puppet-herald gem

Herald is a puppet report processor. He provides a gateway for consuming puppet reports, a REST API and a simple Web app to display reports.

There is/will be a puppet module that handle installation and configuration of Herald and prerequisites. Installing configuring and running with puppet is recommended. If you decided to take that approch check out: https://github.com/wavesoftware/puppet-herald

Installation, configuration and usage point seen below does not apply to installing with puppet!

Herald typically should be installed on the same node or in management network of your puppet master. It will listen by default to localhost (this can be changed by --bind option). You should take care to properlly secure Herald if its publicly avialable (SSL, Authorization, Access List, Firewalls etc.). This could be easily done with Apache web server. Is approch is taken in puppet module (see above).

If you decided to install Herald by yourself, issue just:

sudo gem install puppet-herald

###PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is recommended database backend for Herald. If you like to use PostgreSQL database to hold reports, you will need to configure it. By default, Herald will use a sqlite file that he tries to create in your home directory. Check out puppet-herald --help for description.

###Prerequisites for PostgreSQL

• libpq-dev system package
• pg gem package

On Ubuntu/Debian system install them with:

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev
sudo gem install pg

###Create a database

Just create a database for Herald (this is just a sample for PostgreSQL):

CREATE ROLE pherald LOGIN PASSWORD '<YOUR PASSWORD>'
  NOSUPERUSER INHERIT NOCREATEDB
  NOCREATEROLE NOREPLICATION;
CREATE DATABASE "pherald" WITH OWNER = pherald
  ENCODING = 'UTF8'
  TABLESPACE = pg_default;

$ puppet-herald --help

Example usage of Herald with defaults:

puppet-herald # Navigate to http://localhost:11303/

Example usage of Herald with PostgreSQL and binding 127.0.1.1:

puppet-herald \
  --dbconn postgresql://pherald@master.cluster.vm:5432/pherald \
  --passfile /etc/pherald/passfile \
  --bind 127.0.1.1 # Navigate to http://127.0.1.1:11303/

Example usage of Herald with SQLite3 and binding to other host and port:

puppet-herald \
  --dbconn sqlite:///var/lib/puppet/reports/pherald.db \
  --bind master.cluster.vm \
  --port 8081 # Navigate to http://master.cluster.vm:8081/

To send reports to Herald, you need to configure your puppet master to use custom report proccessor. This processor is also automatically configured if you choose to use a puppet module installation version. If not you must configure it by yourself.

First install a puppet-herald gem if you didn't do it already on puppet master:

sudo gem install puppet-herald

If you are running PE, run instead:

sudo /opt/puppet/bin/gem install puppet-herald

Then create a file in your puppet module directory (you can get modulepath with command: puppet config print modulepath). For example: <puppet modules>/herald/lib/puppet/reports/herald.rb with contents:

require 'puppet'
require 'puppet-herald/client'

Puppet::Reports.register_report(:herald) do
  desc "Process reports via the Herald API."
  def process
    PuppetHerald::Client.new.process(self)
  end
end

If you need to post to other host or port use (defaults are: localhost and 11303):

require 'puppet'
require 'puppet-herald/client'

Puppet::Reports.register_report(:herald) do
  desc "Process reports via the Herald API."
  def process
    PuppetHerald::Client.new('master.secure.vm', 8082).process(self)
  end
end

Then edit your puppet.conf file and set herald as your report processor in section main:

[main]
   reports = puppetdb,herald

###Testing a ruby code

There are two types of tests distributed with the module. Unit tests and integration tests that uses sqlite as database backend in memory.

For unit testing, make sure you have:

• rake
• bundler

Install the necessary gems (gems will be downloaded to private .vendor directory):

bundle install --path .vendor

And then run the unit tests (for integration tests simply swap unit to integration):

bundle exec rake spec:unit

You can run single test with:

bundle exec rspec spec/unit/puppet-herald/version_spec.rb

You can also run all test with test target

###Testing a javascript code

To test javascript code, make sure you have:

• nodejs

If so, issue this command to bootstart testing environment:

npm install

And then test Javascript code with:

bundle exec rake js:test

Check your code for quality with:

bundle exec rake rucocop
bundle exec rake inch

###Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

To contribute, follow the standard git flow of:

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request

Even if you can't contribute code, if you have an idea for an improvement please open an issue.