Glossary

From Cfwiki

Some definitions of basic cfengine executables, files, and concepts. See also "A Terse Guide to Cfengine: Host Roles, Executables, Configuration, Caveats, File Locations and Command Line Execution" by Steve Rader, March 11th 2004.

Contents 1 Executables 2 Terminology / Nomenclature 3 Default /var/cfengine Directory Structure 4 Quick Links

Executables

• cfagent: actually performs changes on a given machine.

• cfenvd: an optional daemon used to collect historical and statistical data from a host. (Requires BerkeleyDB).

• cfexecd: daemon providing scheduling and reporting on clients. A cfengine-specific cron-like service which by default runs cfagent every hour.

• cfkey: creates public/private key pair for communication between a policy host or file server and a cfengine client.

• cfrun: used to push updates to clients

• cfservd: daemon which provides the 'cfengine service' at port 5308. Should always be running all on cfengine-controlled hosts.

Terminology / Nomenclature

• action: functional areas within cfengine, each providing a particular capability

• class: named booleans, typically denoting which changes to perform on a host. A typical example looks like:

action:
   class::
        [do stuff]

• file server: a cfengine host that shares files to cfengine clients.

• policy client/cfengine client: a host controlled by a cfengine policy host. (Ed: This nomenclature invented for cfwiki.org.)

• policy server: central point of management for cfengine-controlled hosts. Stores all configuration files to be distributed to cfengine clients.

Default /var/cfengine Directory Structure

• /var/cfengine/...: cfengine 'home directory'
  • bin/: executables
  • inputs/ : configuration files
    • update.conf: Used by cfagent on policy server to copy configuration files into /var/cfengine/inputs and binaries into /var/cfengine/bin. Also used on policy client to copy files from policy server. In essence, specifies which configuration files to use and performs any preparation needed for their use. (update.conf should not do anything on the policy server other than make it capable of running cfengine)
    • cfagent.conf: what cfagent should aim for
    • cfservd.conf: cfservd's configuration
    • cfrun.hosts: lists host to be updated via cfrun
  • outputs/: logfiles
  • pppkeys/: keys for clients, fileservers, and/or policy hosts

For more reference materials see the cfwiki.org Books, Links, and Tips, Tricks and Notes pages.

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