • Puppet >= 7.0.0 < 9.0.0
  • , , , , , , ,
Plans:
  • load_metrics
  • provision_dashboard

Start using this module

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

Add this module to your Puppetfile:

mod 'puppetlabs-puppet_operational_dashboards', '2.3.0'
Learn more about managing modules with a Puppetfile

Add this module to your Bolt project:

bolt module add puppetlabs-puppet_operational_dashboards
Learn more about using this module with an existing project

Manually install this module globally with Puppet module tool:

puppet module install puppetlabs-puppet_operational_dashboards --version 2.3.0

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.

Download

Documentation

puppetlabs/puppet_operational_dashboards — version 2.3.0 Feb 5th 2024

puppet_operational_dashboards

Table of Contents

Description

This module is a replacement for the puppet_metrics_dashboard module. It is used to configure Telegraf, InfluxDB, and Grafana to collect, store, and display metrics collected from Puppet services. By default, those components are installed on a separate Dashboard node by applying the base class of this module to that node. That class will automatically query PuppetDB for Puppet Infrastructure nodes (Primary server, Compilers, PuppetDB hosts, PostgreSQL hosts) or you can specify them via associated class parameters. It is not recommended to apply the base class of this module to one of your Puppet Infrastructure nodes.

Setup

Prerequisites

Note on air-gapped environments

If you are applying either the puppet_operational_dashboards or puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent classes to a node that cannot access the internet, it is possible to install packages from either an internal repository or archive sources located within the air gap.

Internal repositories

To use internal repositories, set the following parameters.

For InfluxDB, the following parameters are configurable:

Alternatively, you may set manage_repo to false to manage the repository configuration yourself.

For Grafana, the equivalent parameters are:

For Telegraf, the following parameters are available:

GPG options are currently not configurable.

Via Hiera it will look like this:

influxdb::manage_repo: true
influxdb::archive_source: false
puppet_operational_dashboards::profile::dashboards::manage_grafana_repo: true
puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent::manage_archive: false
puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent::manage_repo: true

That will install all components via their upstream repositories. When you want to use packages but manage repositories on your own, for example because you use Katello or RedHat Satellite:

influxdb::manage_repo: false
influxdb::archive_source: false
puppet_operational_dashboards::profile::dashboards::manage_grafana_repo: false
puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent::manage_archive: false
puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent::manage_repo: false

influxdb needs to install the toml gem at the moment. If you're behind an http proxy you can configure that as well:

influxdb::profile::toml::install_options_server:
  - '-p'
  - 'http://10.88.96.254.3128'
influxdb::profile::toml::install_options_agent:
  - '-p'
  - 'http://10.88.96.254.3128'

Archive sources

To use archive sources, set the following parameters. Note that support for Grafana archives has been deprecated and will need to be installed from a repository or package source.

For InfluxDB, set:

For Grafana, set:

Then, set grafana::package_source to an internal URL containing a package for Grafana for your distribution.

For Telegraf, set:

Beginning with puppet_operational_dashboards

Installing on Puppet Enterprise

To Install on Puppet Enterprise:

  1. Classify puppet_operational_dashboards::enterprise_infrastructure to a node group that encompasses all Puppet Infrastructure agents. The default node group PE Infrastructure Agent is appropriate.
include puppet_operational_dashboards::enterprise_infrastructure

This will install the toml-rb gem on compiling nodes, and grant the appropriate access to the databases, for the dashboard node on all database nodes.

  1. Classify puppet_operational_dashboards to the Puppet agent node to be designated as the Operational Dashboard node.
include puppet_operational_dashboards

This will install and configure Telegraf, InfluxDB, and Grafana.

Please note database access will not be granted until the Puppet agent run on the postgres nodes AFTER the application of puppet_operational_dashboards on the designated dashboard node.

Installing on Puppet Open Source

The toml-rb gem needs to be installed in the Puppetserver gem space, which can be done with the influxdb::profile::toml class in the InfluxDB module.

To collect PostgreSQL metrics, FOSS users can apply the puppet_operational_dashboards::profile::foss_postgres_access class to any postgres nodes to configure authentication and grants for a telegraf user to connect. This class has a dependency on the puppetlabs/puppetdb and puppetlabs/postgresql modules, and you must use the puppetlabs/puppetdb module to configure SSL for postgres. See the documentation here.

You may also configure the connection options used by the Telegraf client when querying postgres. These options can be set using the puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent::postgres_options class parameter.

The easiest way to get started using this module is by including the puppet_operational_dashboards class to install and configure Telegraf, InfluxDB, and Grafana. Note that you also need to install the toml-rb gem according to the documentation.

include puppet_operational_dashboards

What puppet_operational_dashboards affects

Installing the module will:

  • Install and configure InfluxDB using the puppetlabs/influxdb module
  • Install and configure Telegraf to collect metrics from your PE infrastructure. FOSS users can specify a list of infrastructure nodes via the puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent parameters.
  • Install and configure Grafana with several dashboards to display data from InfluxDB

Note that this will save an InfluxDB administrative token to the user's home directory, typically /root/.influxdb_token. The puppetlabs/influxdb types and providers can make use of this file during catalog application. The manifests in this module are also able to use it via deferred functions, which also run on the agent as the first step of catalog application. Therefore, it is possible to use this file for all token-based operations in this module, and no further configuration is required.

It is also possible to specify this token via the influxdb::token parameter in hiera. The Telegraf token used by the telegraf service and Grafana datasource can also be set via puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf_token. These are both Sensitive strings, so the recommended way to use them is to encrypt them with hiera-eyaml and use the encrypted value in hiera data. After setting up a hierarchy to use the eyaml backend, the values can be added to hiera data and automatically converted to Sensitive:

influxdb::token: <eyaml_encrypted_string>
lookup_options:
   influxdb::token:
     convert_to: "Sensitive"

These parameters take precedence over the file on disk if both are specified.

Usage

Accessing Grafana

To access Grafana, use the following in your browser of choice: http://[AGENT IP ADDRESS]/3000

When first accessing Grafana, the default login and password are as follows:

Username: Admin Password: Admin

Upon first sign in, you will then be prompted to change your password, skip this step and proceed to the dashboard.

Evaluation order

When using the default configuration options and the deferred function to retreive the Telegraf token, note that it will not be available during the initial Puppet agent run that creates all of the resources. A second run is required to retrieve the token and update the resources that use it. If you are seeing authentication errors from Telegraf and Grafana, make sure the Puppet agent has been run twice and that the token has made its way to the Telegraf service config file:

/etc/systemd/system/telegraf.service.d/override.conf

Determining where Telegraf runs

Which hosts a node collects metrics from is determined by the puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent::collection_method parameter. By default, the puppet_operational_dashboards class will collect metrics from all nodes in a PE infrastructure. If you want to change this behavior, set collection_method to local or none. Telegraf can be run on other nodes by applying the puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent class to them, for example:

class {'puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent':
  collection_method => 'local',
  token => <my_sensitive_token>,
}

Importing archive metrics

Metrics archives output by the Puppet metrics collector can be imported into InfluxDB using Telegraf and the scripts in the examples/ directory. See ARCHIVES.md for more.

Default Dashboards Available

Puppetserver Performance

This dashboard is to inspect Puppet server performance and troubleshoot the pe-puppetserver service. Available panels:

  • Puppetserver Performance This is a composite panel consisting of the following JRuby related metrics:
    • Average free JRubies
    • Average requested JRubies
    • Average JRuby borrow time
    • Average JRuby wait time
  • Heap Memory and Uptime This panel displays the following JVM metrics:
    • Heap Committed
    • Heap Used
    • Uptime
  • Average Requested JRubies
  • Average Borrow/Compile Time
  • Average Free JRubies
  • Average Wait Time
  • HTTP Client Metrics This panel displays the various network related metrics performed by Puppet server. Examples include:
    • puppetdb.query.full_response
    • facts.find.full_response
  • Borrow Timers Mean Average duration api requests require borrowing a JRuby from the pool
  • Borrow Timers Rate Rate at which Puppet server performs the above api requests
  • Function Timers Average duration of functions run as part of catalog compilations
  • Function Timers Count Rate at which Puppet server performs the above api requests

Use Case

  • Puppetserver service performance degraded
  • 503 responses to agent requests
  • Agent unable to get catalog
  • Inspect performance for a particular type of request
  • Inspect which type of request could be a performance bottleneck

File Sync Metrics

This dashboard is to inspect File-sync related performance. Available Graphs:

  • Number of Fetch / Commits vs Lock wait / held
    • Average Lock Held Time
    • Average Lock Wait Time
    • Number of Commits
    • Number of Fetches
  • File-Sync timing - Client Services
    • Average Clone Time
    • Average Fetch Time
    • Average Sync Time
    • Average Sync Clean Time
  • File-Sync timing - Storage Services
    • Average Commit add / rm Time
    • Average Commit time
    • Average Clean Check time
    • Average Pre-commit Hook Time

Use Case

  • Code Manager takes a significant time or fails to deploy code
  • Puppetserver frequently locked due to file sync
  • Compilers do not have the latest code available

PuppetDB Performance

This dashboard is to inspect PuppetDB performance and troubleshoot the pe-puppetdb service. Available panels:

  • Heap
  • Commands Per Second
  • Command Processing Time
  • Queue Depth
  • Replace Catalog Time
  • Replace Facts Time
  • Store Report Time
  • Average Read Duration
  • Read Pool Pending Connections
  • Average Write Duration
  • Write Pool Pending Connections

Use Case

  • Any PuppetDB performance issues
  • Troubleshooting Read/Write Pool Errors

Postgres Performance

This dashboard is to inspect PostgreSQL database performance. Available panels:

  • Temp Files Changes in temp file sizes per database over the given time interval
  • Sizes by Database (total) Total size of each database, including tables, indexes, and toast
  • Sizes by Table Size of each table, not including indexes or toast
  • Sizes by Index
  • Sizes by Toast
  • Autovacuum Activity
  • Vacuum Activity - (not auto, not full)
  • I/O - heap toast and index - hits / reads
  • Disk Block Reads (Heap) Changes in the number of disks blocks reads by postgres heap files per table. This indicates the value needed to be retrieved from disk instead of the cache.
  • Cache Reads (Heap) Changes in the number of cache reads by postgres heap files per table. This indicates the value was retrieved from the cache.
  • Disk Block Reads (Index) Same as above panel, but for indexes
  • Cache Reads (Index) Same as above panel, but for indexes
  • Disk Block Reads (Toast) Same as above panel, but for toast data
  • Cache Reads (Toast) Same as above panel, but for toast data
  • Live / Dead Tuples
  • Deadlocks

Use Cases

  • Monitor table sizes
  • Monitor Deadlocks and Slow Queries
  • Any PostgreSQL performance issues

Limitations

Ubuntu Telegraf Package

Currently, only the latest Telegraf package is provided by the Ubuntu repository. Therefore, the only allowed value for puppet_operational_dashboards::telegraf::agent::version is latest. Setting this parameter to a different value on Ubuntu will produce a warning.

Upgrading from puppet_metrics_dashboard

This module uses InfluxDB 2.x, while puppet_metrics_dashboard uses 1.x. This module does not currently provide an option to upgrade between these versions, so it is recommended to either install this module on a new node or manually upgrade. See the InfluxDB docs for more information about upgrading.

Applying classes on PE 2021.5 and 2021.6

On Puppet Enterprise versions 2021.5 and 2021.6, there is an issue when applying either the puppet_operational_dashboards::enterprise_infrastructure or puppet_operational_dashboards::profile::postgres_access classes in a user manifest. Doing so may result in an error such as:

Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 500 on SERVER: Server Error: Evaluation Error: Error while evaluating a Resource Statement, Evaluation Error: Comparison of: Undef Value < Integer, is not possible. Caused by 'Only Strings, Numbers, Timespans, Timestamps, and Versions are comparable'

This is due to an ordering issue with the cert_allowlist_entry defined type. The workaround is to apply the classes via the Console, for example by applying puppet_operational_dashboards::enterprise_infrastructure to the PE Infrastructure Agent node group. See Installing on Puppet Enterprise.

This issue only affect PE versions 2021.5 and 2021.6. Earlier versions are not affected, and later releases will include a fix to the defined type.

Installing on openSUSE 15

On some versions of openSUSE 15, the insserv-compat package may be required to enable the Grafana service. If you see an error such as:

Error: /Stage[main]/Grafana::Service/Service[grafana]/ensure: change from 'stopped' to 'running' failed: Could not enable grafana-server:

This is due to the missing package:

Synchronizing state of grafana-server.service with SysV service script with /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable grafana-server
/sbin/insserv: No such file or directory

Installing the insserv-compat resolves the error.

Troubleshooting

If data is not displaying in Grafana or you see errors in Telegraf collections, try checking the following items.

Grafana datasource and time interval

A common reason for not seeing data in the dashboards is choosing the wrong datasource or time interval. Double check that you have selected a datasource and window of time for which metrics have been collected. Also, check that the server filter at the top of the dashboard contains valid entries.

Also, note that Telegraf performs its first collection after the first collection interval has passed. You may need to wait for this to pass, or manually test using the method below.

Datasources can be tested via the "Data Sources" configuration page in Grafana. Select the datasource, e.g. influxdb_puppet, and click the "Test" button. Note that because this is a "provisioned datasource," it cannot be edited in the UI.

Telegraf errors

A good way to test Telegraf collection is to use the --test option. After logging into the node running telegraf, first export your token:

export INFLUX_TOKEN=<token>

The token can either be the admin token written to /root/.influxdb_token by default, or the puppet telegraf token used specifically for Telegraf. See REFERENCE.md for more information.

Prepending a space before the export command will prevent the token from being written to you shell's history.

Then, test the collection:

telegraf --test --debug --config /etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf --config-directory /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d/

Services can also be tested individually, for example:

telegraf --test --debug --config /etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf --config /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d/puppetserver_metrics.conf

will only collect Puppet server metrics.

Supporting Content

Articles

The Support Knowledge base is a searchable repository for technical information and how-to guides for all Puppet products.

This Module has the following specific Article(s) available:

  1. Manage the installation and configuration of metrics dashboards using the puppetlabs-puppet_operational_dashboards module for Puppet Enterprise
  2. Monitor the performance of your PuppetDB
  3. High swap usage on your primary server or replica in Puppet Enterprise

Videos

The Support Video Playlist is a resource of content generated by the support team

This Module has the following specific video content available:

  1. Puppet Metrics Overview

  2. Collecting and Displaying Puppet Metrics

  3. Interpreting Puppet Metrics