Indirection Reference

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About Indirection

Puppet’s indirector support pluggable backends (termini) for a variety of key-value stores (indirections). Each indirection type corresponds to a particular Ruby class (the “Indirected Class” below) and values are instances of that class. Each instance’s key is available from its name method. The termini can be local (e.g., on-disk files) or remote (e.g., using a REST interface to talk to a puppet master).

An indirector has five methods, which are mapped into HTTP verbs for the REST interface:

  • find(key) - get a single value (mapped to GET or POST with a singular endpoint)
  • search(key) - get a list of matching values (mapped to GET with a plural endpoint)
  • head(key) - return true if the key exists (mapped to HEAD)
  • destroy(key) - remove the key and value (mapped to DELETE)
  • save(instance) - write the instance to the store, using the instance’s name as the key (mapped to PUT)

These methods are available via the indirection class method on the indirected classes. For example:

node = Puppet::Node.indirection.find('foo.example.com')

At startup, each indirection is configured with a terminus. In most cases, this is the default terminus defined by the indirected class, but it can be overridden by the application or face, or overridden with the route_file configuration. The available termini differ for each indirection, and are listed below.

Indirections can also have a cache, represented by a second terminus. This is a write-through cache: modifications are written both to the cache and to the primary terminus. Values fetched from the terminus are written to the cache.

Interaction with REST

REST endpoints have the form /{prefix}/{version}/{indirection}/{key}?environment={environment}, where the indirection can be singular or plural, following normal English spelling rules. On the server side, REST responses are generated from the locally-configured endpoints.

Indirections and Termini

Below is the list of all indirections, their associated terminus classes, and how you select between them.

In general, the appropriate terminus class is selected by the application for you (e.g., puppet agent would always use the rest terminus for most of its indirected classes), but some classes are tunable via normal settings. These will have terminus setting documentation listed with them.

catalog

  • Indirected Class: Puppet::Resource::Catalog
  • Terminus Setting: catalog_terminus

compiler terminus

Compiles catalogs on demand using Puppet’s compiler.

json terminus

Store catalogs as flat files, serialized using JSON.

msgpack terminus

Store catalogs as flat files, serialized using MessagePack.

rest terminus

Find resource catalogs over HTTP via REST.

store_configs terminus

Part of the “storeconfigs” feature. Should not be directly set by end users.

yaml terminus

Store catalogs as flat files, serialized using YAML.

data_binding

Where to find external data bindings.

  • Indirected Class: Puppet::DataBinding
  • Terminus Setting: data_binding_terminus

hiera terminus

Retrieve data using Hiera.

none terminus

A Dummy terminus that always throws :no_such_key for data lookups.

facts

  • Indirected Class: Puppet::Node::Facts
  • Terminus Setting: facts_terminus

facter terminus

Retrieve facts from Facter. This provides a somewhat abstract interface between Puppet and Facter. It’s only somewhat abstract because it always returns the local host’s facts, regardless of what you attempt to find.

json terminus

Store client facts as flat files, serialized using JSON, or return deserialized facts from disk.

memory terminus

Keep track of facts in memory but nowhere else. This is used for one-time compiles, such as what the stand-alone puppet does. To use this terminus, you must load it with the data you want it to contain.

network_device terminus

Retrieve facts from a network device.

rest terminus

Find and save facts about nodes over HTTP via REST.

store_configs terminus

Part of the “storeconfigs” feature. Should not be directly set by end users.

yaml terminus

Store client facts as flat files, serialized using YAML, or return deserialized facts from disk.

file_bucket_file

  • Indirected Class: Puppet::FileBucket::File

file terminus

Store files in a directory set based on their checksums.

rest terminus

This is a REST based mechanism to send/retrieve file to/from the filebucket

selector terminus

Select the terminus based on the request

file_content

  • Indirected Class: Puppet::FileServing::Content

file terminus

Retrieve file contents from disk.

file_server terminus

Retrieve file contents using Puppet’s fileserver.

rest terminus

Retrieve file contents via a REST HTTP interface.

selector terminus

Select the terminus based on the request

file_metadata

  • Indirected Class: Puppet::FileServing::Metadata

file terminus

Retrieve file metadata directly from the local filesystem.

file_server terminus

Retrieve file metadata using Puppet’s fileserver.

http terminus

Retrieve file metadata from a remote HTTP server.

rest terminus

Retrieve file metadata via a REST HTTP interface.

selector terminus

Select the terminus based on the request

node

Where to find node information. A node is composed of its name, its facts, and its environment.

  • Indirected Class: Puppet::Node
  • Terminus Setting: node_terminus

exec terminus

Call an external program to get node information. See the External Nodes page for more information.

json terminus

Store node information as flat files, serialized using JSON, or deserialize stored JSON nodes.

memory terminus

Keep track of nodes in memory but nowhere else. This is used for one-time compiles, such as what the stand-alone puppet does. To use this terminus, you must load it with the data you want it to contain; it is only useful for developers and should generally not be chosen by a normal user.

msgpack terminus

Store node information as flat files, serialized using MessagePack, or deserialize stored MessagePack nodes.

plain terminus

Always return an empty node object. Assumes you keep track of nodes in flat file manifests. You should use it when you don’t have some other, functional source you want to use, as the compiler will not work without a valid node terminus.

Note that class is responsible for merging the node’s facts into the node instance before it is returned.

rest terminus

Get a node via REST. Puppet agent uses this to allow the puppet master to override its environment.

store_configs terminus

Part of the “storeconfigs” feature. Should not be directly set by end users.

yaml terminus

Store node information as flat files, serialized using YAML, or deserialize stored YAML nodes.

report

  • Indirected Class: Puppet::Transaction::Report

json terminus

Store last report as a flat file, serialized using JSON.

msgpack terminus

Store last report as a flat file, serialized using MessagePack.

processor terminus

Puppet’s report processor. Processes the report with each of the report types listed in the ‘reports’ setting.

rest terminus

Get server report over HTTP via REST.

yaml terminus

Store last report as a flat file, serialized using YAML.

resource

  • Indirected Class: Puppet::Resource

ral terminus

Manipulate resources with the resource abstraction layer. Only used internally.

store_configs terminus

Part of the “storeconfigs” feature. Should not be directly set by end users.

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