Question

If I externalise my Puppet module config to a directory outside of Puppet by adding the modulepath / manifestdir settings:

[main]  
  pluginsync=true 
  modulepath=/home/user/project/etc/puppet/modules 
  manifestdir=/home/user/project/etc/puppet/manifests 

the agents log the following error:

“Could not evaluate: Could not retrieve information from source(s) puppet://my-dns-name/plugins”

so looks as if they no longer seem to be able to find the Facter facts I have installed in $modulepath//lib/facter ?

If I comment out the modulepath / manifestdir settings and copy the configuration back to the /etc/puppet install directory the agents work fine.

Do I maybe need to set the pluginsource setting also and if so, where to?
Any pointers gratefully appreciated!

Answer 1

Are the permissions on your home directory restricted, e.g. to 0750? The puppetmaster will typically run as a dedicated puppet user rather than root, so it probably can’t read a private home directory.

The other possibility is SELinux if you’re using it. I’d expect that the files in your home directory aren’t labeled to permit access by a puppetmaster process. Do you see any AVC denials in syslog?