cf-runagent8

Usage

Overview

cf-runagent connects to a list of running instances of cf-serverd. It allows foregoing the usual cf-execd schedule to activate cf-agent. Additionally, a user may send classes to be defined on the remote host. Two kinds of classes may be sent: classes to decide on which hosts cf-agent will be started, and classes that the user requests cf-agent should define on execution. The latter type is regulated by cf-serverd's role based access control.

Options

--help, -h

Print the help message

--background, -b value

Parallelize connections (50 by default)

--debug, -d

Enable debugging output

--verbose, -v

Output verbose information about the behaviour of cf-runagent

--log-level, -g value

Specify how detailed logs should be. Possible values: 'error', 'warning', 'notice', 'info', 'verbose', 'debug'

--dry-run, -n

All talk and no action mode - make no changes, only inform of promises not kept

--version, -V

Output the version of the software

--file, -f value

Specify an alternative input file than the default. This option is overridden by FILE if supplied as argument.

--define-class, -D value

Define a list of comma separated classes to be sent to a remote agent

--select-class, -s value

Define a list of comma separated classes to be used to select remote agents by constraint

--inform, -I

Print basic information about changes made to the system, i.e. promises repaired

--remote-options, -o value

(deprecated)

--diagnostic, -x

(deprecated)

--hail, -H value

Hail the following comma-separated lists of hosts, overriding default list

--interactive, -i

Enable interactive mode for key trust

--timeout, -t value

Connection timeout, seconds

--color, -C value

Enable colorized output. Possible values: 'always', 'auto', 'never'. If option is used, the default value is 'auto'

--timestamp, -l

Log timestamps on each line of log output

--ignore-preferred-augments, -

Ignore def_preferred.json file in favor of def.json

--log-modules, - value

Enable even more detailed debug logging for specific areas of the implementation. Use together with '-d'. Use --log-modules=help for a list of available modules

--remote-bundles, - value

Bundles to execute on the remote agent

Cfengine

CFEngine provides automated configuration management of large-scale computer systems. A system administrator describes the desired state of a system using CFEngine policy code. The program cf-agent reads policy code and attempts to bring the current system state to the desired state described. Policy code is downloaded by cf-agent from a cf-serverd daemon. The daemon cf-execd is responsible for running cf-agent periodically.
Documentation for CFEngine is available at https://docs.cfengine.com/.

Promise theory

CFEngine is built on principles from promise theory, proposed by Mark Burgess in 2004. Promise theory is a model of voluntary cooperation between individual, autonomous actors or agents who publish their intentions to one another in the form of promises. A promise is a declaration of intent whose purpose is to increase the recipient's certainty about a claim of past, present or future behaviour. For a promise to increase certainty, the recipient needs to trust the promiser, but trust can also be built on the verification that previous promises have been kept, thus trust plays a symbiotic relationship with promises.
For an introduction to promise theory, please see http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.3294/