lab-04.1-Validating-classification

Lab 4.1: Validating classification

Puppet's idempotent model makes it easy to write code that maintains configuration indefinitely. Unfortunately, it also makes it more difficult to troubleshoot when changes you expect don't happen when you expect them to. It would be nice to know for sure if Puppet was enforcing the classes you expect, which would help you isolate logic errors.

In this lab, we'll look at some debugging steps that can help you validate whether the code you've written is being enforced properly. We've installed the jq tool for parsing the catalog.

If you did not complete the userprefs section of the Classification exercise earlier, do that first. Alternatively, choose a different class and resources to search for in this exercise.

Steps

1. Check the timestamp of your classfile with ls -l $(puppet agent --configprint classfile)
2. Run Puppet and check the timestamp again to see it change.
3. Ensure that the userprefs class was enforced on your node with grep userprefs $(puppet agent --configprint classfile)
4. Check to see that the rc file for your shell is being managed:
   • Bash: grep '/root/.bashrc' $(puppet agent --configprint resourcefile)
   • Zsh: grep '/root/.zshrc' $(puppet agent --configprint resourcefile)

Inspect the userprefs classification parameters

1. Check the catalog to ensure that the parameters you specified are set.

   cd $(puppet agent --configprint client_datadir)/catalog
   jq '.resources[] | select(.type == "Class" and .title == "Userprefs") .parameters' $(hostname).json
   

   Your output should look similar to this...

   {
     "editor": "vim",
     "shell": "bash",
     "gitprompt": true
   }

2. Inspect the complete Class object to see what other interesting data you could use. Press the up arrow and edit the command line to remove .parameters.

   Your output should look similar to this...

   {
     "type": "Class",
     "title": "Userprefs",
     "tags": [
       "class",
       "userprefs",
       "node",
       "master.puppetlabs.vm"
     ],
     "exported": false,
     "parameters": {
       "editor": "vim",
       "shell": "bash",
       "gitprompt": true
     }
   }

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