Review node inventory

The nodes from all Puppet Enterprise (PE) instances integrated with a workspace are shown on that workspace's Nodes page. This page gives you a federated view of all the nodes that your workspace deploys code to.

Customize your node table

The Nodes page lists basic information about every node from every Puppet Enterprise (PE) instance integrated with your workspace. You can customize your page view to display node facts relevant to your work.

By default, the node table shows this information about each node:
  • Node name.
    Tip: Click the node name to view all facts and PE reports for the node.
  • Time since the node's most recent PE report was generated.
  • Node run status for the most recent Puppet run.
  • The PE server the node is associated with.
  • The value of the ipaddress fact.
  • The value of the operatingsystem fact.
You can add additional columns to the node table to show other fact values (including structured fact values), and you can remove irrelevant columns.
  1. In the Continuous Delivery for PE web UI, click Nodes.
  2. Click Add/Remove columns to open the column selector.
  3. To add a column, search for a fact value and click Add. The fact value appears in the list of columns.
  4. Use the check marks next to the columns list to select the columns you want to show. Unchecked columns are hidden.
  5. Click Apply to apply your changes to the table.

Create filters to focus on specific node sets

Build basic or compound (multi-element) filters to help you answer complex queries about your nodes. By combining multiple filters with the AND and OR logical operators, you can target specific node sets.

Important:

Due to a processing limitation, you can apply filters to a specific Puppet Enterprise (PE) primary server or to all integrated PE primary servers. Attempting to add a filter to two or more specific primary servers triggers a Cannot add this filter warning.

For example, the following filter is valid because it specifies only one primary server and filters the nodes on that server by their operating system.
PE primary server = my-server AND Operating system = purpleOS
The following filter is invalid:
PE primary server = my-server OR Operating system = purpleOS
While the PE primary server parameter only specifies one server, using the OR operator ignores the first filter and attempts to apply the Operating system filter to all primary servers.
  1. In the Continuous Delivery for Puppet Enterprise (PE) web UI, click Nodes.
  2. Click Create filter, select a filter category, define the filter values:
    Category Values
    PE primary server Select from a list of integrated PE instances
    Change status for the most recent Puppet run Select from a list of statuses
    No-op status for the most recent Puppet run Noop or Enforced
    Operating system An operator and a case-sensitive value
    Node group Select a PE primary server and select from available node groups
    Facter fact value A fact name, an operator, and a case-sensitive value
  3. Click Add, and the filter appears on the Nodes page. Then:
    • If you only need one filter: Go to step 4.
    • If you want to add another basic filter: Click Add new filter, configure the filter, click Add, and then click the logical operator between the filters (AND or OR) to specify whether nodes must match one or both filters.
    • If you want to build a compound filter: Click Create compound filter on your basic filter, configure the filter, click Add, and then click the logical operator (AND or OR) to select whether nodes must match one or both filters. Compound filters are like parenthesis in your query.
      Note: You cannot mix logical operators within a single compound filter. To create queries with more complex logic, use a combination of basic and compound filters.
  4. Click Apply filters to apply the filters to your node table.
What to do next

To modify the filters, click Edit filters.

To remove filters, click Edit filters (if you're not already in edit mode), and click Remove filter (the small blue x icon to the right of each individual filter).

Build a fact chart

Fact charts are visual representations of the distribution of Facter fact values across all nodes managed by the Puppet Enterprise (PE) instances you've integrated with Continuous Delivery for PE. You can add custom fact charts to any saved view for quick reference.

Select the Facter facts that are important to your organization and visualize the distribution of unique values for a given fact in a fact chart. For example, you can create a fact chart showing how many Windows Server versions you currently have in your inventory and how many servers are on each unique version.

You can create a fact chart for any Facter fact, including custom facts and structured facts.

  1. In the Continuous Delivery for PE web UI, click Nodes.
  2. Click Add fact chart and enter the name of the fact you want to visualize.
  3. Select whether to exclude nodes that do not use the specified fact from the fact chart.
    If the fact chart includes all nodes, the nodes without the specified fact are shown in the Fact absent section of the resulting fact chart.
  4. Click Save. The new fact chart appears in the fact chart section of the page.
  5. To edit or remove fact charts:
    1. Click More actions on the fact chart you want to edit or remove.
    2. Click Edit or Remove.
What to do next
In addition to the legend on each fact chart, you can hover over the fact charts to see details about the number and percentage of nodes with the specified fact value.

Save custom views to save fact charts for future reference and share them with your colleagues.

Save custom views

After customizing the nodes table and creating fact charts, you can save your customized view for later reference. Saved views are automatically shared with all members of your workspace, and each member can save their favorite views for quick access.

  1. Customize the Nodes page:
  2. Click Save > Save as new to create a new saved view.
  3. Enter a name and optional description for the view.
    Saved views are added to the library of saved views created by everyone in your workspace. All workspace members can see and use these saved views.
  4. Optional: Designate this saved view as one of your favorites.
    Marking a saved view as a favorite prioritizes that view on the Saved views page and when you Select a different view from the Nodes page. Each workspace member has their own list of favorite views.
  5. Click Save.
  6. You're redirected to the Saved views page where you can access all saved views for this workspace. In the Actions column you can:
    • Use the Star icon to add or remove views from your favorites.
    • Use the Trash icon to delete a view you created.
      Remember: Because all workspace members share all saved views, make sure no one else is using a view before you delete it.
  7. Click a view's name open the Nodes page with that view applied.
    From the Nodes page, you can click Select a different view to quickly switch views.