Docs Grey arrow pointing right Puppet Enterprise Grey arrow pointing right Configuring Puppet Enterprise Grey arrow pointing right Configuring Puppet Server Grey arrow pointing right

Configuring Puppet Server

Sections

After you've installed Puppet Enterprise, optimize it for your environment by configuring Puppet Server settings as needed.

Tune the Ruby load path

The ruby_load_path setting determines where Puppet Server finds components such as Puppet and Facter.

The default setting is located at $puppetserver_jruby_puppet_ruby_load_path = ['/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby', '/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache/lib'].
Note: If you change the libdir you must also change the vardir.

To change the path to a different array in pe.conf:

  1. Add the following to your pe.conf file on your primary server and set your new load path parameter. 
    puppet_enterprise::master::puppetserver::puppetserver_jruby_puppet_ruby_load_pathCopied!
  2. Run puppet agent -t

Tune the multithreaded server setting

The jruby_puppet_multithreaded setting allows you to enable multithreaded mode, which uses a single JRuby instance to process requests, like catalog compiles, concurrently. The setting defaults to false.

Note:

Multithreaded mode is an experimental feature which might experience breaking changes in future releases. Test the feature in a non-production environment before enabling it in production.

To enable or disable the setting using Hiera:

  1. Add the following code to your default .yaml file and set the parameter to true (enable) or false (disable). For example: 
    puppet_enterprise::master::puppetserver::jruby_puppet_multithreaded: <true or false>Copied!
  2. To compile the changes, run puppet agent -t

Enable or disable cached data when updating classes

The optional environment-class-cache-enabled setting specifies whether cached data is used when updating classes in the console. When true, Puppet Server refreshes classes using file sync, improving performance.

The default value for environment-class-cache-enabled depends on whether you use Code Manager.

  • With Code Manager, the default value is enabled (true). File sync clears the cache automatically in the background, so clearing the environment cache manually isn't required when using Code Manager.

  • Without Code Manager, the default value is disabled (false).

Note: If you're not using Code Manager and opt to enable this setting, make sure your code deployment method — for example r10k — clears the environment cache when it completes. If you don't clear the environment cache, the Node Classifier doesn't receive new class information until Puppet Server is restarted.

To enable or disable the cache using Hiera:

  1. Add the following code to your default .yaml file and set the parameter to the appropriate setting. 
    puppet_enterprise::master::puppetserver::
           jruby_environment_class_cache_enabled: <true OR false>Copied!
  2. To compile the changes, run puppet agent -t

Change the environment_timeout setting

The environment_timeout setting controls how long the primary server caches data it loads from an environment, determining how much time passes before changes to an environment's Puppet code are reflected in its environment.

In PE, the environment_timeout is set to 0. This lowers the performance of your primary server but makes it easy for new users to deploy updated Puppet code. Once your code deployment process is mature, change this setting to unlimited.
Note: When you install Code Manager and set the code_manager_auto_configure parameter to true, environment_timeout is updated to unlimited

To change the environment_timeout setting using pe.conf:

  1. Add the following to your pe.conf file on your primary server and specify either 0 or unlimited: 
    puppet_enterprise::master::environment_timeout:<time>Copied!
  2. Run puppet agent -t
Results

For more information, see Environments limitations

Add certificates to the puppet-admin certificate allowlist

Add trusted certificates to the puppet-admin certificate allowlist.

To add allowed certificates using pe.conf:

  1. Add the following code to your pe.conf file on your primary server and add the desired certificates. 
    puppet_enterprise::master::puppetserver::puppet_admin_certs:'example_cert_name'Copied!
  2. Run puppet agent -t

Disable update checking

Puppet Server (pe-puppetserver) checks for updates when it starts or restarts, and every 24 hours thereafter. It transmits basic, anonymous info to our servers at Puppet, Inc. to get update information. You can optionally turn this off.

Specifically, it transmits:

  • Product name

  • Puppet Server version

  • IP address

  • Data collection timestamp

To turn off update checking using the console:

  1. Open the console, click Node groups, and select the PE Master node group.
  2. On the Classes tab, find the puppet_enterprise::profile::master class, add the check_for_updates parameter from the list, and change its value to false.
  3. Click Add parameter and commit changes.
  4. On the nodes hosting the primary server and console, run Puppet.

Puppet Server configuration files

At startup, Puppet Server reads all of the .conf files in the conf.d directory (/etc/puppetlabs/puppetserver/conf.d).

The conf.d directory contains the following files:

File name Description
auth.conf Contains authentication rules and settings for agents and API endpoint access.
global.conf Contains global configuration settings for Puppet Server, including logging settings.
metrics.conf Contains settings for Puppet Server metrics services.
pe-puppet-server.conf Contains Puppet Server settings specific to Puppet Enterprise.
webserver.conf Contains SSL service configuration settings.
ca.conf (Deprecated) Contains rules for Certificate Authority services. Superseded by webserver.conf and auth.conf.

For information about Puppet Server configuration files, see Puppet Server's config files for the Puppet Server version you're using, and the Related information links below.

pe-puppet-server.conf settings

The pe-puppet-server.conf file contains Puppet Server settings specific to Puppet Enterprise, with all settings wrapped in a jruby-puppet section.

gem-home
Determines where JRuby looks for gems. It is also used by the puppetserver gem command line tool.
Default: /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache/jruby-gems
server-conf-dir
Sets the Puppet configuration directory's path.
Default: /etc/puppetlabs/puppet
server-var-dir
Sets the Puppet variable directory's path.
Default: /opt/puppetlabs/server/data/puppetserver
max-queued-requests

Optional. Sets the maximum number of requests that can be queued waiting to borrow a from the pool. After this limit is exceeded, a 503 Service Unavailable response is returned for all new requests until the queue drops below the limit.

If max-retry-delay is set to a positive value, then the 503 response includes a Retry-After header indicating a random sleep time after which the client can retry the request.
Note: Don't use this solution if your managed infrastructure includes a significant number of agents older than Puppet 5.3. Older agents treat a 503 response as a failure, which ends their runs, causing groups of older agents to schedule their next runs at the same time, creating a thundering herd problem.
Default: 0
max-retry-delay
Optional. Sets the upper limit in seconds for the random sleep set as a Retry-After header on 503 responses returned when max-queued-requests is enabled.
Default: 1800
jruby_max_active_instances
Controls the maximum number of JRuby instances to allow on the Puppet Server.
Default: 4
max_requests_per_instance
Sets the maximum number of requests per instance of a JRuby interpretor before it is killed.
Default: 100000
ruby-load-path
Sets the Puppet configuration directory's path. The agent's libdir value is added by default.
Default: '/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby', '/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache/lib'