Viewing and managing packages

The Packages page in the console shows all packages in use across your infrastructure by name, version, and provider, as well as the number of instances of each package version in your infrastructure. Use the Packages page to quickly identify which nodes are impacted by packages you know are eligible for maintenance updates, security patches, and license renewals. Package management is available for all agent nodes.

Tip: Packages are gathered from all available providers. The package data reported on the Packages page can also be obtained by using the puppet resource command to search for package.

Enable package data collection

Package data collection is disabled by default, so the Packages page in the console initially appears blank. In order to view a node's current package inventory, enable package data collection.

You can choose to collect package data on all your nodes, or just a subset. Package inventory reporting is available on nodes with Puppet agent 1.6.0 or later installed, including nodes that don't have an active configuration on the Puppet Server.

  1. In the console, click Node groups.

    • If you want to collect package data on all your nodes, click the PE Agent node group.

    • If you want to collect package data on a subset of your nodes, click Add group and create a new classification node group. Select PE Agent as the group's parent name. After the new node group is set up, use the Rules tab to dynamically add the relevant nodes.

  2. Click Classes. In the Add new class field, select puppet_enterprise::profile::agent and click Add class.
  3. In the puppet_enterprise::profile::agent class, set the Parameter to package_inventory_enabled and the Value to true. Click Add parameter, and commit changes.
  4. Run Puppet to apply these changes to the nodes in your node group.

    Puppet enables package inventory collection on this Puppet run, and begins collecting package data and reporting it on the Packages page on each subsequent Puppet run.

  5. Run Puppet a second time to begin collecting package data, then click Packages.

View and manage package inventory

To view and manage the complete inventory of packages on your systems, use the Packages page in the console.

Before you begin

Make sure you have enabled package data collection for the nodes you wish to view.

Tip: If all the nodes on which a certain package is installed are deactivated, but the nodes' specified node-purge-ttl period has not yet elapsed, instances of the package still appear in summary counts on the Packages page. To correct this issue, adjust the node-purge-ttl setting and run garbage collection.
  1. Run Puppet to collect the latest package data from your nodes.
  2. In the console, click Packages to view your package inventory. To narrow the list of packages, enter the name or partial name of a package in the Filter by package name field and click Apply.
  3. Click any package name or version to enter the detail page for that package.
  4. On a package's detail page, use the Version selector to locate nodes with a particular package version installed.
  5. Use the Instances selector to locate nodes where the package is not managed with Puppet, or to view nodes on which a package instance is managed with Puppet.

    To quickly find the place in your manifest where a Puppet-managed package is declared, select a code path in the Instances selector and click Copy path.

  6. To modify a package on a group of nodes:

    • If the package is managed with Puppet, select a code path in the Instances selector and click Copy path, then navigate to and update the manifest.

    • If the package is not managed with Puppet, click Run > Task and create a new task.

View package data collection metadata

The puppet_inventory_metadata fact reports whether package data collection is enabled on a node, and it shows the time spent collecting package data on the node during the last Puppet run.

Before you begin
Make sure you have enabled package data collection for the nodes you want to view.
  1. Click Node groups and select the node group you created when enabling package data collection.
  2. Click Matching nodes and select a node from the list.
  3. On the node's inventory page, click Facts and locate puppet_inventory_metadata in the list.
    The fact value looks something like: 
    {
    "packages" : {
      "collection_enabled" : true,
      "last_collection_time" : "1.9149s"
    }
}

Disable package data collection

If you need to disable package data collection, set package_inventory_enabled to false and run Puppet twice.

  1. Click Node groups and select the node group you used when enabling package data collection.
  2. On the Classes tab, find the puppet_enterprise::profile::agent class, locate package_inventory_enabled parameter, and click Edit.
  3. Change the Value of package_inventory_enabled to false and commit changes.
  4. Run Puppet to apply these changes to the nodes in your node group and disable package data collection.
    Package data is collected for the final time during this run.
  5. Run Puppet a second time to purge package data from the impacted nodes' storage.