Installing Razor

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Puppet Enterprise 2017.1

  1. Install the Razor server
  2. Verify the Razor server
  3. Install the Razor client
  4. Enable authentication security
    1. Permissions for Razor
  5. Verify Razor versions

At a minimum, to install Razor, you must install the Razor server.

We also recommend these tasks:

Important: Don’t install the Razor server on your Puppet master.

Tip: Use variables to avoid repeatedly replacing placeholder text. For installation, we recommend declaring a server name and the port to use for Razor with these commands:

export RAZOR_HOSTNAME=<server name>
export HTTP_PORT=8150
export HTTPS_PORT=8151

The installation tasks on this page use $<RAZOR_HOSTNAME>, $<HTTP_PORT> and $<HTTPS_PORT> to represent these variables.

Install the Razor server

Installing Razor involves classifying a node with the pe_razor class. When PE applies this classification, the software downloads automatically and installs a Razor server and a PostgreSQL database. The download can take several minutes.

Because the Razor software is stored online, you need an internet connection to install it.

  1. In the console, create a classification node group for the Razor server.
  2. In the Razor server node group, on the Classes tab, in the Class name field, enter pe_razor.
  3. Click Add class, then commit changes.
  4. On the Razor server, run Puppet.

Install Razor while you’re offline

Host your own remote directory containing a PE tarball and the Razor microkernel. This directory is used to install Razor. The directory can be hosted on the Razor server, in which case the URL starts with file://.

Before you begin: Copy the Razor microkernel and the PE tarball appropriate for your installation to your own FTP site or to the Razor server.

  1. In the console, create a classification node group for the Razor server.
  2. In the Razor server node group, on the Classes tab, in the Class name field, enter pe_razor and click Add class.

  3. In the pe_razor class, specify the URL for your tarball, then click Add parameter.

    Option Definition
    Parameter name pe_tarball_base_url
    Value URL for the tarball

    The tarball must retain the same name format as on the Puppet server. The default URL is $<MIRROR>/<PE_BUILD>/puppet-enterprise-<PE_BUILD>-<RELARCH>.tar.gz, in which $<MIRROR> represents the address of the base directory.

    For example, https://internal.mirror.net/2015.3.3/puppet-enterprise-2015.3.3-el-7-x86_64.tar.gz.

    Note: The pe_tarball_base_url parameter can only be used for installation, not upgrades.

  4. In the pe_razor class, specify the URL for the microkernel, then click Add parameter.

    Option Definition
    Parameter name microkernel_url
    Value URL for the microkernal.

    The URL is either your FTP site or, if you copied the microkernel to the Razor server, file:///path/to/microkernel.tar.

  5. Commit your changes.

  6. On the Razor server (the node that you classified with the pe_razor class), run Puppet.

  7. (Optional) Install the Razor client.

    1. From a web-enabled machine, fetch these gems:

      /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/gem fetch colored --version 1.2
/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/gem fetch command_line_reporter --version 3.3.6
/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/gem fetch mime-types --version 1.25.1
/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/gem fetch multi_json --version 1.12.1
/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/gem fetch pe-razor-client --version 1.2.0
/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/gem fetch rest-client --version 1.6.9
    2. Copy the downloaded gems to a directory on the Razor server.
    3. Install the gems on the Razor server: /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/gem install -f --local *.gem.

Change the default Razor port

The default ports for Razor are port 8150 for HTTP communication between the server and nodes, and port 8151 for HTTPS, used for accessing the public API. You can optionally change the default ports if they’re occupied by another service, out of range, or blocked by a firewall.

  1. In the console, click Nodes > Classification, then find and select the node group that contains the pe_razor class.
  2. On the Classes tab, under pe_razor in the Parameters box, select whether you want to change server_http_port or server_https_port.
  3. In the Value field, enter the port number to use.
  4. Click Add parameter, then commit changes.

Parameters for the pe_razor class

Parameters for the pe_razor class enable customization of your Razor installation. You can review configuration settings that are currently being used by Razor with the razor config command.

The pe_razor class has these parameters:

Parameter Default Description
api_config_blacklist [ ‘facts.blacklist’, ‘database_url’] Properties that Razor hides from query results. You can add additional properties to protect sensitive data.
auth_config /etc/puppetlabs/razor-server/shiro.ini Path to the authentication configuration file.
auth_enabled false true to enable authentication for requests to /api endpoints.
broker_path /etc/puppetlabs/razor-server/brokers:brokers Colon-separated list of directories containing broker types.
checkin_interval 15 Interval, in seconds, at which the microkernel checks in with the Razor server.
database_url jdbc:postgresql:razor?user=razor&password=$dbpassword URL for the Razor server.
dbpassword razor Password to the Razor database.
facts_blacklist [‘domain’, ‘filesystems’, ‘fqdn’, ‘hostname’, ‘id’, ‘/kernel.*/’, ‘memoryfree’, ‘memorysize’, ‘memorytotal’, ‘/operatingsystem.*/’, ‘osfamily’, ‘path’, ‘ps’, ‘rubysitedir’, ‘rubyversion’, ‘selinux’, ‘sshdsakey’, ‘/sshfp_[dr]sa/’, ‘sshrsakey’, ‘/swap.*/’, ‘timezone’, ‘/uptime.*/’] Facts that Razor ignores. Each entry may be a string or a regexp enclosed in /../ where any fact that matches the regexp is dropped.
facts_match_on [] Array of values used to match nodes from within the microkernel to nodes in Razor’s database. By default, this parameter excludes /^macaddress.&#42;/ (regex), serialnumber, and uuid, which are already used.
hook_execution_path /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin Colon-separated list of paths that Razor searches in order when running hooks, prior to using the default execution path.
hook_path /etc/puppetlabs/razor-server/hooks:hooks Colon-separated list of directories containing hook types.
match_nodes_on [‘mac’] Array of values used to match nodes when a node PXE boots. Values can include mac, serial, asset, or uuid.
microkernel_debug_level quiet Sets the logging level for the microkernel. Valid values are quiet or debug.
microkernel_extension_zip /etc/puppetlabs/razor-server/mk-extension.zip Zip file that specifies custom facts or other code that is unpacked by the microkernel prior to checkin.
microkernel_kernel_args ’’ Additional command-line arguments that are supplied to the microkernel during boot.
microkernel_url https://pm.puppetlabs.com/puppet-enterprise-razor-microkernel-$ Location of the Razor microkernel used to install Razor offline.
pe_tarball_base_url https://pm.puppetlabs.com/puppet-enterprise Location of the Puppet Enterprise tarball used to install Razor offline.
protect_new_nodes false true to make new machines ineligible for provisioning.
repo_store_root /opt/puppetlabs/server/data/razor-server/repo Directory where repository contents are downloaded and served.
secure_api true true to require HTTPS/SSL communication with /api endpoints.
server_http_port 8150 Port that nodes use to communicate with the server over HTTP. Only URLs starting with /svc need to be available on this port.
server_https_port 8151 Port that the client uses to communicate with the server’s public API over HTTPS. Only URLs starting with /api need to be available on this port.
task_path /etc/puppetlabs/razor-server/tasks:tasks Colon-separated list of directories containing tasks.

Verify the Razor server

Use a test command to verify that the Razor server is correctly installed. The output JSON file test.out contains a list of available Razor commands.

  1. Test the Razor configuration: wget https://$<RAZOR_HOSTNAME>:$<HTTPS_PORT>/api -O test.out.

Install the Razor client

The Razor client is installed as a Ruby gem, pe-razor-client. The process for installing the client differs by platform.

Note: Don’t install the PE client, pe-razor-client, alongside the open source Razor client, razor-client. If you already have razor-client installed, or are not sure if you do, run gem uninstall razor-client before installing the PE client.

Install the Razor client on *nix systems

  1. Install the client: gem install pe-razor-client.

  2. Point the Razor client to the server: razor -u https://$<RAZOR_HOSTNAME>:$<HTTPS_PORT>/api.

    An error displays if the client isn’t installed or can’t connect to the server.

  3. (Optional) If you receive a warning message about JSON, you can optionally disable it: gem install json_pure.

Install the Razor client on Windows systems

  1. From a Puppet command prompt (Start > Start Command Prompt with Puppet > Run as administrator), install the client: gem install pe-razor-client.

  2. Set an environment variable for the Razor server URL: setx RAZOR_API https://$<RAZOR_HOSTNAME>:8151/api.

    Tip: Alternatively, you can set the variable through User Accounts in the Control Panel.

Enable authentication security

Two methods are required to secure your Razor server:

  • Authentication security using Shiro – disabled by default
  • Protocol security using HTTPS and TLS/SSL – enabled by default if you’re using PE and install Razor on a Puppet-managed node

Enable authentication security to control what tasks users can perform. For example, you might limit certain users to read permissions to avoid accidental overwrite of nodes.

  1. Specify Shiro authentication. In the pe_razor class, modify these settings:

    Parameter Value
    auth_enabled true
    auth_configured Location of the Shiro file, /etc/puppetlabs/razor-server/shiro.ini

  2. Specify users and roles in your shiro.ini file, located at /etc/puppetlabs/razor-server/shiro.ini.

    For example, this INI file specifies two users: razor is an admin who can perform all functions, and other is a user who can perform only read operations, such as viewing collections.

     [main]

 [users]
 # define users known to shiro, using the format:
 # <username> = <password>, <role>[, <role>...]
 razor = razor, admin
 other = pass, user

 [roles]
 # define roles and their associated permissions
 admin = *
 user = query:*

    For more details, see Apache’s guide to INI configuration.

  3. Restart the Razor service: service pe-razor-server restart.

Permissions for Razor

These are the available permissions for Razor.

Note: Commands have varying access control patterns. Use razor <COMMAND_NAME> --help to view required permissions for each command.

Task Permission
Query all collections query:*
Query the node collection query:nodes
Query a specific node query:nodes:<NODE_NAME>
Run all commands commands:*
Create policies commands:create-policy:*
Create policies starting with a specific name commands:create-policy:<NAME>*

Verify Razor versions

Verify your installation by checking the version of the Razor server and client. This information can also be useful for troubleshooting.

  1. On the client or server, enter razor --version or razor -v.
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